Dean Ben Johnson Visits Honors Seminar

Ben Johnson makes a point during his talk.

Ben Johnson, outgoing dean of the College of Liberal and Performing Arts visited the Honors Seminar class yesterday. A historian by trade, he began by asking students if they knew the history of universities. Johnson said that they began in the Middle Ages at Bologna and Paris. The difference between the two, he went on to say, was that at Bologna the students ran the university while at Paris the teachers did. He then asked the class which model they would prefer.

He continued, noting that the first universities were set up to train monks and that the first administrators (e.g., the first deans) were in place to keep the monks from running amok. The problem, he said, was that monks and other clergy were not prosecutable under civil law. Later, the same was true of university students. They were exempt from civil laws too, thus those early deans had much to do.

Before the Civil War, deans added another role. They were, he said "the students' friend" and had to, from time to time, rescue students from the results of bad decisions (such as excess gambling debts). He went on to discuss the weightiness of the word "dean" in popular culture and alluded to Merle Haggard's song, Okie from Muskogee. In those lyrics is a respectful reference to the "college dean":

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;

Beads and Roman sandals won't be seen.

Football's still the roughest thing on campus,

And the kids here still respect the college dean.

He then asked, "What movie best describes college life, in popular culture, that is?" After a few seconds, one student answered, "Animal House?" "Exactly" was Johnson's reply, adding, "Who was the dean in that movie?" Dean Wormer, came the reply. Johnson added that his favorite quote from Dean Wormer was, "The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me." That's what a dean is, sometimes, Johnson said. From a business perspective, deans are middle management, he added.

Johnson read from the ad for his replacement, saying that it described what a dean does in the ideal sense. The job description describes the dean's position thusly:

provide visionary leadership...promote excellence in teaching, advising, creative endeavor, assessment and service...fund raising, monitor student progress; develop curriculum, prepare and manage College budget...develop creative approaches and strategies for organizational and operational improvements...teach one course.

Johnson said that during his tenure he had concentrate more on the "under the hood" stuff and less on the visionary stuff. He tried to analyze his College's rules and procedures and to change them when they came into conflict with commonsense or with the mission of the College.

Throughout his talk, Johnson addressed individual students directly, sometimes sitting near them and in one case even kneeling down. Later, he said that was his typical style, something he called "guerilla pedagogy." It is certainly a different approach from standing behind a podium.

Dr. Ben Johnson in front of the podium answering a question.