Spence's final priority, and the only one where anything concrete has been accomplished, according to the department chairmen, is in "computerizing" the University.
Spence has placed priorities in this area on installing small computers into the departments as well as providing computers for research, word-processing, educational uses, and the Library system.
Office work
Spence has also reorganized and restaffed the University Hall administration. Already, he has named Steven Ozment as associate dean for undergraduate education and Robert A. Rotney as associate dean for administration. Spence will be appointing a new dean of the College probably later this year to replace John B. Fox Jr. '59 who will step down by June, 1986. Also, Spence will likely choose a permanent dean of the GSAS to replace an acting dean.
Spence said that he would wait for the Strauch committee to report before appointing a new GSAS dean because he suspects that the committee may suggest a reorganization of the way the GSAS is administered.
Not all of the department chairmen are entirely pleased with Spence's priorities. East Asian Language and Civilizations Department Chairman Edwin A. Cranston has complained about Spence's refusal to fill some of their staffing requests.
"[Spence] sees the big picture. I see the picture of my department," Cranston said.
Celtic Languages and Literature Department Chairman John Collins said, "On arriving here as a tenured faculty member and a department chair, I found out I had been allocated no personal office." Collins said Spence told the new faculty members that when he arrived here, he was assigned a desk but no chair.
If he got no respect then, he's hinted that much hasn't changed since. Speaking at a dinner in his honor at North House last week, he described the Faculty's administration as one man on top and 600 professors lined up underneath.
Or that's what he thought until he assumed the deanship, he said. Actually, he concluded, there's 600 professors on top and one administrator underneath.