Amherst College Dean of the Faculty Records. Public Minutes

The dean of the faculty is the chief academic officer of the college and has primary responsibility for matters of academic policy and for the academic budget. The dean serves as secretary to the Committee of Six, the executive committee of the faculty, and as secretary to the faculty. She oversees the Robert Frost Library, the Mead Art Museum, the Beneski Museum of Natural History, the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Office of the Registrar, the Center for Community Engagement, the Center for Humanistic Inquiry, the Amherst Center for Russian Culture, the college’s international programs (including study abroad), the Office of Institutional Research, and the Office of Fellowships. The dean of the faculty has joint responsibility for the Department of Physical Education and Athletics. She serves as the college’s Five College Deputy.

Many faculty records from the nineteenth century were destroyed in the Walker Hall fire of 1881. The Faculty Records volume for 1827-1842 includes this note from Professor Edward "Doc" Hitchcock, Jr.: "At the burning of Walker Hall in 1881 the five or six volumes of strictly Faculty Records were destroyed. The makeup of this volume is a gathering of papers preserved as the files of the Secretary of the Faculty, 1827-1842."