Meet the Administrators: Q&A with Dean of Undergraduate Studies Alan Wyner

Q. What are your responsibilities at UCSB? What are the main units for which you are responsible? How do your administrative responsibilities affect undergraduates at UCSB?

A. As Dean of Undergraduate Studies, I am responsible for management of the Division of Student Academic Affairs in the College of Letters and Science. The division serves as the primary academic advising office for the 16,000 students in L&S. We are also responsible for implementing the faculty's academic and scholarship requirements, including academic discipline for those students whose grades put them on academic probation. The division also organizes and manages a college honors program that provides educational enhancement opportunities for very high-achieving students. Through the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA), students are encouraged and supported in their individual research or creative projects in their major. We also are the administrative home for the campus UCDC program. In addition, I provide advice and consultation to the several Academic Senate committees concerned with undergraduate education.

Q. As a faculty member, what is your home department? How long have you been there? Which undergraduate classes have you taught? Do you have a favorite, and if so, what do you especially like about teaching that class?

A. I have been a faculty member in political science since 1968. I have taught courses on public administration, state and local government, California politics and government, environmental politics, and American government and politics. It's very hard to pick a "favorite" course, but if pressed I would select Political Science 12, Introduction to American Government and Politics, because it covers virtually the full spectrum of American government and politics -- "everything you wanted to know about American government in ten weeks."   That keeps me challenged, just as it does the students in the course.

Q. Can you tell us about your own undergraduate experience? Where were you a student? Were you always committed to being an academic in your discipline or did you have other plans? What or who was influential in your undergraduate career? Did you go straight from undergraduate to graduate school?

A. I earned my B.A. from Northwestern University, where I was a political science major. My route to an academic career was not a straight line. I started college wanting to be a dentist. That lasted about two quarters, until I took my first political science class; I was hooked. My next career plan was to teach high school government and history.   Under some peer pressure from my two best college friends, I switched in my junior year to planning a legal career.   During fall quarter of my senior year, one of my political science professors invited me to help him with a major research project he was directing. As I got further involved in the research, and as I got to know him and saw what an academic life was like, I became very intrigued with the thought of becoming a professor. It was during winter quarter of my senior year that I made the fateful decision -- no law school, but on to graduate school for a Ph.D. in political science.

Q. Can you describe your research? What do you enjoy about it? Have your academic directions refocused over the years?

A. I have always been fascinated with a few of the central features of our political system: the way government implements policy and the art of democratic compromise.   This has led me to study legislative politics and the mechanisms of policy implementation.

Q. Do you have some advice for honors undergraduates at UCSB?

A. Honors students have unique and valuable opportunities to know and work with their professors. So my advice to honors students is simply to take full advantage of these amazing opportunities. Your intellectual and personal growth will be greatly enhanced.

^ top