Seton Hall University, the largest Catholic university in New Jersey, has named Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Jonathan Farina as the college’s permanent dean. His appointment ends a competitive national search for the position. The appointment is effective July 1.
A tenured professor in the Department of English, Farina has been a member of the university community since 2009. He has served in multiple faculty and administrative roles and has been the interim dean for the College of Arts and Sciences for the last two years.
In making the announcement, Erik Lillquist, deputy provost, chief administrative officer and executive vice president, said, “In this capacity, he has surely and steadily advanced the College by focusing on student research opportunities, student recruitment, faculty hiring and promotion, curriculum development, alumni relations and fundraising, student outcomes and strategic innovations.”
As the permanent dean, he will focus on synchronizing arts and sciences initiatives with the university’s forthcoming strategic plan; continuing to drive curriculum development and new initiatives to foster student success for undergraduate and graduate students; increasing graduate enrollments; improving yields and distributing majors more evenly across the college to improve the sustainability of each program; and continuing to improve fundraising and alumni engagement with a focus on gifts to endow faculty, student opportunities, and programs.
Among his accomplishments during his time as interim dean, Farina established the STEM Undergraduate Research Award, with 41 student participants and external funding from the State of New Jersey; raised fundraising; established the Arts and Science Catholic Mission Speaker Series; facilitated the hiring of more than 32 full-time faculty members; increased graduate TA stipends for the first time in 30 years; and as member of a special team in the Office of the Provost, helping reverse declining graduate enrollments with a multilevel strategy.
