Jorgensen Named Dean for the Interim, Rather Than Interim Dean

Neal A. Jorgensen’s extraordinary contributions to Wisconsin agriculture and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences received further recognition this week when Chancellor David Ward sent a letter to Jorgensen inviting him to remove the “interim” from his current dean title.

The action came following Ward’s receipt of a petition signed by many College faculty and staff requesting the change. This does not mean that the search for a new “permanent” College dean will cease. The deadline for the dean search has been extended to Oct. 10, with a new dean expected to be in place by early to mid-1998.

“In response to the petitions of your colleagues, and in recognition of my own respect for and appreciation of your long and dedicated service to your College and to our university, you should proceed to use the unmodified title Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences,” Ward stated in his letter of Sept. 29.

“You are in every sense dean of the College, and it is appropriate that you use the dean title, and that the records of the university reflect the same,” Ward added. He said Jorgensen could use the unmodified title until the new dean is named and begins university employment.

Jorgensen said that although he has not seen the petition that was sent to Ward, “I understand that it impressed the Chancellor greatly.

“I am enormously appreciative and deeply moved that the College faculty and staff would support me in this way. Their spontaneous expression of confidence in me marks the high point of my long association with this College and the university,” he said.