Jacobs Social Sciences/Professional Studies dean

New UW-Parkside Dean Walter Jacobs.

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside has announced the appointment of Dr. Walter R. Jacobs III as founding dean of the College of Social Sciences and Professional Studies. The college, which includes the Institute for Professional Educator Development, is currently a division of the College of Arts and Humanities and being headed on an interim basis by Political Science Professor Peggy James. Dr. Jacobs begins his new duties July 1, 2013.

Dr. Jacobs currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of African American and African Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. He served as  chair of the department from July 2007 through June 2012.

In announcing the appointment, UW-Parkside Provost and Vice Chancellor Dr. Fred Ebeid said the new dean brings a great wealth of knowledge and experience to the university.

"Dr. Jacobs is especially passionate about undergraduate education," Ebeid stated. "In fact, during six years of service on the Council on Liberal Education at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Jacobs helped create the university's new undergraduate education requirements."

As chair of African American and African Studies, Dr. Jacobs oversaw all operations in an academic unit with an annual budget of $1.3 million. He launched initiatives that resulted in three new scholarship/grant programs, an undergraduate writing plan, and administrative changes that contributed to historic highs in enrolled undergraduate majors and minors.

He currently serves as faculty liaison to the First Year Experience Program in the U of M's College of Liberal Arts and he co-created "Huntley House," a living-learning community for first-year African American men that debuted in fall 2012. In addition to serving as chair, Dr. Jacobs received numerous administrative and leadership appointments since his arrival at the Minneapolis/St. Paul campus in 1999.

He is a recipient of the University of Minnesota's 2009 Arthur Motley Exemplary Teaching Award, and he received a Department of Sociology Teaching Excellence Recognition Award and a Lieber Memorial Teaching Associate Award while a graduate student at the Indiana University-Bloomington."

Dr. Jacobs earned his master's degree and doctorate in sociology from Indiana University. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Story Status: Archived
Publish date: 3/7/2013

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