Following five years of dedicated service to UC San Diego, James Antony, Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA), will be leaving his position at the end of this academic year to become Provost and Executive Vice President at George Mason University.
Since 2019, Dean Antony has overseen graduate admissions, academic progress, financial support, student affairs, diversity activities related to graduate education, graduate student academic employee collective bargaining, and the granting of higher degrees. Shortly after his arrival in 2019, he collaborated to establish a five-year funding guarantee for Ph.D. students, and a three-year guarantee for MFA students, placing UC San Diego among the nation’s leading universities in its commitment to graduate student funding. He worked for greater funding transparency for schools and departments, oversaw revisions to the formulas for Block Grant and Teaching Assistant support, and raised funding for graduate education and postdoctoral scholars. Recently, Dean Antony co-chaired the Senate Administration workgroup on the Future of Graduate Education.
Dean Antony effectively led during a time of unexpected challenges – the COVID-19 pandemic – and significant changes – including navigating the impacts of new labor contracts for teaching assistants, graduate student researchers, and postdoctoral scholars. In addition, he led grant-funded initiatives to improve mentoring and created the Outreach, Access, Recruitment, and Retention, or OAR2 office, to support the recruitment and retention of students who are historically underrepresented in graduate education. He also created a university-wide graduate climate intern program to deliver student-designed support and help to advance positive climates of support for students.
Dean Antony has been a collaborative and strategic partner and leader during what has been a tumultuous time in graduate education. Colleagues from across campus, and across the UC system, have come to rely on his expertise, collaborative spirit, keen questions, and good-natured approach to challenging situations. We are fortunate to have benefitted from his leadership over these past five years.
We hope you will join us in congratulating Dean Antony on his new role, and thank him for his leadership and significant impact on graduate education and postdoctoral affairs at UC San Diego. An announcement regarding an interim dean is forthcoming and a search for a new dean of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs will take place in the fall.
