Walter I. Cohen, vice provost and dean of the Cornell University Graduate School, is stepping down after eight years as dean, Cornell Provost Biddy Martin announced today (Feb. 7).

Cohen will step down as dean effective June 30, Martin said. He will remain as vice provost and will continue to serve on the Graduate School faculty as a professor of comparative literature.

"Walter has done an outstanding job as dean," Martin said. "He has developed and implemented a range of policies that have significantly improved the abilities of graduate fields to recruit students and provide graduate education. Walter has been creative, fair-minded and responsive to faculty and students. His contributions to national discussions of graduate education have made him a valued colleague to faculty and administrators inside and outside Cornell. I am delighted that he has agreed to devote more of his time to his role as vice provost."

Martin said she will appoint a search committee to conduct an internal search for a new dean. The committee, which she hopes will begin work immediately, will include faculty from several colleges, a graduate student to be selected by the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and a member of the Graduate School staff. Martin will chair the committee.

Cohen said he was stepping down to comply with the timetable he had set three years ago.

"Back in 1993, I applied for the job for the purely selfish reason that I thought it would be fun to do, and it has been," Cohen said. "Though there are always new opportunities and new problems, I think I've taken a good crack at most of the issues I came into the job wishing to address as well as some that arose in my first few years on the job. I believe I'll be leaving the Graduate School and the next dean in a reasonable position to tackle the new challenges I see for graduate education. In addition, I'm eager to be able devote more time to both my vice provost duties and my research and teaching."

Cohen received his bachelor of arts degree in English from Stanford University in 1971, his master of arts degree in comparative literature from the University of California-Berkeley in 1974 and his Ph.D. degree in comparative literature from Berkeley in 1980. He joined Cornell in 1980 as an assistant professor of comparative literature and member of the graduate field. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he received Cornell's Clark Distinguished Teaching Award in 1986. He is a member of the American Comparative Literature Association.

Cohen's current research is for a book in progress,European Literature: An Introduction . Its primary topic is the history of the constitution of European literature in relation to the non-European world. It also addresses the internal structure of European literature – its international organization, the relationship of literature to other cultural forms and the interplay between high culture and popular culture.