Kent L. Hubbell, the Nathaniel and Margaret Owings Professor of Architecture, has been named Cornell University's dean of students, Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, announced today (June 19).

Hubbell, who has been actively involved in student life on campus, including the university's Residential Life Initiative, replaces John L. Ford as the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students. Ford resigned in January to become vice president and dean of campus life at Emory University.

The five-year appointment is effective July 1.

"I am delighted that Kent has agreed to assume this important leadership position at this time," Murphy said. "His concern for students, his commitment to Cornell and his familiarity with such important areas as the Residential Initiative and Greek system prepare him well."

The dean of students is the principal administrative spokesperson for student interests at Cornell. In his role as chief administrator for the Office of the Dean of Students, Hubbell will provide guidance and leadership to new student programs and student support, student activities, fraternity and sorority affairs and Cornell United Religious Work. He will provide oversight for a system of support for individual students during crises. He also will manage the fund for in-year opportunities for students and student groups, the Dean of Students Awards, the Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony, the Merrill Presidential Scholars program and the Cornell calendar.

"I am truly honored to accept the position of dean of students and look forward to serving the needs of all Cornell students, from first year to dissertation," Hubbell said. "It will be exciting, full of challenges and intrinsically rewarding. After all, it is working with students, especially Cornell students, that draws us to spend a lifetime in academia.

"As dean of students, I look forward to attending to issues that speak to the 'whole student' experience at Cornell. While a Cornell education has a rigorous academic program at its center, we recognize that the 'whole' Cornell undergraduate experience is amplified and completed by a rich and diverse array of activities beyond the classroom."Hubbell said the Residential Initiatives on North and West Campus represent significant opportunities to enrich the "whole" student experience and create more seamless connections with the formal academic life of the university.

"As an architect, I delight in observing how buildings become the affirming armature for the lives of their occupants. Now that the new North Campus is becoming a physical reality, it is time to take the next step and make the vision of this first-year student living and learning environment a social reality.

"In my capacity as both a senior faculty member and principal advocate for students, I look forward to recruiting faculty to create vibrant, sometimes nontraditional, academic activities – including projects in the fine, applied and performing arts – that will become part of the North Campus curriculum. Perhaps most important, I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues to work on various important projects relating to general student welfare: programs that will make Cornell a more welcoming, supportive environment for all students."

Hubbell is chair of the Campus Planning Committee, responsible for helping plan for the university's Residential Initiative, both on North Campus and West Campus. He also has been a member and chair of the Faculty Advisory Board on Information Technology (FABIT), the team that ensures that classrooms are equipped with the best technology for optimal teaching.

He currently is chair of the Fraternity and Sorority Residential Initiative Committee, a group of faculty, students, staff and alumni who are charged with reviewing the Fraternity and Sorority Strategic Plan within the context of the Residential Initiative.

Hubbell received his bachelor of architecture degree from Cornell in 1969 and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University in 1973. He was a professor and chair of the Architecture Program at the University of Michigan before joining Cornell in 1993, and he was chair of the Department of Architecture at Cornell from 1993 to 1998.

Hubbell specializes in the design of stressed fabric structures, or tents. He teaches architectural design and an introductory architecture course for nonmajors, regularly one of the largest classes at Cornell with 400 to 800 students.

In 1999 he was awarded the Samuel Eels Award in recognition for distinguished service to education by Alpha Delta Phi.