Dean’s Corner: January 2022

Dear Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Friends,

I hope the new year has gotten off to a good start for everyone, despite the latest phase of this seemingly never-ending pandemic saga.

At Clemson we are now back to wearing masks indoors and have a ramped-up testing schedule, but we are back and all systems are go.

Having said that, we do have one really significant departure to report, and that is the retirement of former Dean Rick Goodstein, Professor of Music, Chair of the Department of Performing Arts from 1998 to 2010, and Dean of the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities from 2010 until 2019. Since my presence at Clemson was predicated on Rick having stepped down as Dean, I can’t really write with any firsthand knowledge about his work as a Dean. But what I do see is the result of his efforts: a vibrant College with top-notch faculty, dedicated to their students, to teaching and to their research, and passionate about serving their College and making it better. Rick clearly knew how to foster and grow a culture of togetherness with a sense of common purpose.

However, I did have extensive personal interactions with Rick during the half-year or so during 2020, as I began the transition into the Dean role, and then as needed thereafter. And so, I want to use this opportunity and forum to say, “Thank you, Rick, for being so generous with your time and your counsel. You were there any and every time I needed to talk, and you stuck with it, as long as the conversation needed to go. Everything you told me was useful and spot-on, and you never gave me bad advice. I am in your debt.”

Please, everyone, join me in thanking Rick Goodstein for his decades of service to Clemson, and in wishing him health, long life and prosperity during his retirement years.

“Go Tigers!”

Nicholas Vazsonyi, Dean
College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities

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