Brian Rosenberg
from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base
Brian C. Rosenberg is the 16th president of Macalester College since 2003, after McPherson left for the Spencer Foundation. Among Rosenberg's ongoing work are the development of the Civic Engagement Center and the renewal of the Athletics Facility and Fine Arts Center.
Rosenberg is currently chair of the Minnesota Private College Council, which represents the 17 private, four-year liberal arts colleges in Minnesota, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the St. Paul Academy and Summit School, a coeducational, college preparatory day school for students in kindergarten through grade 12. He is chair of the Commission on International Initiatives of the American Council on Education and vice chair of the World Press Institute.
Prior to becoming president, Rosenberg was the dean of the faculty and an English professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., a position he held from 1998-2003. Rosenberg began his academic career as an adjunct assistant professor of humanities at The Cooper Union in New York City in 1982. He worked at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., from 1983 to 1998 as an English professor and as chair of the English Department and participated in the development of the college's strategic plan.
A Charles Dickens scholar, Rosenberg has written numerous articles on the Victorian author and other subjects as well as two books, Mary Lee Settle’s Beulah Quintet: The Price of Freedom (1991) and Little Dorrit's Shadows: Character and Contradiction in Dickens (1996). He was elected to the board of trustees of The Dickens Society in 2000.
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[edit] Professional
from http://www.macalester.edu/president/about_president.html
[edit] Employment History
- Lawrence University
- 1998-2003, Appleton, Wis.
- Dean of the Faculty and professor of English
- Chief Academic Officer, responsible for oversight of all academic programs in college and conservatory, athletics, library, instructional technology, registrar, art gallery
- Directed the design and passage of the college's first new general education requirements in 15 years
- Allegheny College
- 1983-1998, Meadville, Penn.
- Chair, Department of English, Allegheny College
- Professor of English
- Associate Professor of English
- Assistant Professor of English
- The Cooper Union
- 1982-1983, New York, N.Y.
- Assistant Professor of Humanities
- Queens College, CUNY
- 1980-1982, New York, N.Y.
- Instructor of English
- Columbia University
- 1978-1980, New York, N.Y.
- Teaching Assistant
[edit] Education
- B.A. in English, Cornell University
- M.A. in English, Columbia University
- Ph.D. in English, Columbia University
[edit] Fundraising and External Affairs
- Grant from the Freeman Foundation (Asian Studies), $1.5 million
- Grant from the NEH (Freshman Studies), $.5 million
- Grant from the Luce foundation (Political Economy) $.5 million
- Private donations, Humanities Computing Laboratory, $.5 million
[edit] Books
- Little Dorrit's Shadows: Character and Contradiction in Dickens, 1996
- Mary Lee Settle's Beulah Quintet: The Price of Freedom, 1991
[edit] Articles and Chapters
- Compromises, The Family Track, 1998
- Teaching Freaks,Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body, 1996
- Character and Contradiction in Dickens, Nineteenth-Century Literature 47, 1992
- Incidents and Experience, Aloud, 1991
- The Language of Doubt in Oliver Twist, Dickens Quarterly, 1987
- Physical Opposition in Barnaby Rudge, Victorian Newsletter 67, 1985
- George Eliot and the Victorian 'Historic Imagination,' Victorian Newsletter 61, 1982
[edit] Honors and Prize
- Elected to Board of Trustees, The Dickens Society, 2000-present
- Julian Ross Award for Excellence in Teaching, Allegheny College, 1994
- Columbia University President's Fellowship, 1980-1981; 1977-1978
- Phi Beta Kappa, Cornell University, 1976
- Barnes Shakespeare Essay Prize, Cornell University, 1976
[edit] Links
- http://macalester.edu/presidentialsearch/
- Minutes, Faculty Consultative Committee, UMN Senate/TC Campus Assembly Thursday, February 24, 2005
- Rosenberg offers advice to UMN Faculty on university finances
- Should the University get smaller, Professor Sullivan asked? President Rosenberg said that it is difficult for the University to do well when it is losing public funding unless it cuts programs—or keeps raising tuition at higher and higher rates. The demographic makeup of students at the Twin Cities campus and the private institutions are similar, President Rosenberg surmised; the mean household income of students at this campus is higher than the privates as a whole and probably about the same as for Macalester and Carleton. Both the Twin Cities campus and Macalester serve upper middle class families—which raises a public policy question. If the children of doctors and lawyers are attending the University, it is difficult to argue that they should not pay. He raised one issue about student aid: if the aid is not awarded on the basis of need, the argument for receiving state funds is weakened. Why not apply the same rationale to Macalester or Carleton (in terms of a student without need). The argument for public subsidies for no-need students is not as strong as that for needy students. He said he has not heard the University deal with this issue.
- Professor Krichbaum inquired what President Rosenberg saw as the biggest problem at the University. It needs a clearer statement, at the undergraduate level, about what it is trying to accomplish and who it is serving, President Rosenberg said. As he reads the newspapers, it is confusing: sometimes the University wants to compete nationally for students, sometimes it wants to serve under-served populations. There is a case to be made that it can do both but it needs to be clear about it. If there is a shift in student aid from need-based to merit-based, in order to attract outstanding students, and then the University says it is serving need students, means the message is fuzzy. Professor Kane said that is part of the conundrum of being a major research university and a land-grant university—it is expected to do many things.
