Libraries Dean Review Process

Dear University Library and Press faculty and staff,

In Winter and Spring 2026, Dean and Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian Xuemao Wang will undergo a dean review, a process by which Northwestern deans are evaluated to ensure that school and unit strategies are aligned with University priorities and designed and carried out to enhance the University’s prominence and impact. The review takes place during the penultimate year of each dean’s five-year term. I will rely on input from University Libraries faculty and staff, as well as perspectives from faculty members, students and campus partners in other schools and units, to inform the review.

I have appointed a three-person ad hoc review work group to lead engagement among the University Libraries community and to provide me with advisory input regarding Dean Wang’s performance as dean. The work group comprises the following faculty members:

• Carola Frydman (Chair), Harold L. Stuart Professor of Finance and Faculty Director of the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises in the Kellogg School of Management
• Susannah Gottlieb, Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Director of the Poetry and Poetics Colloquium and Cluster, and Associate Chair of the Department of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
• David Morton, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

The review work group will gather perspectives on the dean’s performance across criteria provided by the Office of the Provost. As part of their data collection, the work group members will conduct a set of interviews and focus groups. They also will gather perspectives from all University Libraries faculty and staff via a survey. The ad hoc faculty work group will share more information soon about avenues for providing input on the dean review.

Additionally, we have established a confidential email account for this review, which is monitored by Office of the Provost staff supporting the work group. I invite you to submit input or questions for the work group or the Office of the Provost staff via this email: librariesdeanreview@northwestern.edu. 

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important process. 

Sincerely, 

Kathleen Hagerty
Provost
First Chicago Professor of Finance