San Diego
A professor of German literature at UC San Diego, James K. Lyon, has been selected provost of the UCSD Fifth College, scheduled to open in the fall of 1988, Chancellor Richard C. Atkinson has announced.
Lyon, also chairman of the UCSD Academic Senate--composed of all UCSD professors--will oversee creation of the academic program for the new college. UCSD is currently organized into four colleges of about 3,000 students respectively, with each offering different academic emphases, from traditional science to humanities to engineering. Students, however, can take classes in any academic department campuswide.
A preliminary planning report for the Fifth College, issued in May 1986, recommended that the Fifth College focus on comparative culture, with courses dovetailing with programs offered by the new UCSD Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.
Lyons, 53, a UCSD professor since 1974, wants to give the college a strong international flavor, in part because of his own background. Lyons was born in the Netherlands to American parents, and Dutch was the first language he spoke. Lyons believes that all students, if possible, should spend some time studying in another country.
He is an authority on the life and works of German playwright Bertolt Brecht.
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