UCI Names New Arts Dean

Jill Beck, chairwoman of the dance department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, has been named arts dean at UC Irvine, effective July 5, replacing Robert Hickok, who retired last year.

Beck, 45, was chairwoman of Connecticut College’s dance department for a year before joining Southern Methodist in 1993. Before that, she was chairwoman of the theater and dance departments at the City College of City University of New York and was assistant to the director of dance at the Juilliard School, where in 1989 she supervised a reconstruction of Nijinsky’s “L’Apres-midi d’un Faune.”

She has a master’s degree in interdisciplinary history and music from McGill University in Montreal and a master’s in theater history and a doctoral degree in theater history and criticism from City University of New York. She started her career as a performer in musical theater.

UCI also announced Tuesday that the School of Fine Arts will change its name to the School of the Arts as of July 1. The change reflects a “more high-tech, multimedia, multicultural, unrefined” approach to art, according to drama professor Robert Cohen, who has been interim dean.