Connolly resigns from faculty master post

Thomas Connolly, professor emeritus of music, will step down from his position by the end of the summer. Community House Faculty Master Thomas Connolly will step down from his position by the end of the summer, making him the first faculty master to resign under the one-year-old College House system, College House officials said this week. Connolly, a professor emeritus of music, served as the head of the college house for one year. He was appointed to the position last summer as the University prepared to unveil its new residential living system, which debuted this past fall. College House officials said Connolly did not specify any particular reason for his resignation. "There comes a time when you part with the job," Community House Dean Rick Cameron said. And Director of College Houses and Academic Services David Brownlee said he was not shocked to learn that one of the College House system's twelve faculty masters decided to step down after only one year, even though the maximum term for the position is three years. "People are not chained to their desks," Brownlee said. Connolly is currently out of the country and was unavailable for comment this week. College House officials praised Connolly's work in helping make Community House's first year in the College House system a success. "He brought a wonderful wealth of experience in shaping academically supportive residential communities," Brownlee said. "I'm very sad to see him go." Cameron said that Connolly "completely welcomed the energy that the? students in Community House created and let the house develop based on what those students thought." "One thing that I think that he has done is that he has allowed the house to evolve in whatever direction it needs to evolve," Cameron said. Connolly also retired as a Music professor at the end of this past academic year, but Brownlee said that his retirement was not related to his decision to leave his faculty master position. A search committee that will review applications for the position will be put together soon, although the University is already encouraging the submission of applications from tenured faculty members, Brownlee said. The committee will include Penn faculty and student and staff representatives from Community House. Brownlee declined to speculate whether a new faculty master will be in place by the fall. If the search is still vacant in the fall, the house may appoint an interim faculty master, Brownlee said. "Certainly our commitment to Community House is very, very strong," Brownlee said. "We want to make the leadership complete, but Community House is pretty darn strong right now." Cameron said he will not serve on the search committee, but will instead serve as a consultant to the group and help appoint Community House residents and staff to the committee. The house focuses on three aspects of residential living: academic, social and community service, Cameron said. "Tom was instrumental in carving out those three prongs of the house and kind of gave it a sense of where it was going after this first year," he said. "He certainly brought to the college houses a wonderfully mature understanding of what college houses can do," Brownlee added.

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