Penn may have bested Columbia yet again in the U.S. News rankings, but one of their longtime teachers and administrators has been tempted to Morningside.  President Bollinger announced today that Kristine Billmyer, Penn’s Executive Director of the College of Liberal and Professional Studies and Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, will be the new Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education, effective November 1, 2009. She replaces Peter Awn, who has been the interim dean of the school for three years while also overseeing GS.

Billmyer received her B.A. in Psychology and Spanish Literature from Vassar College, her M.Ed. in English Education from Temple University, and her PhD in Educational Linguistics from Penn, where she has served since 1987.  As Bollinger boasts, she is “a nationally recognized scholar in her field” who has “published widely on cross-cultural variation in language use and the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by second language learners.”  Sociolinguistic competence, indeed.

Full email after the jump.

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:

It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Kristine Billmyer as the new Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education, effective November 1, 2009.  Dr. Billmyer comes to Columbia from the University of Pennsylvania where she has had a distinguished career as both a teacher and administrator since 1987.  In 2005 she became Penn’s Executive Director of the College of Liberal and Professional Studies and Associate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.  A nationally recognized scholar in her field, she has published widely on cross-cultural variation in language use and the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by second language learners.  She previously served as Executive Director of Penn’s English Languages Programs, where she taught and designed a number of courses.  

Dr. Billmyer received her BA in Psychology and Spanish Literature from Vassar College, her MEd in English Education from Temple University and her PhD in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.  She has been active in the leadership of a number of professional associations, serving as a past president of the American Association of Intensive English Programs and past president of the Philadelphia Region Intensive English Program consortium.  

Kristine Billmyer’s proven track record as a teacher, scholar and administrator make her an excellent choice to lead our School of Continuing Education as the University enhances its ability to provide quality life-long learning opportunities to a wide diversity of students. I am confident she will make an outstanding dean.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Peter Awn, who has been serving as acting Dean of the School of Continuing Education since 2006 even while continuing as Dean of the School of General Studies.  I also want to thank Vice President for Arts and Sciences, Nicholas Dirks and his search committee of faculty members, administrators and alumni, for their excellent work resulting in this outstanding selection.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Kristine Billmyer to the Columbia community.

Sincerely,

Lee C. Bollinge

We know what you’re thinking: “The School of Continuing Education? That’s not an undergraduate college!” Well, yes and no: the School of Continuing Education (the youngest of Columbia’s schools) does not offer any undergraduate degrees. It is, however, open to non-matriculated students, including students who want to take classes between high school and the start of college; these students can effectively take whatever courses they want while enrolled. If this is Watson’s entry, though, she would have to enter another school to get a degree. Somehow, though, we doubt this “degree” issue would prevent Wikipedia users from claiming her for Columbia.

UPDATE: A commenter points out that there is already a Charlotte Watson on LinkedIn who is enrolled at the School for Continuing Education. Sigh.