New dean puts focus on students
The College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences has a new dean.
Gary Kiger has taught at Utah State University for the past 19 years, and he was the head of the sociology, social work, and anthropology department for the last seven years.
Kiger came to USU after receiving his doctorate in sociology from the University of Colorado in 1983.
“It was clear, everything considered, that with the opportunities for teaching, researching, and work with the students this was the place that I wanted to be,” Kiger said.
HASS students say Kiger is accessible and willing to talk.
“Gary Kiger is great, and he always follows though” said Krista Lynn Preheim a graduate student. “When he was the head of our department, the door was always open to students and it still is.”
Kiger said his main concern is the students.
“The most important thing to us is student access to course,” Kiger said. “It’s a major issue for students to be able to take the courses they need, and for us to adequately staff them.”
Michael Brogan, a senior in anthropology, said, “Kiger is great, he is always willing to take time for a student.”
Preheim said, “He is really good about giving grad students opportunities to do research. We really love Kiger.”
Kiger has a lot of plans for the College of HASS, including a new doctorate program in the English department.
“We hope to get it going soon in professional and technical writing,” Kiger said. “We are interested in enhancing other graduate programs as well, and we are looking to enhance graduation in every division of the college.”
Kiger said the college also has an interest in an environmental stewardship.
“We are working in interdisciplinary programs at USU such as environmental science courses, landscape architecture, and environmental planning courses which also work with the College of Natural Resources,” he said.
The college is very interested in service learning, internship programs, and programs that bring diversity to USU, Kiger said, along with women and gender studies, and a mountain recreation center for regional studies.
“Those are the major initiatives that we are looking to enhance here at Utah State,” Kiger said.
Aside from his role in administration, Kiger is an avid outdoorsman who loves hiking and skiing. He also enjoys film.
“I am a hopeless film buff. I try to get up to the Sundance Film Festival every year,” he said.
Kiger also tries to spend time with his family.
“I enjoy spending time with my family. I have an 11-year-old daughter, and my wife Deborah Byrnes who is also a professor in elementary education here at USU.”
Teaching is a Kiger family pursuit.
“Three years ago my wife and I taught a semester at sea in which we traveled around the world, and our daughter went along with us,” Kiger said. “It was really exciting. We stopped at 10 or 11 ports; such as Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Egypt, Turkey, Croatia and Morocco.”
Kiger said the trip was probably the most demanding experience of his life due to the nature of the courses. Each course that they taught had to correlate with the next port.
Not only is Kiger a world traveler, but he has received several awards at USU; such as the President’s Diversity Award in 1996, Honors Professor in 1992, Researcher of the Year in 1989 and Teacher of the Year in 1987.
-joshrober@cc.usu.edu