Features

Yet when new ideas and ways of thinking are in demand, it's often Dennis Meadows who gets the call. Dean of Liberal Arts Marilyn Hoskin, whose college houses Meadowsas institute, says he is "clearly a major innovator" whose ability to think "out of the box immediately" is a hot commodity on campus. "He helps all of us immeasurably in getting a bead on the core of problems we face and how to work most effectively to deal with them."

Ted Kirkpatrick, the College's associate dean, adds color to her comments: "Dennis is a wildman who's incredibly impatient with the pace of the world. His intellectual curiosity is absolutely unbound by convention."

Not surprisingly, Meadows has a core group of loyal staff members to help him run his many ventures. The staff seem to enjoy the non-heirarchical, flexible structure of the office, although they say keeping up with the boss can be daunting. In the course of a day, Meadow's assistant, Ken Collinson '97, can be found setting up international conferences, researching employment trends in the state or investigating new business opportunities. But he says his biggest daily challenge is "seeing the picture as big as Dennis does."

Collinson will leave his position to attend law school in the fall. When asked who his successor should be, Collinson, who's 41, blurts out, half joking, "Someone younger!"

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