The current Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies, Patricia Turner, will take a leave from her current administrative position to serve as interim dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies.

Turner has already begun the process of working with outgoing Dean Elizabeth Langland to ensure as smooth a transition as possible, and will officially begin her interim post Aug. 1. As one of her first actions. Turner will consult with the division and then appoint a faculty advisory group for the coming year.

Turner is a professor of African American and African Studies and professor of American Studies, and has been a member of the UC Davis faculty since 1990 after receiving her doctorate at UC Berkeley. Turner served as director of African American and African Studies from 1997 to 1999, and has been in her role as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies for five years.

"She has successfully balanced her significant contributions to the academic leadership of the campus with active participation in her own scholarship," Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef wrote in a letter announcing Turner's interim position.

"Professor Turner told us that while she will devote all of her efforts to the division for the coming year to sustain the momentum developed under Dean Langland, she does not wish to be considered for the position on a permanent basis."

• national search will begin in September to recruit a successor to Langland, who headed HArCS for the past five years. Langland will join Purchase College of the State University of New York on Aug. 1 as its provost and vice president for academic affairs. (See the June 3 issue of Dateline at http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu.)

An internal search to fill the vice provost position on an interim basis will be conducted during the summer.