Northeastern Voice

Interim CJ dean to lead ‘up and coming’ college

Chester Britt

Chester Britt arrived at Northeastern in summer 2006, the same week as President Joseph Aoun.

Hired as an associate professor in the College of Criminal Justice, Britt was lured from his department chairmanship at Arizona State by a college that’s seen nationally as “up and coming” and a university whose direction he admires.

He said his new appointment as interim dean — following the resignation of longtime college leader Jack Greene, now vice provost for experiential education — means he can help “make sure the momentum Jack established can continue.”

“I’m a true believer” in Northeastern, he said.

Britt — who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, and has taught at Penn State and the University of Illinois as well — has studied the demography of crime and criminal careers.

He has been the college’s associate dean for undergraduate education, and is proud of the effective support structure for the nearly 900 undergraduates in criminal justice. But among the things Britt admired about most the college was its recent addition of a Ph.D. program, one of relatively few in the United States.

“A doctoral program is the way to attract faculty and ensure there’s lots of research being done,” he said.

And the job market remains solid for those with criminal justice doctorates, he said. Police departments adding research units are snapping up criminologists, he noted, and “there are always more positions” on criminal justice faculties “than people to fill them.”

Despite the competition, he said he’s been “impressed with the quality of faculty we’ve been able to recruit.” He’ll have a chance to put his own stamp on that effort, he said; he will serve as interim dean at least through June 2009, during which time the college plans to hire an assistant and two associate professors.

At many schools, he said, undergraduate criminology programs are filled with students looking for police jobs, “and there are jobs in that field.”

“But Northeastern students are different,” Britt said. “Because of the co-op program, they’re more exposed to federal law enforcement — and those jobs are more attractive.”