Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Records

During the first years of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT), each of the colleges that comprised CIT employed their own teachers of academic humanities subjects -- Economics, English, History, Mathematics, Modern Languages, and Psychology. In 1917, a planned restructuring brought teachers of like subjects together into a Central Faculty. World War I prevented implementation of the restructuring until 1919, at which time the Central Faculty was renamed the Division of Academic Studies. Shortly thereafter, the administration approved a name change to the Division of General Studies.

Most viewed the Division as a "service" unit, providing academic humanities courses for male students pursuing degrees in the "technical" Divisions of Science and Engineering Arts, Industries, or Applied Psychology. The final Division, Margaret Morrison Carnegie College, provided liberal arts courses for women.

In 1941, the Division of General Studies was reorganized into the Division of Humanistic and Social Studies. Reorganization provided an opportunity for the new Division to overcome the "service" niche in which General Studies had existed. By 1950, the new Division had become a vital part of Carnegie Tech. Students from other Divisions were increasingly taking more humanities courses. This was especially true of the female students at Margaret Morrison. In the 1950s, there was a concerted effort to integrate Margaret Morrison and Engineering and Science students into H and SS courses. In 1962, the administration approved another name change. The Division of Humanistic and Social Studies became the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.

In 1967, discussion of a "new college for Carnegie Tech" began. Efforts were made to bring the humanities departments together into a cohesive unit and the first class of the "New College" entered in September 1969. However, problems plagued the program from the start and it did not long survive.

During the mid-1970s, the administration took steps to reorganize the collection of departments they had recently acknowledged as the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The various departments, in truth, had become disjointed, haphazard, and were lacking a common goal. The reorganization of the mid-1970s also included women who would have attended Margaret Morrison, for the college had graduated its last class in the spring of 1969.

The late 1970s and early 1980s saw the development of a core curriculum and the adoption of the phrase "liberal professional education" as an integral part of the mission of the College. The core curriculum and defined mission aided departments in establishing a base on which the College could grow. Statistics formally joined the College in 1981. Philosophy separated from History, becoming its own department, in 1985. The Education Center, which had operated within the college for approximately 15 years, was given a university-wide mission and renamed the University Teaching Center. The academic departments within the College underwent reviews by outside visiting committees during the late 1980s and early 1990s. These efforts were made as an effort to upgrade the image of the College.

On September 7th, 2011, William S. Dietrich II, the former chairman of Dietrich Industries, Inc., a subsidiary of Worthington Industries, Inc., pledged a gift of $265 million. In response to this gift, Carnegie Mellon renamed the college to the Marianna Brown Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, after William Dietrich's mother.

The founding Dean of the Dietrich College was Erwin Steinberg. Past deans include John Patrick Crecine, Stephen Fienberg, Joel A. Tarr, and Peter Stearns. The current dean is John Lehoczky.