Written by Haya Al-Thani, Photo from NU-Q Website.

Piles of paper have steadily taken over the office space, some even hiding underneath the room’s one large desk. Though it has only been in use for a short while, this is clearly the office of a busy man.

“I’m just waiting for spring break to find my desk again,” said Charles Whitney, newly appointed associate dean of academic affairs at NU-Q, pointing towards the paper piles invading his workspace.

Before coming to NU-Q in 2015, Whitney had been the associate dean for academic affairs at the Northwestern University School of Communication in Evanston for five years. He said he often tried to persuade people to come to NU-Q by praising its students and describing how students here have a feeling they can “make history” in the country and the Gulf region.

He would also tell them about Qatar’s rapid development “from that little spur off of the Arabian Peninsula to the highest per capita income in the world among citizens,” and how the country had gone from having a 14-story Sheraton Hotel building in the 1980s to more than a hundred high-rise buildings today.

“After four years of trying to do this, bring people over here, I sort of bought my own persuasive message,” Whitney said. He said that he had always wanted to come to NU-Q and this academic year was the right time to do so. 

Whitney had travelled to Qatar nine times before moving here last fall. He said it has been an “easy transition” because he already knew so many people at the university. In fact, students may recognize him from his attendance at almost all of NU-Q’s commencement speeches, and he is particularly well acquainted with NU-Q Dean and CEO Everette Dennis, whom he has known since graduate school.

Nevertheless, Whitney said he has encountered some challenges. He is married to Ellen Wartella, the chair of the communication studies department at Northwestern in Evanston, where she remains. “I’m happy I’m here, but the worst part of being here is being separated from my wife and my family,” he said.

They have two adult sons, who are also living in the United States. David, 33, works as a producer in Hollywood at Sony Pictures Studios, scouting projects for potential television and movie deals. Stephen, 28, is a graduate student at Northwestern’s communication school, where he is earning a Master of Science degree in Leadership for Creative Enterprises. Despite this, Whitney said his youngest son does not plan to follow in his parents’ footsteps and become an academic. 

Stephen works at the Genius Bar in an Apple store in Chicago, which means that he provides in-store tech support for issues with Apple devices. Whitney said he likes to tease his son about this. He once sent him a poster that said, “Don’t give me a hard time asking for your help on all my electronics. I taught you to eat with a spoon.”

Dean Whitney has also worked at several other universities, including Stanford University, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, among others. He also spent 11 years with the University of Texas at Austin. Immediately before joining Northwestern in Evanston, he was chair of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where he was also a professor of sociology and media and cultural studies.

Correction (February 11, 2016): A previous version of this story mistakenly stated that the Sheraton hotel was a 10-story building. The hotel building actually has 14 floors.