Can FGS meet the challenges it faces without structural change? I believe it can provided the new Dean is afforded the opportunity, resources and good will to succeed. I found a little piece of history which relates to this belief in Peter Waite's second volume of "The Lives of Dalhousie University" which has just arrived at the Archives

A new dean was to be appointed in 1972:

...the president ordered a review of the whole system of Graduate Studies..which [drawing] heavily on the system at McMaster, recommended that Dalhousie's FGS be dispanded and replaced with a School, with eight committees appended to it. Dean Leffek, who resisted these McMaster innovations, used an argument from Petronius Arbiter, Roman official in the time of Emperor Nero: "We tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing. And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."

• Maintaining and enhancing Graduate Studies at Dalhousie while leading the diverse constituencies that make up the FGS will be a challenge for the new Dean. This is a challenge I believe can be met, provided that the University Administration plays a supportive role and meets the critical needs outlined in the Senate Review of FGS. I can't promise this, but I can tell you that I believe that the President's Office values the FGS and wants to see it succeed. Cooperation and mutual respect between FGS and the line faculties also must be developed.
  -> I am totally committed to Dalhousie having a strong, pro-active FGS. Such an FGS must have complete and accurate information on all admitted students; must know about all funds that flow to students from University Accounts; must be informed regularly about the progress of all students in multi-year programs; must coordinate all PhD defenses. I will work closely with all the offices on campus necessary to make this happen.
  
  
• The Deans of FGS have regularly noted the need for an expanded and better arranged FGS Office. This need was strongly endorsed in the Senate Review: "Both external reviewers noted with conviction that the space housing the FGS is inadequate in several respects. It is too small; there is no waiting area; staff cannot talk with students privately. It was also suggested that the office should be in a more visible and, if possible, more central, location."