The administrative files of the Dean of the School of Education/ School of Education, Health, and Nursing Arts Professionals (SEHNAP), (1960- 1983) includes some material created during the deanship of Walter A. Anderson. However the majority of the files were created under the deanship of Daniel E. Griffiths.

On March 3, 1965 Daniel E. Griffiths was appointed Dean of the School of Education, after having served as Associate Dean for four years (1961-1965). Griffiths was Dean of the School of Education and then SEHNAP for eighteen years, through the political, economic, and social upheavals of the 1960s through the early 1980s. In these years the School of Education faced enrollment crises and budget problems. In meeting these challenges, Griffiths combined his background as a specialist in educational administration and administrative theory with the conviction that the School must adapt itself to modern society in order to serve the emerging and future needs of the community.

Daniel Griffiths received his B.Ed. in 1940 at Central Connecticut State College, after which he taught high school science and mathematics in Bristol, Connecticut. Griffiths went on to earn his M.Ed. in 1949 at the University of New Hampshire, and then his Ph.D. in 1952 at Yale University. From 1952-1955, Griffiths served as Project Associate, then Professor and Director of the Administrative Seminar Project at the New York State College for Teachers at Albany. From 1955-1956, Griffiths worked with the New York State Department of Education as Director of Cooperative Development of Public School Administration and as Associate Coordinator of Educational Research. From 1956-1959, Griffiths served in several capacities at Teachers College of Columbia University. From 1956-1961, Griffiths was associate and then full professor. Additionally, he held numerous directorships within the college. In 1961, Griffiths became Associate Dean of the School of Education at NYU.

During his deanship, Griffiths consistently elucidated what he believed to be some of the problems and solutions of the contemporary educational systems. In 1970, among the failures of the educational system, Griffiths noted what he called the mass-production concept of education, the domination of society by large and complex organizations, wherein emphasis was placed on the functioning of large bureaucracies rather than individual capabilities, the depersonalization of society, and prolonged infantilism of the individual. He believed that the latter stemmed from an unnecessarily long educational process based on an antiquated rural harvest cycle. Among the solutions that Griffiths proposed was rigorous training for students of poor families to provide them some of the same educational opportunities as those enjoyed by students of the middle classes. In 1979 Griffiths indicated the need for the School of Education to continue to tailor itself to serving the community through the addition of programs such as gerontology, education in non-school contexts, technology, and computers.

Dean Griffiths introduced over thirty-nine new programs to the School of Education, which was renamed the School of Education, Health and Nursing Arts Professionals in 1974. Notable programs include the American Poverty Experience (APEX) program that was established in 1967, which trained young men from the slums to be educators and work for their communities. In 1970, Griffiths introduced an initially controversial Masters and Ph.D degrees-granting Human Sexuality Program.

Acknowledged as Griffiths' most important contribution to the field of education was his introduction of the research professor who would use social science theory to improve education at the administrative and teaching levels alongside the more traditional practitioner professor who taught with the use of practical examples. Griffiths' theories for the improvement of education and his teaching methods greatly strengthened the academic and research dimension of the NYU School of Education, and won him recognition in the national and international community. Griffiths gave over two hundred lectures and workshops both domestically and abroad, and his methods and theories have been adopted widely. Griffiths also played a key role in the formation of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), an organization for the improvement of educational administration and the development of educational leaders. The UCEA is now a consortium of 70 research universities in Canada and in the United States.

Dean Griffiths' articles appeared in over seventy journals. He edited and authored eleven books including Administrative Theory (1965) and The Dilemma of Deanship (1979). Additionally Griffiths chaired the editorial board of the Education Quarterly, which was published from 1969 until 1983.

Griffiths retired from NYU in 1983. In recognition of his commitment to research and development, the Griffiths Research Award was established in 1983. It is awarded annually to single or collaborating faculty members whose research contributes to professional practice or knowledge in his or her field. Daniel Griffiths died on October 5, 1995.