HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) – Joan Smith, a University of Vermont dean and advocate for women’s issues, has died at 70 after a long struggle with cancer.

UVM officials said Saturday that Smith died Friday evening at her home in Hartland.

Smith, married to Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Welch, had been dean of UVM’s College of Arts and Sciences since 1996. She was the first woman to lead the largest college at the university.

“Joan Smith did an outstanding job strengthening the college and guiding it to stronger times,” UVM President Daniel Fogel said in a statement. “The university is losing one its strongest leaders and, for so many in the UVM community, one of our most cherished friends.”

“It is with the deepest sense of sadness that we mourn the loss of our dear colleague and friend,” said Provost John Bramley. “Joan was a pillar of this university; and we will miss her enormously. She leaves our university with a distinguished and lasting legacy.”

Associated dean Jane Knodell, also a professor of economics, will become acting dean.

Smith was a professor of sociology with a special interest in economic processes and labor force issues and had been at UVM since 1990.

She earned her doctorate in sociology at New York University and taught at Dartmouth College and the State University of New York in Binghamton before joining the UVM faculty.

The university announced that a campus memorial service would be held Friday in Ira Allen Chapel.