Bold university dean excited about social gathering (9)
I believe the answer is:
unabashed
'bold' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'university dean excited about social gathering' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'u' (abbreviation for university).
'excited' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'social gathering' becomes 'bash' (bash can mean a party).
'dean' anagrammed gives 'naed'.
'naed' enclosing 'bash' is 'nabashed'.
'u'+'nabashed'='UNABASHED'
(Other definitions for unabashed that I've seen before include "Shameless" , "Thirteen [ILL AT EASE]? Just the opposite" , "Not embarrassed or disconcerted" , "lacking shame" , "Not at all ashamed or embarrassed" .)