Faculty members McConathy, Guice named Tech vice presidents
Leesha Faulkner
February 28, 2004
BATON ROUGE - Pretty soon, students and faculty at Louisiana Tech University will begin singing 'Oh, them changes."
Among the big changes for Tech approved by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors' during its Friday meeting, Terry McConathy was promoted to executive vice president and dean of the Graduate School and Les Guice was promoted to vice president for research and development and director of information technology.
The ULS Board had to waive its rule to advertise and conduct national searches for positions of dean and above before it could confirm the promotions of McConathy and Guice.
The Board did so after a presentation from Tech President Dan Reneau, who said the appointment of the two fit into plans to move the university from "good to great."
Advertising for the two positions could result in hires that would cost the university and, in turn, the system about $200,000 each, Reneau said.
The promotions cost $10,000, he said.
Tech needs the additional vice presidents to help a rapidly growing student body. Heretofore, Reneau and Ken Rea, vice president for academic affairs have handled all the duties he wants to delegate to McConathy and Guice, the president said.
Additionally, Tech received permission to submit to the Louisiana Board of Regents a doctoral program in industrial-organizational psychology.
The program will consist of a minimum of 87 credit hours of course work and research training. Its graduates should be able to obtain academic positions and highly paid research-oriented jobs in organizations, Reneau said.
No other program like this exists among Louisiana universities. "It is also indicated that there is an increasing demand for organizational psychologists with strong quantitative skills and executive knowledge of organizations," he said.
