From the Rumor Mill

[dawg80]

Makes you wonder: our 5 colleges currently have in them 1 interim Dean and 2 retiring by year's end. Will we hire or appoint new Deans or is consolidation coming to Tech?

Perfect opportunity to consolidate more.

[maverick]

Perfect opportunity to consolidate more.

Yes, similar to the perfect opportunity we have to make Mike White Head Coach of our consolidated basketball programs.

[dawg80]

Yes, similar to the perfect opportunity we have to make Mike White Head Coach of our consolidated basketball programs.

Hmmmm.....okay. A little "different" yeah. But, you may be on to something here.

[maverick]

Hmmmm.....okay. A little "different" yeah. But, you may be on to something here.

The only thing I'm "on to" are two bad ideas.

[dawg80]

Not ignoring the PMs.

Waiting for some independent confirmation on an issue first.

[jellidawg]

Applied and Natural Sciences, Liberatos, 12/31
Education, Leonard, 8/31

COES had a national search and received 300+ applications; about 1/3 were decent. Whittling down the list.

In an email that has been sent to faculty and the E&S Foundation Board,

In the coming weeks, we will be interviewing three candidates for the Dean of the College of Engineering & Science. As part of the interview, the candidates will make a public presentation followed by a Q&A period.

The first candidate to be interviewed is Professor Kenneth J. Fridley, PhD, FASCE, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. His presentation will be at 2:30 PM on March 25, 2014 at the IfM auditorium.

The second candidate is Professor Hisham Hegab, Interim Dean of COES, Louisiana Tech University. His presentation will be at 2:00 PM on April 1, 2014 at the IfM auditorium.

The third candidate is Professor Mohammad Kiani, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Radiation Oncology, and Department Head of Mechanical Engineering at Temple University, Philadelphia. His presentation will be at 2:30 PM on April 4, 2014 at the IfM
auditorium.

All of the candidates appear to be very good.

[hookdown]

Bios of the candidates:


http://eng.ua.edu/people/kfridley/

http://www2.latech.edu/~hhegab/

http://engineering.temple.edu/person/kiani-mohammad-f

[Dowty]

Bios of the candidates:


http://eng.ua.edu/people/kfridley/

http://www2.latech.edu/~hhegab/

http://engineering.temple.edu/person/kiani-mohammad-f

Does Fridley have any ties to TECH?

They all look like good candidates. Dr. Hegab was my advisor for my first 2 years, before I switched to ME. I always enjoyed stopping by his office to chat or get help with something. I think he has served the school very well during his time here as a professor and interim Dean.

[GermDawg]

Bios of the candidates:


http://eng.ua.edu/people/kfridley/

http://www2.latech.edu/~hhegab/

http://engineering.temple.edu/person/kiani-mohammad-f

Wow, Dr. Mohammad has some serious chops, no offense to Dr. Hegab but he looks like the best candidate on paper.

Also, can we get rid of the personal faculty pages as our Bio pages? They look bad, have a uniform bio/resume page, with a link to their personal faculty page for classes/research.

[maverick]

Recently, the university's administrative hires have been primarily from within, which may indicate our salaries are not competitive enough to pay external candidates. Of course, it may also mean we value known quanitities more than unknown, or that we train 'em up the way we want, or that we reward excellence when we see it...could mean a lot. None of this is to say Hisham is not a great candidate. My understanding is he's done a wonderful job as interim dean and many hope to see him hold the position in the future.

[revf]

I have firsthand knowledge of young PhDs professors at the university in Lafayette looking to leave.

They are not expanding, Associate positions have been clamped down. Not a good sign

[odysseus]

Dr. Hegab would do a fantastic job, but some new blood would be a good thing I think. Dr. Mohammad would get my vote if I had one. Interesting note: he and current electrical engineering chair Dr. Davis Harbour both got their B.S. degrees in electrical engineering the same year from Oklahoma.

[dawg80]

Not ignoring the PMs.

Waiting for some independent confirmation on an issue first.

Well....my source is starting to crawfish. However, I have gotten some other "yeah, that is what I'm hearing too" 's , so probably some truth to it.

Will give "source" one more opportunity to confirm or deny said rumors. Should see him/her later today.

[Blue Dawg]

Some of the student leaders met with Dr Fridley and he seemed very put together. Don't know if he's the best man for the job, I'm not experienced enough to make that call, but I'll say I wouldn't be upset if he got it.

That being said, Dr. Hegab has been here a long time and knows how internals work in the COES office.

[GermDawg]

I will respond to those of you who sent a PM. I am hoping for a little more information first, which will probably be Monday now.

But an email was sent out to all faculty/staff yesterday outlining a proposal to further consolidate the schools/departments into just two colleges, as a cost-saving. The proposed new alignment makes no sense, for instance the School of Business put into the College of Education. And separated from the School of Engineering Technology, which will be placed in the College of Arts & Sciences. Presently the College of Science, Technology and Business houses those two schools, plus math and the biological sciences.

Needless to say the email sparked an uproar which was quickly responded to by the admin stating "it was ONLY a proposal and they are open to other suggestions."

The turmoil caused by the tight budget has (and is) causing a brain-drain. Many, many of the best and brightest PhDs have left or are leaving for other states. These are mostly the younger faculty members who still have most of their career and earning potential ahead of them. Can hardly blame them, they have to do what is right for them and their families.

I know of several younger PhDs who have departed from ULL, McNeese and SLU, so this is hardly just an NSU problem. It's a Louisiana problem.

More later....

Apparently Tech is combining some schools as well;
http://guiceblog.latech.edu/2014/03/...d-baton-rouge/

Thursday morning, I headed to Baton Rouge to attend University of Louisiana System Board meetings. We had three academic affair requests that were approved by the Board, the most notable being the merger of the Schools of Art and Architecture into the School of Design. We know that this will lead to stronger art and architecture programs, possibly stimulate new programs, and enable greater efficiencies in use of our resources.