Engineering department adds
faculty, gains new deans
Rachael Conley
Staff
Writer
The engineering department has said goodbye to
familiar faces and added new ones to this year’s faculty.
Former associate dean of engineering Jeff Wright
has said goodbye to Purdue and traveled across the country to San Francisco
to become the founding dean of engineering at the University of California,
Merced. Expected to open in 2004, Merced will be the first American
research university built in the 21st century.
While at Purdue, Wright took much of the responsibility
left by former associate dean of engineering Warren Stevenson when he
took voluntary retirement. Another man, Klod Kokini, took over Wright’s
responsibilities.
As assistant dean of engineering, Kokini has focused
on improving the climate for diversity in the school, said dean of engineering
Richard Schwartz.
He works to "create a very positive climate
for diversity for both faculty and students," Schwartz said.
Kokini is in charge of diversity workshops, both
gender and culturally oriented, for faculty and staff. The faculty has
even formed a diversity action group also focused on improving the climate
of the recruitment of new faculty.
The number of women on the faculty has increased
fairly dramatically, said Schwartz. Last year 17 new faculty members
were hired in the department and six of them were women. This is impressive
if one considers that only about eight percent of the Ph.D.s granted
in the United States are granted to women in engineering, he said.
The Women in Engineering Program has also received
a new face. Beth Holloway joined in August to replace the old program
leader. Her work will focus on recruitment and retention of women in
engineering.
Within the next 12 months, Schwartz also said two
more African American faculty members will begin in the department.
Schwartz will leave his position as dean to return
to the classroom as a professor of electrical and computer engineering
soon. In his place will be Linda Katehi, a new arrival from the University
of Michigan.
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