The second contender for the School of Engineering’s dean was on campus Monday to outline his intentions for the school, whose dean stepped down in July.
Patrick O’Shea, University of Maryland’s chairman of Electrical and Computer Engineering, held two forums with students, faculty and staff.
O’Shea said he would focus on increasing the department’s exposure to attract donors and increase national ranking.
“The key thing when it comes to department ranking is simply making sure department chairs respect and recognize the things that are going on,” he said. “Celebrate our successes, advertise our successes and invite people from other institutions to see all the beautiful things that are going on here.”
Student Josh Goldman said he came to the forum in the Centennial Engineering Building to put his 2 cents in about the dean candidate and was impressed with what he saw.
“He was well-spoken and enthusiastic,” he said. “He seemed qualified to me, and I thought he had good ideas about improving our ranking.”
Funding is a crucial component of a successful university, O’Shea said.
“Money is critically important to success, and resources are critical,” he said. “If you look at all the great universities in the world, they did not become that way on accident. They became great because someone donated large chunks of money.”
UNM should focus on acquiring funding by earning it with innovative thinking and drive, O’Shea said.
“We cannot expect the state to all of a sudden dump a large amount of money into the University,” he said. “One way of getting funds is to get donors to give us money, but that’s not that simple. Rich people are not just interested in giving us money. They don’t just give it away. We have to actively engage the donors with the sense of mission, with the sense of vision, with the sense of leadership that says, ‘If you give us $10 or $20 million, this is what we are going to do with the money to make this a great institution.’”
Money is only one element of a university’s success O’Shea said, and teaching is another critical piece.
“One of the characteristics of a great university is great teachers and great research,” he said. “Our core mission is the education of the students.”
Student Ling-Tzu Wang is in the process of deciding whether to go to graduate school at UNM.
“I came because I am a graduating senior in the fall, and I’m just curious to see what the dean candidates can bring to the School of Engineering and how it could affect me as an alumni, if I was to graduate from UNM,” she said. “I wanted to see what benefits I (might) get from it, how much reputation I could bring in and how much funding, if I decided to be a graduate student.”
Daniel Fleetwood and Gregory Washington are the other two dean contenders. Fleetwood visited campus last week and Washington will speak Wednesday and Thursday at the Centennial Engineering Center Auditorium.
*Gregory Washington, candidate for dean of the School of Engineering
Wednesday
12:30 – 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 – 6 p.m.
Thursday
8:10 – 10 a.m.
Centennial Engineering Center Auditorium*
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