14 minute read
Dynamic Deans
New college leaders prepared for today’s challenges, tomorrow’s promise
BY SUSAN MESSINA
Over the past year, four of UNC Charlotte’s seven academic colleges have welcomed new deans. With impressive credentials and fresh perspectives to coincide with the energy generated by the arrival of a new chancellor, these dynamic leaders are eager to apply their expertise to the opportunities facing their colleges and lessons of the current global pandemic to what they view as the bright future of higher education.
Arriving in fall 2019 were Brook Muller, dean, College of Arts + Architecture, from the University of Oregon, where he was director of the Portland Architecture Program and a professor in the Architecture Department, and Catrine Tudor-Locke, dean, College of Health and Human Services, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she was associate dean for research and administration for the School of Public Health and Sciences. Arriving this fall are Robert Keynton, dean of The William States Lee College of Engineering, from the University of Louisville, where he was interim executive vice president for Research and Innovation, and the Lutz Endowed Chair of Biomechanical Devices in the Department of Engineering at the Speed School of Engineering, and Jennifer Troyer, who was appointed dean of the Belk College of Business after serving the college since 1999 as senior associate dean and professor of Economics, including the department’s chair, and associate dean for research and graduate programs.
Brook Muller
What is it about UNC Charlotte that interested you in pursuing a position of leadership?
ROBERT KEYNTON: About 20 years ago, a former student informed me he was moving to Charlotte and planned to continue his degree in mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte. Since then, I’ve followed the University’s progress and have been amazed — from both academic and research perspectives — by the outstanding growth of The William States Lee College of Engineering. With this opportunity, I was eager to learn more. The deeper I delved into the capabilities of the facilities, and quality of the faculty and staff — along with the positive collegial and collaborative environment — it became clear that UNC Charlotte is the place for me.
JENNIFER TROYER: When I arrived 21 years ago, the University had about 16,000 students. What attracted me then was the promise of growth — in Charlotte, in enrollment, particularly at the graduate level, and in the University’s research profile. The growth has been greater than I ever imagined. The Belk College of Business’ talented faculty and staff are researching business problems that are directly relevant to industry and policymakers, and our growing alumni base, exceptional teaching faculty and our business partners make great things happen in our community.
BROOK MULLER: The University’s urban research and community engagement commitments align perfectly with my work and values. Plus, I sensed strong optimism, open-mindedness and pride in the institution and its mission. My decision to come here was reinforced on the first day of new faculty orientation in August 2019, which took place uptown, where conversations with city council members and leaders of nonprofits and community organizations made an enormous impression.
CATRINE TUDOR-LOCKE: Like many UNC Charlotte students and alumni, I was a firstgeneration, low-income student, so UNC Charlotte’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity speaks directly to me. I lost both my parents by the time I turned 23 and had to chart a life path forward on my own. I am where I am today because of so many people who supported me every step of the way. I am excited about the opportunity to give back and help other students achieve their education, career and life goals.
Considering the University’s research potential, in what areas do you see research growing? How important are community partners to this endeavor?
TROYER: The strongest potential for research growth is in interdisciplinary initiatives, where UNC Charlotte possesses considerable strength. As a relatively young institution, the University is more nimble than some others and therefore able to connect across disciplinary silos. A great example is the new School of Data Science, which is already elevating the research of faculty across the University doing work in data science and analytics.
Catrine Tudor-Locke
Robert Keynton
MULLER: We certainly can galvanize research activity around shared areas of interest across our academic units by addressing pressing challenges confronting contemporary society. Our ability to show that we are engaged in a vibrant, deeply relevant cross-college dialogue is key for attracting significant external funding. Overall, we must define research broadly; I recognize that the arts are seen by some as helping visualize the hard research occurring in the sciences, and yet if we are talking about meaning making, artistic sensibilities, practices and research have a central role to play.
TUDOR-LOCKE: UNC Charlotte is poised to ascend to R1 doctoral university classification with very high research activity. Our researchers are already pushing their respective fields forward. Our community partners, which include regional public health and social service units, hospitals and clinics, non-governmental agencies and corporations, are working with us to address knowledge gaps and opportunities through collaborative research.
KEYNTON: Cross-disciplinary collaborations on campus, together with strategic external partners, are critical for elevating the research profile of the University. My colleagues and I are currently looking into several new areas that will position the college and University as field leaders. At the same time, we see enormous opportunities for continued expansion in a number of areas that both the college and the University have established excellent research programs and garnered national attention.
What are the near-term priorities for your college?
MULLER: The College of Arts + Architecture aims to address issues of equity, anti-racism and social justice, and commit to increased internationalization and engagement of diverse and global perspectives. It’s essential that we address environmental justice and contend with the impacts of climate change that will affect people disproportionately and unfairly. In this time beset with challenges, we must think boldly and position, through our programming, the arts and design as engines of civic imagination and social change.
TUDOR-LOCKE: Based on listening sessions and a stakeholder retreat that I led during my first year, top goals for CHHS are to expand several priorities in regard to partnerships and collaborations in teaching, research and community engagement; human, space, equipment and financial resources. We also will enhance our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion through action.
TROYER: This is a milestone year for the Belk College of Business as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of both the college and MBA program. As others have indicated, we will deepen our level of activity in diversity, equity and inclusion, as we develop a new, five-year strategic plan.
KEYNTON: I plan to identify synergies between engineering programs and those across campus to
develop multidisciplinary programs that impact the Charlotte region and our country. Another goal is to reevaluate how we deliver engineering education, with an eye toward developing new paradigms for top-quality learning environments for our students to enhance their ability to assimilate immediately into the workforce. I’m especially interested in fostering innovation within the college to encourage faculty, staff and students to translate their discoveries into technologies and products that will benefit society and contribute to the economic development of the region. Finally, we’ll promote our strengths across different media platforms to raise awareness for the college and UNC Charlotte at the national and international levels.
The circumstances of 2020 have changed the landscape of higher education. What is the value proposition for students?
TUDOR-LOCKE: In many ways, the pandemic and the swift pivot to remote learning accelerated a trend toward enhancing pedagogy with various technologies. It pushed our professors and our students to quickly acquire, practice, and ultimately, master new interpersonal skills necessary to successfully navigate the virtual space. For students, these newly honed presentation and collaboration skills will translate very well to the workplace. But the greater life lessons that our students benefited from this year by being part of the UNC Charlotte community during this challenging time include cooperation, experimentation, ingenuity, advocacy, solidarity and resilience.
KEYNTON: The shift to remote learning modalities has certainly taught all of us to be resilient and to persevere through life’s challenges to achieve our goals. The students have been exceptional at dealing with these challenges and realize the value of having the ability to continue progressing in their curriculum to ensure they achieve their degrees in a timely manner. At the
Jennifer Troyer
same time, social injustice issues have come to the forefront and institutions are having open and candid discussions on ways to address and combat these injustices on college campuses. Universities are developing training programs and courses to address unconscious bias, anti-biasing strategies, power and privilege, culture and micro- versus macro aggressions. These add value to the educational experience and, hopefully, will yield a more positive, collaborative and empathetic learning environment.
MULLER: My mentor and former dean Frances Bronet, now president of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, points out that this is exactly the time to be in college. People are exploring new platforms for education, critical practice and communication like never before, and students should absolutely play a part in experimenting with these emerging modalities. Let us figure this out together — not presume that faculty have full expertise. Assume the intelligence of those we work with, provide the resources, facilitate a process and ask students to help us invent this new educational landscape.
TROYER: It is indeed an ideal time to invest in yourself. Regardless of whether they are learning and connecting on Zoom or in person, students in the Belk College of Business have access to high quality peers, outstanding faculty who are working diligently to make the course experience as effective as possible, professional development opportunities and a large network of alumni.
What will higher education look like on the other side of this; how should the industry prepare?
KEYNTON: Higher education will be forever changed for the better since educators have now gained a greater appreciation for employing different teaching modalities, platforms and tools for delivering course content. Since every student learns differently, I believe educators will deliver course material more efficiently and effectively using the broad spectrum of tools, resulting in a greater number of students comprehending the material successfully. As a result, the industry will need to move away from traditional educational paradigms and implement these, as well as new technologies and resources to improve the educational experience of our students. TUDOR-LOCKE: 2020 shook us loose from some traditions and allowed us to think creatively in response to new necessities. We now have the opportunity to leverage these new experiences and evolve. There will doubtless be a continued focus on equity and outcomes. We will be re-examining our policies and procedures and questioning their impacts, so data will become increasingly important to guiding the actions that will be expected. There will be increased emphasis on career preparedness, including expanding opportunities for projectbased learning, internships, co-operative education programs and other work experiences. This emphasis will require more expansive and closer interactions with community and corporate partners as we develop the infrastructure to support important training pipelines that include, but extend well beyond, the undergraduate experience.
TROYER: During the pandemic, faculty have invested in upgrading their skills in the area of online course delivery. Students have learned to learn online and learned about their preferred mode of delivery While I do not see face-to-face instruction going away, I see more opportunities for online program offerings and online components to faceto-face classes that facilitate learning.
MULLER: The impacts of COVID on arts and design education are enormous and will be longlasting. What gives me optimism and solace is to witness the inventiveness of our faculty in terms of developing new mediums for expression and critical dialogue. Theater faculty, for example, are exploring virtual performances that will be part of our programming forever. And yet we are not only dealing with COVID; we absolutely have to consider how Black Lives Matter will change higher education positively and irrevocably, as well as the current crisis in democracy characterized by extreme partisanship and inability to find common ground. How can higher education and especially, for us, higher education in the arts and design, address these deeply consequential matters? On the other side of this challenging period, let us remember what the arts mean for society. People look to the arts in such times as a way to come to terms with the feeling of helplessness and senselessness. People also look to the arts when they seek uplift and joy. They are central to our experience as human beings.
Susan Messina is director of News & Information for University Communications.
Sustaining a tradition of strong leadership
UNC Charlotte’s history of strong leadership extends from its founding to today, continuing with its newest leaders (page 44) as well as its longstanding academic deans. Here, Dean Nancy Gutierrez, who has led the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) since 2005; Dean Fatma Mili, who arrived in 2017 to lead the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI); and Teresa Petty, who is serving the Cato College of Education (COE) as interim dean, share their insights about leadership, the University’s impact on important societal issues and equipping students to lead where and when it matters.
Nancy Gutierrez CLAS
“This environment is an incubator for leadership. Because of its commitment to access, UNC Charlotte welcomes students from a breadth of our social, economic and cultural strata. It embraces difference and heterogeneity, thus building an environment where quirkiness is accepted and risk-taking is celebrated. ‘Leadership’ is a word that should be coupled with ‘opportunity.’ The environment created, simply by virtue of the diverse and eclectic community on campus, offers all of us the space to grow individually and to build the institution. This ‘opportunity’ has attracted individuals who were primed to grow as leaders. Students and faculty come here to grow as human beings and, by so doing, grow the institution.”
Fatma Mili CCI
“The COVID-19 pandemic, the national awakening to the breadth and depth of enduring racial injustice and violence, as well as the acceleration of severe weather events are symptoms of a system delivering results most of us do not want. Compounded crises add a sense of urgency to the unique role universities can and must play, which has dramatically accelerated several efforts already underway at UNC Charlotte. For example, as remote learning has brought to the surface the inequity in student needs and conditions, it also focused our faculty on redesigning their teaching and learning environments to personalize learning, maximize student engagement and democratize access. Similarly, the complexity and multifaceted nature of the current crises have been a catalyst for all colleges at UNC Charlotte to collaborate, sharing resources and ideas across disciplines. At CCI alone, the number of cross-college collaborations on research proposals has more than doubled.”
Teresa Petty COE
“In the field of education, equity can be defined as giving each student the tools needed to be successful, which is different from equality, which means all students receive the same tools. As the Cato College of Education leads by example in training new educators to be aware of this difference and prepares them to advocate for and foster equity in their schools and classrooms, we aim to increase diversity in our student population through targeted recruitment efforts. Recent faculty professional development around the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion will guide us toward developing specific action items to support faculty and students as they develop the skills and confidence to champion equity here at UNC Charlotte and in their professional environments.”
