2008 Woodie Awards
Budget top priority for new School of Science Dean Bart Ng
Seth Warkentien
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: College News
Mathematics professor Bart Ng has been selected to take over as Dean of the Purdue School of Science at IUPUI. Ng replaces Dr. William Bosron, who has served as interim dean since August 2006.
Ng has held a number of titles since began work at IUPUI in 1975, including a stint as chair of Mathematics Department from 1986 to 1997, and currently as IUPUI Faculty President, a title he will hold until April 1. Now, as dean of the School of Science, he aims to reshape how the school is funded.
"The school is in a very difficult financial position," Ng said. "There should be a real acknowledgement that offering a program in science has some real costs that should be reflected in our debate about budget."
Ng noted Bosron had brought the school a long way in terms of emerging from financial difficulty, but departments such as biology and chemistry remain "on the critical list" because of the fact that they require so much equipment.
Explaining the financial quandary he said, "I think part of the reason is not anybody's fault, it's simply over time the under funding has been aggravated for a number of reasons."
One reason being that the school has suffered some significant losses in terms of faculty. Toward the end of the 1990s the school had around 135 faculty members. Now they're down to 108. Ng said that it is hard for a school to have undergone such attrition and still preserve its strength.
Luckily for the school, Ng was successful in attracting several top mathematicians to the department during his tenure as chair of the Math Department. He emphasized that the key in doing this is to hire individuals with the capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration.
"IUPUI is really a campus where we value interdisciplinary research and the people are not and should not be in silos," Ng said.
The new dean is working in collaboration with his predecessor to lay down the foundation for the new budget, as well as address other issues ranging from questions about space to personnel.
"We are right in the beginning of the so-called budget making process. Dean Bosron has been very much involved in that and I think will continue to be involved for a few months to make sure the handoff will be a smooth one," he said.
Ng has held a number of titles since began work at IUPUI in 1975, including a stint as chair of Mathematics Department from 1986 to 1997, and currently as IUPUI Faculty President, a title he will hold until April 1. Now, as dean of the School of Science, he aims to reshape how the school is funded.
"The school is in a very difficult financial position," Ng said. "There should be a real acknowledgement that offering a program in science has some real costs that should be reflected in our debate about budget."
Ng noted Bosron had brought the school a long way in terms of emerging from financial difficulty, but departments such as biology and chemistry remain "on the critical list" because of the fact that they require so much equipment.
Explaining the financial quandary he said, "I think part of the reason is not anybody's fault, it's simply over time the under funding has been aggravated for a number of reasons."
One reason being that the school has suffered some significant losses in terms of faculty. Toward the end of the 1990s the school had around 135 faculty members. Now they're down to 108. Ng said that it is hard for a school to have undergone such attrition and still preserve its strength.
Luckily for the school, Ng was successful in attracting several top mathematicians to the department during his tenure as chair of the Math Department. He emphasized that the key in doing this is to hire individuals with the capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration.
"IUPUI is really a campus where we value interdisciplinary research and the people are not and should not be in silos," Ng said.
The new dean is working in collaboration with his predecessor to lay down the foundation for the new budget, as well as address other issues ranging from questions about space to personnel.
"We are right in the beginning of the so-called budget making process. Dean Bosron has been very much involved in that and I think will continue to be involved for a few months to make sure the handoff will be a smooth one," he said.
Be the first to comment on this story