College of Engineering faculty and staff,
It is a great time here at Cal Poly as the winter quarter draws to an end and we find spring approaching, both academically, and in our weather. We have been treated to many rainbows over Bishop’s Peak over the past few weeks, and I know we all now look forward to the sunny weather. I hope that your winter quarter has been both enjoyable and productive. Here in the Dean’s office the time seemed to fly by as we continued work on many initiatives. I want to give you all a quick update on some of our recent activities since I will miss the winter quarter social due to overseas travel.
I have been continuing to engage with as many CENG students, faculty, staff, alumni and corporate partners as possible. I am enjoying settling into the CENG culture and am continually impressed by those I meet. Over the winter quarter I made almost two dozen corporate visits, in addition to hosting listening sessions, drop-in hours and some faculty/staff coffees here on campus. I also attended a number of student events. I am really interested in meeting as many of you as possible and learning about your Cal Poly experience. In February, I represented Cal Poly at the ASEE Engineering Deans Public Policy Colloquium in Washington, DC, where I joined 140 engineering deans from across the country to focus on legislative issues of importance to higher education. We focused on topics such as immigration, undocumented students, Pell grants, federal financial aid, research funding, the K-12 pipeline and many other topics. As part of this event, I joined forces with six other CSU engineering deans to make visits to members of the California delegation on Capitol Hill, including the offices of Senators Feinstein and Harris, to advocate for the CSU. I am continuing to work closely with the Chairs on issues of importance to the departments, and as a college council we focused this quarter on topics around inclusion and innovation.
The Associate Deans have been leading a number of initiatives this quarter as well. Rakesh is working closely with me on supporting the hiring process in the departments. We are hiring 13 tenure-track faculty right now, which means almost 40 candidates coming through the Dean’s office. Rakesh is also working on budget projections for next year and is partnering closely with me on the RPT process. Eric is working closely with the college diversity and inclusion committees, which will be preparing reports on their progress during the spring quarter. He is also working closely with our student groups and clubs to develop professional development opportunities for our student leaders, and looking at ways to improve our transfer student experiences. Bob has been focusing on facilities, including looking for space for new faculty offices and for student clubs and looking at our maintenance needs. He is taking the lead on SURP, and the call for SURP proposals is currently active. Additionally, Bob is facilitating a University-wide Data Science task force which is looking at creative ways to bring data science to as many Cal Poly students as possible, and is looking at developing new scholarship opportunities for faculty with some of our corporate partners.
As the spring quarter begins, I encourage you to participate in the CPX activities, most importantly completing the survey which will release on April 9th. It is incredibly important for us to get a high response rate from everyone, so we can use the data to identify our next steps. I participated in one of the listening sessions, as did all of the associate deans, and I hope you had the opportunity as well. We will also be trying some new communication methods for the college, including launching a blog which will feature updates on activities around the college. Finally, you can also connect to me on LinkedIn or follow me on Instagram (dramyfleischer) where I regularly post updates on my travels and events.
All in all, there are many exciting initiatives being explored, and it is an exciting time to be part of Cal Poly Engineering I hope you all enjoy your spring break, and thanks for all of you hard work.
