Three topics related to transformation

I would like to share an update on three very important activities – one that takes place tomorrow (April 29), one that will be highly visible beginning Fall 2015, and one that may take place over the summer.

Purdue Day of Giving

More than 40 campus units, including the College of Technology, will be involved in the second annual Purdue Day of Giving, a 24-hour online fundraising event – midnight to midnight on April 29 --  designed to boost visibility and giving for all of Purdue University. Your participation will be greatly appreciated, and it can help the college gain additional funds based on hourly challenges (e.g. the unit with the most faculty/staff donors between 9 and 10 a.m. receives $7,000!). Also, College of Technology faculty and staff who participate will be eligible for the Dean for A Day prize and departmental challenges.

Fall 2015 Transformed First-Year Program

Among the most exciting and soon-to-be-visible examples of our college’s transformation is the program that our nearly 700 new beginners will experience starting Fall 2015. This is a huge undertaking, and Nathan Mentzer and Dawn Laux have been leading a group of faculty and staff in the planning. They are making remarkable progress, as are faculty who are teaching their respective department’s gateway courses. We are receiving great cooperation from the Lamb School of Communication and the Department of English as we integrate humanities into the first-year program. I am confident our program will be transformative and serve as a roadmap to improving the learning experience of our students. I want to thank all the faculty and staff who have been working on this initiative. It is a challenge to fully scale our efforts from what we learned from the great work of the Incubator faculty, but I am confident we have the faculty and staff capable of achieving success on this challenge.

Proposed Name Change

On Monday I submitted a proposal to change the name of the College of Technology to the Purdue Polytechnic. All the rights and privileges of college faculty will be retained in the newly named academic unit. The president, provost, and deans of the nine other colleges on campus will review the proposal. I anticipate, if approved by the Board of Trustees, the name will officially be changed during the summer. There will be a major effort to brand and market the new name so that everyone seeing the name will understand the significance and value of our programs; our new name will be synonymous with excellence and progressive higher education in technology.

We have made significant progress in our efforts to transform the college, and I thank you for all of your hard work this academic year. Best wishes for a great summer.

About The Author

Gary Bertoline's picture
Gary R. Bertoline is Dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology, and a Professor of Computer & Information Technology. Prior to becoming dean, he served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Technology. From 1995 through 2002, Gary served as Department Head of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue University.