News

The article gives the unfortunate impression that the engineering school faculty is united in opposition to the Dean. Nothing could be further from the truth. A very vocal group of individuals, who are more interested in their own personal agendas than the good of the institution, have made it their mission to bring down the Dean. They are doing so, because she is trying to make a wide range of reforms that are urgently needed to allow the School to live up to its potential. These individuals oppose those reforms because they prefer comfortable mediocrity, to the demands of excellence. Many of the alumni who have been drawn into this, have been duped by an underhanded and dishonest campaign to discredit an outstanding administrator, who has tackled a difficult and very challenging job. Their tactics remind me of the worst kind of political dirty tricks, that we've grown accustomed to seeing in national politics, but which have no place in the halls of the academy.

As a senior member of the Washington University faculty, I know the challenges facing the School of Engineering better than most. The previous dean left behind a legacy of serious problems that needed to be addressed. His failure to address those problems over a period of 15 years created the situation that we are now facing. Some departments are now populated largely by unproductive faculty who feel entitled to pursue their own personal agendas, free from responsibilities to their colleagues or the institution. This must change, if the school is to live up to its potential for excellence, within this great university we are privileged to be part of. Making the reforms needed to allow that change to happen is intrinsically difficult and contentious. It is shameful that a few implacable and self-centered individuals have chosen to wage a public war on the person who took on the job of implementing the needed reforms. Those individuals are no friends of Washington University.

Comment by Jonathan Turner — February 22, 2008 @ 06:07PM

Dean Sansalone has made it very clear in the two years she has been my dean that she cares very little for me as a student. My degree program has been cut, my scholarship program has been ruined, and most of the teachers I have had that made educating me their top priority have been fired. I don't think you can "build a stronger future" for the engineering school if it means ignoring the needs of the current students. I realize I don't know everything, but what I do know is that she has made me feel unimportant and more than that, helpless. She does not care about my opinion of her changes, not even to inform me of why they have to happen. I am paying tuition and I came here to get an education and anyone who makes me the bottom of a priority list will not be missed. I cannot speak to the previous dean's administrative skills, but what I can speak to is that three times he took me into his own personal office and answered questions I had, inspiring me to continue on in my major. Once he even volunteered for a video I was making to inform freshman engineering students about the Systems Engineering program. That is my dean. I know current students mean nothing to Dean Sansalone, but current students are future Alumni, and I know that I will not be giving one dime of my money to the engineering school in the future.

Comment by Jenny Goode — February 25, 2008 @ 09:59PM

If the Washington University "Student Life" article on the debacle is correct, then close to half of the engineering faculty (with some measure of inclusion of "senior faculty") are complaining about this micromanaging dean, whose communications difficulties are monumental, to say the least. Not unanimity, to be sure, but also more than just a few individual malcontents on the faculty. And while the chancellor and others (who likely failed to vet her properly) remain in the thrall of her great and good vision, she has been a disaster at the tactical and operational level -- shilling on her behalf by Chairmen Turner, Yin, and Biswas notwithstanding. All this just in front of a major fund drive to pay for the new buildings to rise near Skinker. Best of luck with that! We'll just see how forthcoming the moneyed alumni will be when the request comes through the dean's wizened eye, through her nostril.

Comment by Fulton Babson — February 26, 2008 @ 01:44PM