What is a University for, by Chaouki Abdallah
When: Mon, Apr 21 2014 6:00pm
Where: Los Equipales Restaurant
The 21 Club wishes to thank our speaker, UNM Provost Chaouki Abdallah
UNM Provost Dr. Chaouki Abdallah
What is a University for?
Every so often however, and despite our best intentions and our positive reach, universities come under scrutiny and even attack by society at large. This is neither surprising nor unique to universities: when times are tough, we look for simple answers to complicated questions. Today, we face the problem of college costs and economics and I would like to describe to you how UNM is searching for answers as we strive to fulfill our multiple missions. I will focus on some of the potentially "disruptive" and "innovative" approaches including online education, MOOCs and changes to the curriculum. I will also discuss, from the Academic Affairs point of view, the roles that faculty and academic leaders need to assume in order to navigate the troubled water ahead.
Chaouki T. Abdallah obtained his BE from Youngstown State University in 1981, and his MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982, and 1988 respectively. He joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department at the University of New Mexico (UNM) where he is currently professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Between 2005 and 2011, he was the ECE department chair and became the provost and executive vice president of academic affairs of UNM on July 2011, a position he currently holds.
Professor Abdallah was the first recipient of ECE’s Lawton Ellis Award for combined excellence in teaching, research, and student/community involvement. Professor Abdallah also received the school of engineering senior research excellence award in 2004, and was the ECE Gardner Zemke Professor between 2002 and 2005. He served as director of ECE’s graduate program from 1999 through 2005. Dr. Abdallah was a visiting professor at the Universita Degli Studi di Roma, Tor Vergata, Rome, in 2005. He has published eight books (three as co-editor and five as co-author) and more than 300 peer-reviewed papers.
