Dr. Sona K. Andrews is one of three candidates to replace Warren Baker as Cal Poly’s president; she is visiting campus today for a series of student, faculty and community forums.
Andrews is Boise State University’s first female provost and also serves as vice president for Academic Affairs.
This year, Andrews was also one of four candidates being considered for president at Missouri State University and in 2009 she wrote a letter to the Presidential Search Committee at the University of Rhode Island (URI).
“I know I can make significant contributions to help URI move beyond a state of equilibrium to one equipped to manage change and innovation,” Andrews said in the letter.
According to Missouristate.edu, the board of governors did not select Andrews to be the university’s 10th president.
Before working at Boise State, Andrews worked at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
For her first year of undergraduate work, Andrews went to school in Beirut, Lebanon. She continued her education and got her undergraduate degree at Worcester State College in Massachusetts and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geography at Arizona State University.
Since earning her Ph.D., Andrews has served as a journal editor and as a member on numerous professional national committees.
She has researched as an academic on several topics while working at the different universities throughout her career. At Boise State, she wrote an article about the number of women administrators in kinesiology, along with several colleagues. She also proposed a budget model for classroom maintenance that was adopted by the University of Wisconsin.
Andrews, along with the two other candidates, Carlo Montemagno and Steven Angle will appear on campus for open-candidate forums today, tomorrow and Wednesday of this week.
This week, Andrews and the other candidates will make appearances at various spots around campus to speak to students and faculty about various topics concerning Cal Poly. A public forum to introduce the candidates will be held daily from 4:10 to 5:30 p.m. in the Advanced Technologies Laboratories.
She will be unavailable for comments until the campus tour, said Stacia Momburg, a Cal Poly public relations official.
The first of several daily forums will be the Associated Students Inc.’s student open forum. It will take place at Chumash Auditorium tomorrow from 10:50 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The entire schedule for the candidates can be found online.
The Cal State University Board of Trustees is expected to name the new president in early June.
Applied to URI, Missouri State and now Cal Poly? Seems Dr. Andrews doesn’t like working at Boise State.
A closer look at her background shows she has neither the academic credentials or pedigree to help Cal Poly continue its climb. As such, her hire will hurt the university.
At its core, Cal Poly is an engineering and agriculture university. Therefore, any candidate to be considered should have a modicum of relevant experience in either or both areas. This candidate does not. This means she lacks a working knowledge of the academic community associated with both as well as contacts within the two key industries that are essential to California’s economic health.
The search committee should hire a candidate similar to UC Davis’ new chancellor, Linda Katehi. Across the board she has an outstanding background and will help the university, its faculty and students. Poly needs the same.
http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/about/bio.html
Good points John, however, as you likely know, perceived academic quality and the value of one’s degree (upon graduation) are directly related to the credentials of a university’s faculty, research and the selectivity of the students admitted. Without question, Cal Poly’s engineering, business, architecture and ag programs have cast a positive light on every other area of the university. This has elevated the lesser known programs and helped them attract better and better students and faculty.
This strength should not be jeopardized.
Beyond the halo effect, central to the new hire should be which candidates best meets the needs of the nation, the state and its taxpayers. As President Obama and many other elected officials and academics have repeatedly stated, the US must produce top flight science and engineering graduates if the American quality of life is to be sustained and if the state is to remain competitive on the world stage.
While it’s nice that a candidate interacts with the existing students and faculty, in reality such thinking is from another time and another paradigm when state coffers were full and budgets for higher education abundant.
Today, a university president is as much a fundraiser in the private and public sector as an academic administrator. Therefore, the new president of Cal Poly should have the credentials/credibility and the key academic, industry and political contacts necessary to ensure the continued quality of the Cal Poly academic experience.
While it’s certain Dr. Andrews is a quality individual, her hire will put Cal Poly back five years because she’ll have to learn a tremendous amount just to come up to speed. This is somethng the state and the university can’t afford.
She has no academic experience in the State of California’s higher education infrastructure. The other two candidates do (UCLA, UCI and UCR) and their experience is fairly extensive which will will pay dividends as budgets and resources are negotiated and distributed.
She has no industry contacts in the state especially in the California’s two largest industries (engineering-high tech and Ag) which also happen to be Cal Poly’s two biggest areas of specialization. Due to this she’ll be required to forge new relationships in hopes of securing industry funding to supplement that earmarked for Cal Poly’s various colleges.
She has no political contacts in the state to help massage budgets in Cal Poly’s favor during a time of shrinking revenues. Again, the timing is not good for climbing a steep learning curve.
Now is not the time for making political statements or to be politically correct. The harsh reality is a more seasoned player is required if Cal Poly is to maintain its reputation, continue its upward trajectory and serve the state and its taxpayers to the best of its ability.
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