A Deeper Dive

President Rodríguez Begins Listening Tour of  Schools and Colleges

President Havidán Rodríguez meets with School of Business faculty Monday, the first day of his listening tour that will take him to all schools and colleges and selected administrative units. (Photo by Mark Schmidt)

ALBANY, N.Y, (Oct. 3, 2017) — President Havidán Rodríguez began a series of three-hour visits to each of UAlbany’s schools and colleges Monday, meeting with deans, students, faculty and staff of the School of Business and the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. Rodríguez is scheduling similar meetings with administrative divisions.

The visits are part of a listening tour of all three campuses, to learn more about the assets of the University and to meet with people all across the campus community.

“I wanted to be able to take a deep dive with each of our schools, colleges and divisions to gain a full picture of what is happening across the University,” Rodríguez said. “These conversations are intended to help us gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities at UAlbany and to engage our community in building a plan focused on growth, innovation and excellence at this great institution.”

CEHC Dean Robert Griffin Jr. was clearly pleased with the visit and the time spent at the college, which put together an introduction to CEHC, including an explanation of the founding vision and information on student-centric programs, student and faculty engagement, and future opportunities.

“The president took three hours of his day to spend time with CEHC,” Griffin said. “It provided our students, faculty and staff time to meet, talk and connect with the president about the opportunities and challenges of CEHC and UAlbany. It’s a credit to Dr. Rodríguez that he is taking so much time to hold this type of listening tour. He obviously cares deeply about the CEHC family and will help us continue to build a world-class College and University.”

The visit included a student and faculty forum, and offered some insight into CEHC’s unique problem: Its rapid growth. While the new college anticipated having about 70 majors and minors by this fall semester, there are now 394 majors and hundreds more minors and intended majors.

On to Business

Rodríguez also met with the academic leadership of the School of Business, Dean Hany Shawky, Associate Dean Suraj Commuri and the chairs of the accounting, finance, marketing, business analytics, digital forensics and management departments.

He also met with advisement personnel and a small group of School of Business seniors, and completed his afternoon in a full meeting with the School’s faculty and staff, providing his outlook on UAlbany and answering questions.

Interim Dean Hany Shawky said it was a pleasure to host Rodríguez. “He has a positive outlook and is deliberate in the goals and objectives the University needs to pursue,” Shawky said. “I am happy that the School of Business had an opportunity to display our excellence in teaching, research, public engagement and student success.”

Students were also impressed that Rodríguez took the time to visit.

"President Rodríguez was very receptive of the student's comments and experiences, said Digital Forensics student Elisabeth Dubois ’18. “I found it enlightening to be able to share my experiences and build upon what the Business School and the Digital Forensics program has offered me.”

"It is truly special to see President Rodríguez taking the time to learn more about each school that we have here at the University,” said accounting student Kirk Georgantonis ‘18. “It is even more special that he took the time to talk with students, to hear about our experiences, and to see what the University can improve on in the future."

Today Rodríguez is scheduled to visit the College of Arts and Sciences, and over the next several weeks he plans to visit the rest of UAlbany’s nine schools and colleges, as well as Undergraduate Education, Graduate Education, the libraries and select administrative units.

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