• Tom Vellner (COM’13)

    Tom Vellner (COM’13) Profile

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There are 9 comments on Full Professorships Awarded to 17 Faculty

    1. The article specifically says 17 professors from the Charles River Campus.

      From what I understand, the nature of professorships and faculty appointments at the Med Campus is run very differently from the Charles River Campus.

  1. I’m happy to report that several of these new full professors are also appointed faculty in the Engineering Divisions. Specifically, Enrico Bellotti, Siddharth Ramachandran, and Joyce Wong are all Professors of Materials Science & Engineering in addition to their departmental appointments; and Ari Trachtenberg is affiliated faculty in Systems Engineering. Congratulations to all! For more information about the Engineering Divisions, please see our websites. Division of Systems Engineering: http://www.bu.edu/se and Division of Materials Science & Engineering: http://www.bu.edu/mse

  2. First, congrats to all these newly minted full professors! Clearly this is a deserving group, and all members of the BU community should be proud to be associated with their distinguished accomplishments.

    That said, such announcements risk sounding like pro forma PR when they fail to acknowledge the context in which these promotions are taking place. Does this year’s crop of tenure awards demonstrate that BU is making progress relative to its own strategic plan goals and to its peers?

    The NY Times recently reported that the number of academics on the tenure-track nationwide is now just 24% (i.e., 76% are not) and that this is “weakening the academic enterprise”. The most recent statistic I could find for BU was 70% (in 2005). http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/04/17/universities_rely_on_adjunct_professors_to_do_most_of_the_teaching/

    Anthropologist Sarah Kendzior calls this worsening trend a “crisis” too few are willing to discuss.
    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/20134119156459616.html

    As a parent of a BU undergrad, I need to be reassured that the university is managing its human capital equitably and sustainably… not just taking advantage of us by buying low and selling high.

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