The Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering held a “Dinner With the Deans” banquet Wednesday night on the Tempe campus, uniting engineering students and faculty as part of national “E Week” to celebrate engineering.
About 100 students, faculty and program directors ate and mingled together in the Carson Ballroom in Old Main as part of the school’s efforts to increase interest in engineering and technology careers, according to the tenets of “E Week,” organized by the National Engineers Week Foundation.
Executive dean Paul C. Johnson said he was pleased to see nearly twice as many students in attendance compared to last year’s dinner.
“We want students to feel part of the culture, and we try to create an environment for them to have an ongoing dialogue with us,” Johnson said.
The Fulton Schools of Engineering Student Council organized the dinner, and Student Council President Michael Bouey said having students and faculty dine together was an effort to humanize the faculty and encourage interaction.
“We want to foster a Fulton community,” he said.
Mechanical engineering freshman Matt Carroll said he appreciated both.
“I like that the deans make an effort to talk with students,” Carroll said.
Bouey said last year’s surcharge and school reorganization prompted greater student interaction.
“The deans want students to know about big changes,” he said. “The program fees helped to achieve something above and beyond what could be accomplished with tuition.”
Despite making a budget reduction of about $10 million within 12 months, the school was proud to have avoided cutting any programs, Johnson said.
Everyone is aware of the financial difficulties facing the state and the University, so the school wants to keep students informed about where their money is going, he said.
“Whatever the kids want to know, we’ll tell them,” Johnson said.
A panel of deans and program directors answered student questions about new program developments, ranging from a modular curriculum to a new class-scheduling scheme.
Kyle Squires, director of the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering, discussed the hiring of a new aeronautics lecturer and also expressed the school’s desire to expand into distributive systems, like unmanned aircrafts.
Aerospace junior Jessica Kaminski said she was excited by the expansion of her concentration.
“It’s nice to talk directly with the chair of your school,” she said.
Reach the reporter at chase.kamp@asu.edu
