BlackboardDean Ching-Jen Chen Announces His Retirement
Ching-Jen Chen has formally announced his retirement as Dean of the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering after 19 years of service.
Then professor and chair of the mechanical engineering department at University of Iowa, Dr. Chen came to the College in 1992 to become the third dean of the joint university college since its creation in 1982. Dean Chen noted in his April 2007 preface to the College's 25th anniversary book documenting the history of the College, "The college was an experiment that had never been tried before: a collaboration between a research-1 university and a historically black college that was focused mainly on undergraduate education. Many felt that such a marriage was doomed to failure, but the perseverance of a group of dedicated individuals who had faith in its mission has prevailed."1
And succeed it has. Michael Baker, a 1990 graduate of the electrical engineering department, put it best about Dean Chen's attitude toward the challenge that was before him in 1992, "You rarely meet someone so committed to a purpose as he is. It is more than just a job for him, and it is a very difficult job."2 Under Dean Chen's guidance the college has navigated myriad challenges arising from the uniqueness of a joint university program, which had never before been attempted anywhere. There were a lot of growing pains but through the difficulties came significant growth in the areas essential to the success of an academic institution: increased enrollment, facility expansion, diversity in program offerings and degrees, a cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary faculty and exploding research expenditures.
In his memo announcing his retirement to his faculty and staff, Dean Chen recounts these successes, "I am very proud of the accomplishments of the FAMU-FSU engineering faculty and staff. During my tenure as Dean, the faculty and staff have transformed the college of engineering from primarily granting undergraduate degrees to a balanced Bachelor, Master and Doctoral degree granting college (in the last three years approximately 300 BS, 50 MS and 25 PhD degrees annually). The college is now highly ranked and recognized as one of the top five producers of BS minority engineers in the nation. Additionally, the faculty has played a major role in the attainment of high quality graduate programs as rated in recent national surveys such as ASEE and NRC. Nationally recognized research centers are operating well and research expenditures are at the highest level."
Even with the addition of 96,000 square feet with the opening of Building II in the fall of 1998, the College was still without an auditorium and lecture hall, an adequate library, a contemporary information center, and enough offices and research space to accommodate expanding programs and a growing faculty. In this his last year Dean Chen plans to stay actively involved in the progress of the third engineering building design as well as the technology integration effort, through August 5, advocating tirelessly for those much needed improvements as a lasting legacy of his tenure as Dean.
- "A History of the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering 1982-2007", Copyright 2007 by the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering, Sentry Press, Tallahassee, FL USA
- "A History of the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering 1982-2007", p. 57
