SEAS students eat up 'dinner with a dean'

Undergraduate Engineering Dean John Vohs answered questions at a SCUE dinner last night. How will the University help bioengineers find jobs? How will the Computer Science Department continue to attract high-quality professors when the job market in private industry is so lucrative? How does an Engineering senior balance academics and job searches? John Vohs, the undergraduate dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, tried to answer these and other questions over dinner with 15 budding engineers at the Faculty Club last night. The Student Committee on Undergraduate Education sponsored the forum as part of its "Dinner with the Deans" program. "SCUE sees this as a wonderful opportunity to increase communication between undergraduates and the dean responsible for each student's education," said College junior Jason Schaechter, a SCUE member who helped organize the event. Engineering junior Sarah Winnacker said she worried that the school's emphasis on theory over specifics would make it more difficult for graduates to compete for jobs. "Clearly you need a balance between the two. You don't want too much theory or too much application," Vohs replied. He continued by stating that specific knowledge can be useful in the short run, but, in the long run, a good theoretical background is indispensable. When asked about the difficulties of hiring Computer Science faculty, Vohs admitted that "the job market is extremely strong" but that the University has still been able to hire highly competent professors. Cathy La Rocco, an Engineering junior, asked Vohs how students should balance their studies with the job hunt. "There is clearly a difficult balance to be drawn there," Vohs responded, adding that students should limit time to their most desirable job prospects. On the subject of bioengineering job prospects, Vohs said the University was trying to get more recruiters on campus. Engineering senior Chris Wallgren wondered about whether academics were being ignored in favor of new construction projects. "They've built a lot of nice malls, [but] we've lost three or four deans, a provost," he said. Vohs pointed to the recently implemented college house system -- which provides more academic services in residences -- as an example of an academic development and noted that deans tend to move on to other positions toward the eighth or ninth year of their terms. Many students said they enjoyed the intimate discussion. Winnacker suggested that the concept could extend beyond dinner with just the deans. "I think that faculty would be open to ideas presented in forums like this one," she suggested. On Monday SCUE is sponsoring a dinner with Wharton Undergraduate Dean Richard Herring. College students will have the opportunity to dine with their dean, Richard Beeman, next month.

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