Professor Yaw D. Yeboah has been appointed the dean of the Florida A&M and Florida State College of Engineering. Many students are impressed with his accomplishments and hope Yeboah’s arrival will bring change.
FAMU students hope Yeboah will help them feel included instead of as outsiders. According to students from FAMU, they are last to be added to class rosters and are unable to communicate with professors because they don’t have an FSU email account. Their rattler cards don’t work at the school, so they have to use guest cards or a FSU student card to gain access to the building.
Djeri Harris, a third-year chemical engineering student from Cincinnati, said she wants the school to be proportionate. “It’s kind of lopsided over here if he could make the FAMU side even that would be great,” said Harris.
In addition, students say they would like to have more professors in each of the programs.
Louisny Dufresne, a fourth-year electrical engineering student from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said the faculty could use a break. “I hope the new dean will hire more professors for the electrical engineering program, because we’re really limited and the professors seem a little over worked,” said Dufresne.
Students and faculty are excited to meet the newly appointed dean and are optimistic he will implement change.
Choosing Yeboah was not an easy task. Assistant Dean of Industry and Research Braketta Ritzenthaler said the search committee was looking for a candidate who could grow the college to the next level, expand the faculty and students into more research, and have a vision on how to grow the current programs.
After five months, the search committee chose Yeboah as the successor for Ching-Jen “Marty” Chen, former College of Engineering dean.
Yeboah has more than 10 years of experience and was one of the first student to graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with four degrees in four years.
He has bachelor’s degrees in management, chemistry and chemical engineering, and a master’s degree in chemical engineering practice. He also earned a doctorate in chemical engineering in 1979. Yeboah will start July 1 and is excited.
“I look forward to joining the FAMU-FSU college of engineering family, and to continuing the tradition of excellence by upholding the motto ‘Quality, Growth and Diversity,'” Yeboah said.