The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will have a new dean at its Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology.
UALR Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Zulma Toro said Monday that Lawrence Whitman will become the college's dean July 1. He will make $214,000 annually.
Whitman is a former associate dean of the College of Engineering at Wichita State University, where he helped boost undergraduate enrollment by more than 35 percent, according to a news release. In that role, he also helped increase the graduation rate by 20 percent in that Kansas college, the news release states.
"Dr. Whitman is the ideal choice for this position because of his experience in working together with faculty to establish partnerships between the college and industry," Toro said in the news release. "This collaborative approach is what industry has told us they need to move Arkansas's economy forward."
Whitman, who received a doctorate degree in industrial engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, will become the UALR college's third dean. He has also worked as a researcher at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute and as an engineer at Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, the news release states.
He is replacing Eric Sandgren, who stepped down from the position in December to teach.
Whitman will come in at a time when the university is beginning final stages of restructuring its academic programs. That college, which enrolls on average 9 percent of the university's 11,645 students, specifically is tasked with cutting its budget by $300,000.
The college leader will also put more of engineering programs online, expand partnerships with area employers and consolidate courses.
Metro on 05/19/2015