Provost candidate discusses student success during forum

February 15, 2016 | Events, News, UToday
By Meghan Cunningham



The second of four finalists for the position of provost and executive vice president for academic affairs held open forums Friday to engage with The University of Toledo faculty, staff and students.

Dr. Andrew Hsu, dean of the College of Engineering at San Jose State University, shared his career experience and spoke about his passion for helping underprivileged students during each of his forums on Main Campus and Health Science Campus.

Hsu

Hsu

“Because of when a bookish kid lost five years in the fields, I developed this passion for education, and I also developed a passion for helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said. “And I understand this university has 44 percent of its students who are Pell Grant-eligible and from underprivileged family backgrounds. Those are the students I’ve been working with for the last 15 years. Those are the types of universities that I enjoy working at and, as a result, I said yes I’m going to put my application in for this particular job.”

The role of the provost, Hsu said, is to support the deans and faculty members in their efforts to help students succeed and pursue research opportunities. He also spoke about the importance of prioritizing resources for strategic investment to help the institution grow. He answered questions about the role of the humanities and the arts, recruiting expert faculty, and his experience with mentorship programs.

Hsu’s Ohio connections include serving as a research engineer, or as he likes to say a “rocket scientist,” at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and as associate vice president for research and dean of the graduate school at Wright State University in Dayton prior to joining San Jose State University. He also spent a year at Ohio State University as an American Council on Education Fellow.

During his career, Hsu also was a staff scientist at Rolls-Royce North America and a faculty member at the University of Miami and Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

He has a bachelor’s degree from the North China Institute for Hydraulic and Hydropower Engineering, a master’s degree in hydraulic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and a master’s degree and PhD in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

For more information about the provost search and upcoming candidate forums, visit utoledo.edu/offices/provost/provostsearch.

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