Junette Reyes/Staff Writer
The second meeting of Dean Douglas Robertson’s Undergraduate Education Leadership Advisory Board will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 19, this is also the second in the series of Dean’s Dialogue.
The EDU-LAB is an advisory board for undergraduate education that focuses on topics of students’ success across all of the colleges and schools at FIU.
The Dean’s Dialogue will explore the theme of “Jobs and Opportunities: Building Your World Sustainably.”
The board members presenting include Robert Lepore of Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Operations and Maintenance, Timothy Kuebler of Titan Cement America, and Scott McIntyre of Solar Energy Management.
Respondents from the University include Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing Amir Mirmiran, Dean of the College of Business David Klock and Professor of the College of Architecture and the Arts, Marilys Nepomechie.
“We have created an advisory board for Undergraduate Education which invites community leaders to participate as board members to help give us advice on good directions to go, particularly from the point of view of employers,” said Robertson.
The Dean’s Dialogue follows fall and spring board meetings as an “intellectual event,” according to Robertson, that board members can participate in after conducting the business of the EDU-LAB in order to give insight of their particular field to the audience of students, faculty and staff.
Faculty members are chosen as panelists to respond to these presentations.
The Dean’s Dialogue is also meant to give the audience members – which include students, faculty, and staff – insight to the board members’ specific fields since they give presentations on the theme using their experience. For example, the inaugural presentation of the Dean’s Dialogue explored the theme of “Future Now: Innovations in Healthcare, Technology and Training,” with MorseLife, a health care provider for seniors, and additional Board members having presented on the topic.
The theme itself is typically chosen by the ability to group several board members together each time.
According to Robertson, generating awareness and interest amongst the students is important for the EDU-LAB.
“We try to get as many students as we can to come because there is a particular interest with the board members in terms of helping to build their future employees, if you will, by creating internship and job opportunities for students,” said Robertson. “Students are very busy, of course, and there is a lot of competition for their time, but it helps if you’re doing an event that is explicitly sort of designed for their success, particularly in terms of giving internships and jobs.”
Student involvement will go beyond the audience in this upcoming event. The hour between the EDU-LAB meeting and the Dean’s Dialogue will exhibit a poster session in which the top undergraduate researchers will have their work featured for the Board members.
“We try to select undergraduates who are doing research in areas that are of interest to the board members, again trying to make that link between employers and students,” said Robertson.
Board members will also have tables set up so that students can approach them afterwards to learn more about any possible opportunities.
EDU-LAB members will commence the board meeting at 2 p.m. and it will last until 4 p.m. The poster session will take place after the meeting in the lobby outside the Graham Center Ballroom, followed by the Dean’s Dialogue from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Graham Center Ballroom East; President Mark B. Rosenberg is slated to open the Dean’s Dialogue.
junette.reyes@fiusm.com
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