Q&A with new A&S Dean Tom Apple

Tom Apple, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

4:20 p.m., June 30, 2005--Tom Apple officially becomes dean of UD’s College of Arts and Sciences on Friday, July 1. Unofficially, Apple has been at UD for the past month preparing for the challenges ahead.

The new dean came to UD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., where he was vice provost for administration, dean of graduate education and professor of chemistry. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology from Pennsylvania State University in 1976, and he received his doctorate in physical chemistry from UD in 1982. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Iowa State University from 1981-83. His wife, Anne, also is a UD alum.

Recently, UDaily sat down with Apple to discuss his evolution from a doctoral student at UD and professor of chemistry known for his research on zeolite and polymeric materials into a college administrator.

What do you see as your chief responsibilities as dean?

We are here because of the students, and we have to make sure that we’re giving our students a high-quality education. That means excellence in the classroom and providing great opportunities for research.

I personally was really transformed by my time here. It’s why I feel passionate about the University of Delaware. When I came here to go to graduate school, I really didn’t have a clear path. I changed here. I got excited about what I was doing. I worked with a fellow who was a young assistant professor just starting out when I came here--Cecil Dybowski [professor of chemistry and biochemistry], who’s still here.

And, I had some great teachers, including Doug Ridge, Tom Brill and [the late] Joe Noggle, in particular. They changed my life. I got really excited about chemistry.

Of course, I also met my wife here. She was a chemistry graduate student at the time.

So, for me, Delaware was a transformational experience, and that’s why I’d like to make sure that we transform our students, that we do something that excites them and makes them passionate about something. I’d like to see that happen for every student who comes here. The College of Arts and Sciences plays a part in the education of every student who comes to the University. There isn’t a single student who comes here who doesn't take some classes in our college. And, of course, about half of UD students major in one of the fields in Arts and Sciences. So, we have an especially important assignment.

Has the campus changed much since you were a student here?

The thing I noticed most, that hits you as soon as you step on campus, is the attitude. There’s a confidence, an optimism and a can-do attitude that I noticed when I came back here six months ago. The campus is more beautiful now, and I think academically, the University has grown tremendously. People who live here might take it for granted, but you don’t find this at every university.

Do you have any idea what’s caused this change?

There are probably many factors involved. You have to figure there’s good leadership. The University knows where it’s going. It’s decided to focus on certain things, and when people know where they’re expected to go, they tend to get there.

One of the really healthy things that we do at UD is academic program reviews, where we bring in experts in various areas to look at our programs. I’ve been reading through a lot of those reviews, and I realize that we have programs here that are ranked among just a handful of schools at the very top.

How did you find yourself moving from teaching and research into administration?

Actually, it started when I was at Rensselaer in the mid-‘90s. I was in the chemistry department there, and the department chair left to take a position elsewhere. There were faculty meetings then and meetings with the dean, and the consensus was that I might be a good candidate for department chair. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be chair, but the dean was very persuasive. And, that was my first step into administration. I found that as a department chair, I had opportunities to really effect some changes. The impact of what you do, I think, grows as you move into administration. That’s what I like about it.

As a group, faculty are typically very bright individuals and many of them run their research programs much like entrepreneurs, so there’s often a tradeoff between what’s best for the individual faculty member and the rest of the group at large. One of the challenges of academic administration is getting everyone to pull together. I like trying to do that, trying to develop consensus.

That was the start of it. As a department chair, I got to recruit young and senior faculty, as well, until it got to the point where I had hired a third of the department. There was mentoring involved to be sure that those who were hired did well. I really enjoyed all of that.

Then we reconfigured our graduate program and made a strong graduate dean position, which I was chosen to fill after a search. I enjoyed that, as well, because I was in that position during a time that we were really transforming Rensselaer. During the time I held that position, our research volume went from roughly $40 million to $100 million in external funding with a faculty of about 350. So that was a big change from about $100,000 in research funding per faculty member a year to about $250,000 per faculty member.

It was an exciting time to be heading up the graduate school.

How did you hear about the opening at UD?

Actually, I heard about it by being nominated. I was notified I had been nominated in late November or early December, and I came to campus in mid-January and met with the search committee. And, then I was brought back three or four weeks later, in February, met with a wider group of people and addressed the college in general in a large auditorium about some of my goals and my feelings about what a College of Arts and Sciences is all about.

What were some of the goals that you outlined?

As I mentioned earlier, I’d like to provide a real transformational experience for every student who comes through the college. I’d also like to see us recruit, retain and mentor the best faculty, because I think it all starts with the faculty. To have a great university, you have to have a great faculty, so getting our top choices in faculty and making sure that those we hire thrive--that we retain and mentor them--that’s critically important.

Why are top-flight faculty members so important?

Having great faculty attracts great students. When you have great programs, you get the best students coming into those programs, which, in turn, makes the programs better. A lot of the excellence in the classroom and in the laboratory and in creative work comes about by having the best people there. When you bring in students with higher qualifications, you raise the general level. For example, you can teach a class at a higher level and expect more of the students. You get more good discussions going in the classroom and in the laboratory. And, that then attracts better students when they see and hear about all the great things we’re doing here.

Quality spirals. But, the start of all of that is getting the best possible faculty and keeping them.

One of President Roselle’s great achievements has been making sure that faculty salaries remain in the upper quartile. That’s a real strong attracter of faculty, and it helps retain them, as well.

That’s really the heart of it. Great faculty create great, compelling programs that attract the best students.

Are there any major challenges that you foresee in the College of Arts and Sciences?

Nothing’s broken. I really think the college is good shape. We always want to improve, of course, but we don’t need a big overhaul or anything like that. We have a lot of strong departments.

For me, the greatest challenge is the sheer size of the college. It’s such a large, diverse college that the problems and challenges in an area like art or art history are completely different from those in an area like physics, which are also much different from those in an area like sociology. So in each area there are different challenges.

But we are always in competition with other schools that are trying to recruit the same students and the same faculty. That’s a constant. And, as we improve, all we do is change the names of our competitors. They will always be there, whether they are Penn State, Maryland or Harvard. We have quite a few programs that are among the best in world, and so our competitors really are world-class in many areas.

We ought to strive to be leaders in those things that we choose to do. I’ve always felt that having some focus on where you are going is a good thing. So, rather than expecting individual departments to be all things to all people, I think you have to pick your battles and focus your strengths so that you can be among the best programs in the world in clearly defined areas. That’s how you attract the best faculty and students to particular programs.

What other priorities do you have as dean?

Another important responsibility of mine is to garner resources for the college and get our name out to those who care most about us and try to encourage their support. We want to try to keep our costs to students as low as possible, and to be able to provide them with an affordable, quality education, it helps to get private resources for support for all sorts of things. We need benefactors to support scholarships for students, to support some research areas, to support our arts and a number of other things.

From the academic side of the house, it’s really a matter of getting potential donors together with those people who are passionate about what they’re doing. We need to inform people about what we’re doing and then ask them to help us achieve our goals.

Article by Larry Elveru
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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