Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 20, 1990                   TAG: 9003202455
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

TECH PICKS ENGINEERING DEAN

G. Wayne Clough, 48, succeeds Paul Torgersen, who is returning to full-time teaching in the industrial engineering department after 20 years as dean. The appointment is effective July 1.

Provost E. Fred Carlisle called Clough "a man of remarkable achievements" whose record as a teacher and researcher have made him "known nationally and internationally as a real leader in civil engineering."

The 48-year-old specialist in geotechnical engineering - "anything that has to do with civil engineering and the earth," Clough said - was chosen from four finalists, one of whom was William Stephenson, Tech's associate dean for research and graduate programs.

Clough said he has already told the college's department heads that his new $125,000-a-year post "is a 10-year type of job." More than 50 engineers from across the country applied for the deanship, officials said.

The dean-elect acknowledged Monday that following Torgersen, who's widely credited with enlarging and enhancing the 6,200-student college, will at the same time be a challenge and an opportunity.

"Paul was dean for 20 years and he represents a certain generation, if you will, that accomplished things in engineering," Clough said. "I'm part of a new generation that wants to excel in research funding."

Where Torgersen focused on what Clough called "the undergraduate side of the house," Clough said he wanted to direct more attention to graduate programs, which traditionally have been overseen by department heads.

"Undergraduate education is something we need to . . . be committed to. It doesn't require a lot of resources to do that," he said, echoing comments often repeated by Carlisle and President James McComas.

"It certainly requires a commitment of the faculty," he continued. "On the undergraduate side . . . I think it's important to put the human face on education."

But several years spent teaching at Stanford University taught Clough the danger of overemphasizing graduate programs, he said, where officials spent more than three years trying to correct the imbalance.

Citing a recent survey in U.S. News & World-Report that rated Tech's graduate engineering program 22nd in the country but 32nd in resources, Clough said he intends to press university officials to build the planned $25 million architecture-engineering complex.

More broadly, he vowed to push for more resources - more faculty positions and more space for classrooms, offices and research. And, instead of emphasizing enrollment growth, Clough said he intends to concentrate on enhancing the reputation of Tech's undergraduate and graduate programs.

Clough, who received his doctorate from the University of California-Berkeley, taught at Stanford and Duke University before coming to Tech in 1982. He is directing a National Science Foundation-sponsored study of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.