Trustees ratify appointments; approve degree program and academic name changes
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Saturday (Dec. 17) ratified the appointment of one distinguished professor and two named professors and approved a bachelor of arts with a major in history program at Purdue University North Central.
Trustees also approved name changes for two academic units at the West Lafayette campus and one at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
The board ratified P. Christopher Earley as the James Brooke Henderson Professor of Management, Robert V. Kail as Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences and James Mullins as the Esther Ellis Norton Professor of Library Science.
P. Christopher Earley
Earley has been dean of the Krannert School of Management since Nov. 1. He came to Purdue from the University of Connecticut School of Business, where he had been dean since January 2008.
Prior to that, he was dean of the National University of Singapore Business School, chair of organizational behavior at London Business School in England and Randall L. Tobias Chair of Global Leadership at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.
His academic interests include cross-cultural and international aspects of organizations. He has held visiting professorships at universities in China, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic and Israel. He also has taught executives and consulted for companies in Europe and Asia, including Nestle, Cisco Systems Inc., Samsung, General Motors, Unilever, BAE Systems, Mercury Asset Management Corp., and Eli Lilly and Co.
Earley is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Academy of Management. He also is author or co-author of 10 books and more than 100 articles and book chapters exploring issues ranging from motivation and leadership to global teams.
Earley received his bachelor's degree from Knox College and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois.
Robert V. Kail
Kail has been a faculty member in Purdue's Department of Psychological Sciences since 1979. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.
His research focus is cognitive development, particularly children's memory and the speed and efficiency of cognitive processing. His teaching interests are in child and developmental psychology, cognitive development and statistics.
Kail has 65 publications in refereed journals, and he has written five textbooks. He is editor of Psychological Science and the incoming editor of Child Development Perspectives. Previously he served as editor of Advances in Child Development and Behavior and the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
A visiting professor at the University of York in 2010, he was named the Sesquicentennial Distinguished Alumnus in Psychology at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Kail received his bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan.
James L. Mullins
Mullins has been dean of Libraries and professor of library science at Purdue since 2004. Before that he was associate director for administration at MIT Libraries, and prior to MIT was university librarian at Villanova University. He also held administrative positions at Indiana University while serving as a part-time faculty member in the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science.
At Purdue, Mullins has helped create a vision for the Purdue Libraries to meet the challenge of the 21st century by redefining the role of Libraries and its faculty (librarians), integrating them more into the university's instruction and discovery efforts. He was instrumental in creating the Distributed Data Curation Center at Purdue, which has secured grants to study data management.
Mullins just completed an elected term on the board of directors of the Association of Research Libraries and is currently on the board of directors of the Center for Research Libraries. He also serves on the Science and Technology Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and as a member of the board of directors of the International Association of Scientific and Technological University Libraries. He is on the editorial board of College and Research Libraries, the official scholarly publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries. He has contributed to professional literature through his research and has given numerous national and international presentations.
He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Iowa and his doctorate from Indiana University.
In other business, trustees approved a bachelor of arts in history program for Purdue University North Central. The degree will prepare graduates for entry into a wide variety of employment fields, said Timothy D. Sands, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost.
Jobs that are typical for undergraduate degree recipients include teaching, training and development specialists, lawyers, sales representatives, and management specialists, said Sands, who also is Purdue's Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering.
He said no new state funding is needed for the program, which is scheduled to begin in the fall 2012 semester, subject to approval from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
Trustees also voted to change the name of Purdue's School of Veterinary Medicine to the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, effective spring semester 2012.
"The name more accurately reflects the size and scope of the programs within the School of Veterinary Medicine," said Willie M. Reed, the school's dean. "In addition to the doctorate of veterinary medicine program, we now offer the baccalaureate degree and the associate degree in veterinary technology. We also offer the master of science and Ph.D. degrees in a number of biomedical disciplines. The change would be more in line with the other major units on campus and reduce confusion by some who mistakenly believe that our school is part of another Purdue college.
"Also, college is used in all but five of the 28 U.S. veterinary institutions. This will help ensure an accurate understanding of our mission."
Another name change trustees approved is for the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, which, beginning Jan. 1, will be known as the School of Languages and Cultures. It is housed in the College of Liberal Arts.
Sands said there are three reasons for the change.
"First, the term 'foreign' is not appropriate for a university that is increasingly global in impact and perspective," he said. "Second, the word 'department' no longer accurately reflects foreign languages and literatures in terms of scope and structure. Third, most language units have stressed the cultural studies of the respective societies. Languages and cultures more effectively capture the diversity of what the school offers."
Trustees also voted to change the name of the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering Technology and Information Systems and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Beginning in fall 2012, it will be called the Department of Computer, Electrical and Information Technology.
Max Yen, dean of the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science, said the associate's and bachelor's degrees in information systems were removed as part of a restructuring. The new name better reflects the department's programs.
Writer: Greg McClure, 765-496-9711, gmcclure@purdue.edu
Sources: Timothy Sands, 765-494-9709, tsands@purdue.edu
P. Christopher Earley, 765-494-4366, pcearley@purdue.edu
Robert V. Kail, 765-494-6921, rkail@purdue.edu
James L. Mullins, 765-494-2900, jmullins@purdue.edu
Willie M. Reed, 765-494-7608, wreed@purdue.edu
S.C. Max Yen, dean of the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, 260-481-6839, yens@ipfw.edu