Q&A with Dr. Craig Menzemer, Interim Dean of The University of Akron’s College of Engineering
You’ve been with UA since 1996. What initially drew you to the College of Engineering? What keeps you here?
I spent nearly 14 years in industry prior to joining the College of Engineering at The University of Akron. Training customers and working with young engineers on the staff was part of my job and, as time went on, became my favorite part and an area where I demonstrated my strengths as an educator. Extensive amounts of travel to customer sites kept me away from home for days at a time when my children were young. Being able to teach, mentor, and work on engineering problems of personal interest led to making a change in careers.
What is your leadership philosophy?
Much has been written the last few years on leadership styles and philosophies. From my own upbringing and work experience, it’s clear that showing others respect, setting clear direction, having reasonable expectations, being willing to get your hands dirty, owning up to responsibility, operating as a team and being able to make difficult decisions are necessary for effective leadership.
What challenges and opportunities do you see within the College of Engineering?
This is an interesting question. What’s important to the current generation — and what industry is looking for in new hires—is different than in years past. Though we are working in a growing, thriving industry, it’s still competitive out there. Students need a leg up when they graduate, and that’s what we give them at UA. We are constantly working on developing relationships with industry professionals so we can add to our portfolio of co-op education and placement opportunities for our students. Students with co-ops are much more likely to get placed in a permanent position when they graduate.
STEM education continues to be a buzzword these days and is shining a positive spotlight on the engineering industry. We are working with K-12 community partners to ensure that our students are set up for success in the College of Engineering and in their professional careers. This is one of the reasons we decided to launch a summer math bridge program in 2019, so incoming freshman could take college pre-calc or calculus and be on track for their major.
We are constantly being challenged to widen our applicant pool and expand into more areas to recruit incoming freshman. Our graduates are highly sought after, exceptionally bright engineers and we want to ensure that as many prospective students as possible are aware of The University of Akron’s College of Engineering. By going out into new communities, as we are currently doing, we can communicate the benefits of UA to students who may not have considered moving to Akron as it’s not your traditional college town. There’s so much to offer in the Akron community, on the UA campus, and within the college. Our marketing and recruitment staff are on the ground, visiting high schools, talking to parents, and harnessing the power of digital media to increase awareness of our outstanding engineering programs.
We’ve also got an eye on recruiting diverse faculty and students to our engineering college. For example, we are ramping up our recruitment and retention efforts for women engineers, who historically have made up 16% of total engineers industry wide. Our Women in Engineering Program is consistently producing events targeting middle and high school girls where they get to build cool things, conduct experiments, and learn about a career in engineering from the mouths of UA students and industry professionals.
What does a Dean do?
In essence, the Dean is the faculty, staff and contract professional’s representative for the College, both to other internal units, the administration of UA and external constituents and partners. The Dean is typically a faculty member and may teach and have a research focus. Above all, the Dean has to be willing to be a catalyst for setting direction for the College and be willing to serve the students.
Will you be taking on the position of permanent dean?
This will depend on a number of things, including whether the College wants me to continue, whether UA wants me to continue, and whether my family is amenable.
The number of excellent four-year schools in Ohio often proves challenging for universities when it comes to recruiting prospective students. Why should students choose UA?
The UA College of Engineering cares about its students and provides many unique opportunities, not all of which are found in other universities. Just think about what we offer: personal advising, active tutoring programs, learning communities, student chapters of professional national organizations, a wide variety of design teams, a second to none cooperative education and placement program, caring faculty and staff, research opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students, support programs for underrepresented students, superb facilities, and the list goes on.
What qualities make for a great future engineer?
An inquisitive nature, tenacity, ability to learn from mistakes and a love of learning make for a great engineer. One of the things we need to be able to instill in students is the desire and willingness to learn after they leave. Many students return to pursue their master’s degree, not only because it can help further their career, but because they miss being in school and the opportunity to push themselves to think differently.
Are you currently teaching?
Yes, my goal is to teach one class a semester. Right now, the course is Advanced Steel Design. It’s important to keep contact with the students and somehow it isn’t right to expect others to pick up a heavy teaching load and not be willing to help out, at least a bit.
On a lighter note, what do you like to do for fun?
My family and I like to be out on the water fishing and boating. Golf is a sport that I learned at a fairly young age and still enjoy, although my game has taken a slice in the woods over the last several years. Just ask my UA league partner. In addition, I enjoy physical exercise and reading a variety of different types of books.
Is there anything else you want the UA community to know about you?
My wife and I have two grown children, ages 25 and 27, who are both out on their own, doing well, and were educated at The University of Akron. Neither realizes how proud we are of them.
I’ve been very fortunate throughout my career to be surrounded by such an incredible network of support, and I’m thankful to all of those who have helped me along the way and showed extreme patience at times, including my parents, teachers, professors, supervisors, colleagues, and friends.