MCALLEN, RGV – UTRGV has announced the new deans for the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship and the new College of Nursing.
Rick Anderson, UTRGV’s executive vice president for finance and administration, made the announcement at a McAllen Economic Development Corporation board meeting.
Mark Kroll, dean of the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, recently anounced his retirement. He will be replaced, Anderson said, by Dr. Yash Gupta. Gupta is scheduled to begin Aug. 1.
The founding dean for UTRGV’s new College of Nursing, Anderson said, is Dr. Sharon Radzyminski. She will start June 1.
“Dr. Gupta has been a faculty member and dean from 1999 to 2001 at a number of different schools across the country such as the University of Southern California, Johns Hopkins University, University of Washington and University of Colorado. He’s a very experienced dean, businessman and entrepreneur,” Anderson said.
“Dr. Radzyminski is coming to us from Georgia Southern University and has had experience with the Georgia system. If you know anything about the Georgia system they’ve combined a number of different universities and she’s gone through a combination process. So, she’ll be familiar with what we’re experiencing now and be ready to hit the ground running.”
Other significant changes with the University include the expansion of graduate and professional programs, Anderson announced. Currently, UTRGV has about 15 to 17 percent of graduate and professional programs. This means the other 83 to 85 percent of the student population are undergraduates. However, the University is looking to increase the percentage of post-graduate programs.
“As we move to more of an emerging research university, most of that mix is about 25 percent or more graduate and professional programs and about 75 percent undergraduate programs,” Anderson said.
“We’re basically on a mission to develop a lot of new programs heavily on the upper division and graduate professional side. That’s determining how the University is going to be organized.”
Anderson said that when Havidan Rodriguez, the former executive vice president and provost of UTRGV, left the college, opportunities arose for other leaders to emerge. UTRGV President Guy Bailey announced three executive vice presidents.
New leadership changes include a promotion for Dr. Patricia Alvarez McHatton, former dean of the College of Education. She is now executive vice president for Academic Affairs, Student Success and P-16 Integration. Dr. Parwinder Grewal, former dean of the College of Science, is now the executive vice president for Research, Graduate Studies and New Program Development. And John Krouse, current dean of UTRGV’s School of Medicine, is also executive vice president for health affairs.
“We’re going to be trying to expand a lot of those offerings here in the next number of years and that leadership team will be the three primary individuals responsible for developing and expanding our academic and healthcare enterprise,” Anderson said.
Currently, UTRGV has 50 percent of their students enrolled in science, math, engineering and healthcare. With the new changes in leadership as well as the expansion to graduate and professional programs, Anderson says that percentage will only grow.
