FADI P. DEEK is acting dean of NJIT’s College ofScience and Liberal Arts (CSLA). He is also professorof information systems and mathematical sciences,and director of the interdisciplinary program ininformation technology.NJIT Magazine: From your perspective, what hasbeen especially significant about the evolution ofCSLA since it was founded in 1982?Deek: CSLA has come a long way since it emergedas an academic unit that didn’t even have an officialname. Some just spoke about the Third College, aplace to house programs that didn’t fit into eitherof the university’s two units that existed at thattime — Newark College of Engineering and theSchool of Architecture. Today, in addition to hav-ing a name, we have strong degree programs fromthe bachelor’s through the doctoral level and athriving research agenda.

In many respects, we’re much like the typicalcollege of arts and sciences found at comprehen-sive universities — but with a very importantdifference. We are strengthened by a special rela-tionship with Rutgers-Newark, literally across the street from NJIT. Most schools need to allocatemuch more of their resources to languages, thevisual arts, performing arts and so on. We have the

advantage of tapping into the arts programs atRutgers, just as they can tap into our science pro-grams. This allows us to focus on areas of strengthand expertise strategic to NJIT’s mission. For exam-ple, our complementary Division of BiologicalSciences, housed in the Department of MathematicalSciences, builds on NJIT’s strength in mathematicalbiology and biomedical engineering and is essentialfor planned programs in bioinformatics.NJIT Magazine: What do you see as CSLA’s greateststrength?Deek: I believe our greatest strength has been, andwill continue to be, the delivery of an excellentgeneral education curriculum — in mathematics,the sciences and humanities — to all NJIT students.As part of a technological research university, weteach students to think analytically, question inci-sively and communicate effectively, thereby provid-ing them with intellectual foundations that will be vital regardless of what they decide to do. Ourstudents get the best of quite a few worlds.NJIT Magazine: One of your strategic priorities is encouraging coherence, or synergy, at NJIT. Canyou expand on this concept?Deek: Building on shared interests, particularlythrough emerging themes in teaching and research,

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INTERVIEWER FORNJIT MAGAZINE:CAROL PILLA is asenior editor with UniversityCommunications.

PHOTO: BILL WITTKOP

AN INTERVIEW WITH FADI P. DEEK

SETTINGACOURSEFOR SCIENCE ANDLIBERAL ARTS

will result in important synergies. Consider the bio-logical sciences, for example. Individually, ourmathematical sciences, physics, and chemistry andenvironmental science departments, with NCE’sbiomedical engineering department, have researchinitiatives and academic programs or courses in thisarea. There is strong interest in health-care issueson the liberal arts side too, as seen in the humanitiesand the response to our health-care communicationcertificate. We also have a track in the history ofmedicine and public health. We can capitalize onthese shared interests through common researchand joint grant proposals, and through shared pro-grams. I think it’s fair to say that CSLA has taken alead here, emphasizing how all can benefit frommoving in a common direction when it’s appropri-ate. Our strategic hiring plan clearly reflects this.

Our environmental science and policy group is another example of tapping key synergies.Immediately after coming to CSLA in 2003, I real-ized that the policy sciences division, then part ofa combined humanities and social sciences depart-ment, was actually a strong environmental researchgroup. After talking to the faculty in both depart-ments, we brought the policy group into theDepartment of Chemistry and EnvironmentalScience, greatly enhancing the department’s overallcapabilities. The change also helped to refocus therole of the humanities department, which has itsown unique responsibility for the university’s gen-eral-education requirements, as well as their aca-demic programs in communication, and in science,technology and society.NJIT Magazine: We understand that increasingenrollment in CSLA is another strategic priority.How do you plan to accomplish this?Deek: CSLA programs attract excellent studentswho have outstanding profiles, with their averageSAT scores being among the strongest in the uni-versity. But our enrollment numbers are not whatwe would like them to be, and we are taking stepsto address this issue.

We are now more aggressive about communicat-ing the strengths of CSLA to prospective students.Having our top faculty participate in universityrecruiting events and speak at high schools is partof our strategy. We are also working to attract moreundergraduate transfer students — for example, byoffering a smooth transition for qualified applicantsfrom New Jersey’s community colleges to completetheir education at NJIT.

Additionally, we will offer distinct career-orient-ed and pre-professional options in all our programs,including pre-medical and pre-law tracks. It’s areality that highly qualified, highly motivated stu-dents are attracted to programs that offer the bestpotential for career success. They also know that a broadly-based undergraduate education with astrong emphasis on technology is a significantadvantage in getting into medical or law school.

Another exciting development is our new teacher-certification option, which we offer in cooperationwith Rutgers-Newark. The program is quite flexible,and our students can obtain New Jersey teachercertification at the same time as they are completingtheir degrees. I’m confident that this will attractmore students to CSLA.NJIT Magazine: What are your plans for strength-ening research at CSLA?Deek: Expanding CSLA research is a dual-trackplan — building on current strengths and promot-ing new collaborations. At present, some of NJIT’smost successful research programs are based with-in CSLA. Our solar and terrestrial physics initiativeattracts the largest amount of federal funding ofany program within the university. With respect tothe quantity and quality of grants, mathematicalsciences and physics are definitely in the forefrontof research at NJIT. Again, however, collaborationis the key to even greater success in the future. Whileour research groups do well individually, we knowthat working together not only within CSLA andNJIT, but with institutions beyond our campus,will lead to more opportunities for everyoneinvolved — and to much bigger pots of funds.NJIT Magazine: What is your vision for CSLA fiveyears down the road?Deek: My vision is that CSLA will be widely recog-nized for a student body strong in numbers andquality, for conducting research that benefits societyand, most importantly, for our focus on impartingfoundational knowledge and skills. There will bemany more revolutions in science and technology.But the fundamentals — the ability to think clearly,to articulate one’s ideas, to work with others — willalways be at the heart of any revolution that thefuture brings. ■

The College of Science and Liberal Arts:http://csla.njit.edu

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