Dear trustees, administration, faculty and students:
Although I am very pleased the editorial board of The Diamondback reacted favorably to university President Wallace Loh’s State of the Campus address last month, I am extremely surprised at its apparent ignorance of what has transpired during the last dozen years at the university, and that they find Loh’s address reflective of “revolution.”
Our past administration enhanced the status of our university with a vision of greatness that is being realized — and that is key to our recognition by both our peers and by the international community. This has resulted in the university becoming a repository of research contracts from industry and government, a beacon to well-qualified college applicants from the entire country and a true magnet to its alumni and its supporters. The efficacy of former university President Dan Mote’s administration is reflected in our recognition as a prime source of recruits by major corporations, as indicated in a recent Wall Street Journal article: We were listed as No. 8 among universities from which industry wants to recruit new employees. The engineering school was listed as No. 3. The quality of education provided by our university improved enormously under Mote’s administration and Nariman Farvardin’s tutelage as provost and former dean of the engineering school.
The editorial board of The Diamondback should recognize our university for the status it has gained during the past dozen years and correctly represent Loh’s presidency as a beacon for the continuation of our very successful strategies. I am certain Loh will expand on them, give them his imprimatur and lead our university to even greater heights. However, to intimate that the policies of our recent administration have been insular, less than broad and limited in international scope reflects lack of knowledge of the facts: These student editors will graduate with a truly excellent university education due to the policies and practices of our past administration. These policies led to a major international presence, as well as national and international recognition of their future alma mater as a world-class educational and research institution.
I hope and expect Loh to achieve even more during his tenure. Hopefully, his advent is not a revolution, but a grand and continuing evolution of excellent practices. I will staunchly support Loh in this process, as I am certain you also will.
Pedro E. Wasmer is an elected trustee for the University of Maryland, College Park Foundation.
