A letter from an alumnus about the new engineering school dean, Maria Klawe

June 27, 2002

I am deeply disappointed that the incoming dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Maria Klawe, Ph.D., is not a graduate of an accredited engineering college, nor is she licensed to practice engineering in any jurisdiction in North America.

Dr. Klawe is without question a very gifted individual. However, it is insulting to those of us who are committed to promoting excellence in engineering education to learn that such fundamental criteria were either ignored or dismissed by the search committee. Would the university hire a music professor who can't play an instrument, or a baseball coach who never hit a curvebaII? Highly unlikely.

Princeton could have, and should have, located a new dean with an accredited engineering Ph.D. to lead our school. The search committee should be excoriated for their cavalier disregard of such basic prerequisite qualifications.

Gaetano Peter Cipriano ’78
Madison, N.J.

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