Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost
Chief Operating Officer
Akron, OH 44325-4703
(330) 972-7593 Office
(330) 972-8699 Fax
October 21, 2014
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Deans
FROM:
William M. (Mike) Sherman
RE:
Honors College
Dear Colleagues,
The chart above is a most appropriate illustration of the influence of strong and collaborative
leadership and strategic thinking in the growth of a most vital program—something we can all be
proud of. Our Honors College has experienced dramatic growth in the ten years since it was
founded, and as Dean Dale Mugler prepares for his retirement and we launch a search for a new
Dean, it is important to pause and consider its past successes as we prepare for its promising
future.
The University of Akron is an Equal Education and Employment Institution
Memo to Deans
Re: Honors College
Page 2
Dr. Mugler began leading the Honors Program in year 2000 and became Dean of the Honors
College when the Honors College was formed in 2005. The number of students has grown from
an Honors Program with approximately 500 students in year 2000 to the Honors College with
1,815 students as of fall, 2014. The number of new Honors students has grown from an
incoming class of size of 203 in 2001 to an incoming class of size 641 this fall, 2014.
With help of faculty, staff, and contract professionals across campus, interviewing/recruiting of
prospective Honors students has been done on special campus interview days since 2001. There
are now nine Honors student organizations in the Honors College. Dale helped found the two
flourishing a cappella singing groups, Rhythm & ‘Roos and Kanga Blue, as well as EUREKA
Honors Engineering and the Honors Relay Teams for the Akron Marathon. Dale also serves as
the faculty advisor for Mortar Board, senior honorary.
Honors students had special housing on one and a half floors in Gallucci Hall in the year 2000.
Special Honors student housing in the Honors Complex began with the opening of the new
building in fall, 2004. The residential wing of the Honors Complex was restricted to first- and
second-year students only in 2010, because of the demand for Honors housing. Currently, when
the housing in the Honors Complex becomes filled with first- and second-year students, overflow
goes to the second (Honors) floor in South Hall.
Dale continues to teach biomedical engineering and applied mathematics, and holds four patents.
He recently received LEAP funding of $25,000 from UA’s first round of funding, and also
received Ohio Third Frontier funding of $50,000 for his work on a parallel method of
computation for the Fast Fourier Transform, an algorithm that is used in many applications.
UARF has been extremely supportive in this process. A startup company has been formed for
commercialization of this work.