MET and Extended Education merge
Comp Sci's Zlateva named associate dean
When Metropolitan College Dean Jay Halfond created the new position of associate dean this year, he considered looking outside the University to find a candidate who would take on the supervision of MET’s academic departments and full-time faculty.
But it quickly became “very clear,” he says, “that I had a real asset on board.”
Tanya Zlateva, the chairman of the college’s computer science department and a faculty member since 1986, became the associate dean of MET in December. She will oversee all the college’s academic programs and be MET’s primary liaison to the rest of the University.
“This is a critical senior leadership position as we move forward with a new organizational structure — one that will focus more on academic oversight,” says Halfond. “Among her immediate goals will be to help lead MET’s strategic planning process — to mobilize the faculty to contribute their ideas for the future directions of the college.”
Zlateva’s new position is part of an overall restructuring that has taken place at MET, combining the college and the Division of Extended Education. The two areas were merged when John Ebersole, former associate provost and Extended Education dean, left the University last fall to become president of Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y.
Halfond is now the dean of MET and the Division of Extended Education, which includes BU Global, the Center for Professional Education, Distance Education, the Sargent Center for Outdoor Education, and Summer Term programs. The Corporate Education Center, formerly under Extended Ed, is now supervised by Executive Vice President Joseph Mercurio.
The change, which will not affect students, is intended to confirm MET’s commitment to its academic programs and clarify the college’s role and contribution to the business side of the institution.
“MET is, first and foremost, the academic heart of this organization, and at the same time Extended Education is our responsibility within this University,” Halfond says. “We’re trying not to make it into two separate cultures.”