Another university dean resigns

Following the road of several deans in the last year, Richard Williams has walked away from his post as College of Engineering dean.

Williams, dean for 17 years, is the third Cal State Long Beach dean this academic year to resign.

Williams' resignation was announced during an Associated Students Inc. Senate meeting last week.

"I met with the provost and decided I prefer to work on research instead of giving full time to being dean," Williams said.

The other deans who have resigned include Mike Walter of the College of Business Administration and Wade Hobgood, who will leave his post in the College of the Arts at the end of the semester.

After a private conversation March 27 between Williams and CSULB Provost Karl Anatol, Williams agreed to step down.

Taking his place as the college's dean will be Michael Mahoney, who is currently the associate vice president of Information Technology.

During his tenure as dean, Williams has generated a number of grants and contracts.

Since the 1995-96 school year, he has generated 38 grants and contracts totaling more than $22 million, including $15 million in the past two years alone.

But he said he feels it is time to move on and Mahoney will be the right guy to take over as the engineering college dean.

"Seventeen years is a long time to be a dean," Williams said.

"Three years is about the average time to be dean. But the dean before me served for 17 years, I served 17 years, and now hopefully we've found a guy to serve for the next 17 years."

He said he will now focus solely on getting grants and he will look forward to teaching classes on advanced topics in engineering next semester.

Stepping down as dean will be beneficial for both himself and the college, Williams said.

"The college needs a full-time dean," Williams said.

"If I was just the dean, then I would do a better job. Just like how if I just focus on the grants, I would do a better job."

Nicola Chadwick and Marten Lewerth contributed to this story.