San Jose dean chosen as new UT provost

Andrew Hsu will become the provost of the University of Toledo if he receives approval from the Board of Trustees at their July 1 meeting.

“Part of what you need in a provost is someone who can lead but also someone who can listen, because being able to lead also means you can listen to others and hear what the issues are,” said UT President Sharon Gaber. “[Hsu] is a good listener and a good leader.”

Hsu was one of three finalists for the position, including University of Arkansas Vice Chancellor Charles Robinson; Christopher McCord, a dean at Northern Illinois University and Donald Siegel, a dean at the University of Albany.

“Dr. Hsu really emerged as a leader amongst them and the campus gravitated around him,” said Gaber. “I am excited for him to join the Rocket family.”

The provost position includes overseeing academic practices across all campuses as well as working closely with faculty. Jamie Barlowe, dean of the College of Language, Literature and Social Sciences, thinks Hsu will fit that role well.

“Dr. Hsu’s research and leadership experience, his advocacy for students and faculty, and his unwavering commitment to student success and to diversity clearly complement President Gaber’s goals for the University of Toledo,” Barlowe said.

Gaber said she was drawn to Hsu’s experience in improving enrollment at San Jose’s College of Engineering, which he increased by 50 percent between 2012 and 2015.

“[Hsu] says we have to increase enrollment, improve our retention rates and our graduation rates. He wants the student to come in, succeed here and graduate,” Gaber said.

Hsu was born in Beijing, China, and is a first-generation college student.

Before he began his teaching career, Hsu was a researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, working on aerospace technology.

His research was on space propulsion for the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), on which he worked for eight years before Congress discontinued it.

“I was doing a study on hypersonic propulsion on the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP). We were working on a plane that could go from Washington, D.C. to Tokyo in two hours,” Hsu said.

After an eight-year stint at NASA, he moved to Rolls-Royce where he worked for two years, after which he joined the University of Miami as the director of their aerospace program.

“When I was an engineer at Rolls-Royce, I started teaching on a part-time basis. I really enjoyed teaching and the students all seemed to enjoy my lectures. So I said, ‘Maybe I should seek a career in higher education,’” said Hsu. In his capacity as an administrator, Hsu said he believes in shared governance, stating that all decisions he makes will be inclusive, not unilateral.

“What needs to be changed will have to be a collective decision with input from the students, from faculty and staff – from the current leadership at the university,” Hsu said.

UT has not had a permanent provost since former Provost Scott Scarborough left in July 2014 to become president of the University of Akron. John Barrett, an associate professor of law, serves in the interim.