McMath departs

Robert McMath, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies and Academic Affairs, will be leaving Tech this summer to help start the Honors College at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville as Dean on Aug. 1.

When he transfers to the University of Arkansas, McMath will work on beginning a new, unified Honors College. Currently, there is no actual Honors College at the school, but there is an Honors Program which has individual courses with selective admission for all majors.

"I would like to create an Honors Program that will benefit the entire student body. That will be my main challenge [at the University of Arkansas]," he said. He sees the Honors College as "an opportunity to use the same skill of developing programs to improve undergraduate education in a more focused way."

McMath will work on developing scholarships for the Honors College, expanding study abroad and developing new honors courses. He will also make certain that classes bring faculty of different colleges together to teach a specific theme.

"Overall, I will work with different groups on a common goal and will encourage students, faculty and others to join the program," he said.

McMath values his experience at Tech. He believes that his greatest contribution came "from teaching history and helping students with their own career plans and goals."

He gives credit to his colleagues on the progress they have made in undergraduate studies and enjoys working with students.

"I have had a great experience in my 33 years teaching and researching history," he said. "The students were what kept me here at Georgia Tech." He admires the strong desire for education in Tech students and feels that the students elsewhere will not be the same as those he leaves.

"One of the aspects I enjoyed the most in my career at Tech was the opportunity of being able to work with students and help make a difference for them," he said.

As vice provost for Undergraduate Studies at Tech, McMath had two major responsibilities-overseeing academic support offices that report to the provost and improving the undergraduate department.

In overseeing the academic support offices, he made sure that all of the offices, including admission, registration and co-op, have sufficient resources. In the undergraduate department, McMath worked to help find opportunities to improve undergraduate education for faculty and students.

Recently, he has been working on the planning effort for the opening of the Undergraduate Learning Center. The ULC will house several classrooms, academic offices, tutoring assistance, advisement offices and science labaratories for freshmen.

One of McMath's close colleagues, Charles Liotta, vice provost for Research and dean of Undergraduate Studies, said, "I have known Bob McMath for over thirty years. He is an outstanding scholar, a great administrative team player, and a wonderful friend. I will miss him."

McMath said, "I am sad about leaving people. There are so many good friends colleagues here. I'll miss them."

"I've had the chance of a lifetime [at Tech] to make a difference for a group," he added.