Pena-Mora now joins that constituency, as a professor who is tenured in civil engineering and engineering mechanics, earth and environmental engineering, and computer science.

The Dominican-born educator says in agreeing to become dean, “the University gave me a clear charge: to increase the school’s profile, to deepen its scholarship, to work aggressively for external support for the academic work done, and, ultimately, to move the School to a greater place of prominence within the academic community,” he said in a statement. “Achieving these goals was not easy – and it was bound to meet with resistance.”

Peña-Mora says that under his watch, the school has improved both its graduate and undergraduate published rankings, boosted applications by 45% at the undergrad level and twice that rate for grad students. Daddazio says he “found funds for 20 new endowed chairs.” 

Says one alumnus who did want be identified, Peña-Mora “got a lot of alumni to reconnect and there was new engagement of students like never before. It's about resistance to change.”

Joseph Helble, dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., says, “I can say that he is an energetic and creative individual, who brought many good ideas to discussions of engineering education. This was true both within our Ivy League group of engineering deans and in the larger community of U.S. engineering deans. He led our efforts to build ties with some of the leading groups of scholarly engineering universities in China, India, and Brazil.”

While Pena-Mora says he “will be back in the civil engineering and engineering department working with my PhD students,” he did not speculate on any career alternatives, including leaving Columbia.

“I leave this position hopeful that the School of Engineerng commits itself to the change necessary to foster true excellence in its ranks and civil discourse in its debates,” says Peña-Mora.