CAMPUS

BUZZ

Deans named

for School of Urban and Public Affairs, Honors College

wo new deans recently joined UT Arlington’s administrative team. Barbara Becker was appointed dean of the School of Urban and Public Affairs and Karl Petruso dean of the Honors College.

Barbara Becker

Dr. Becker has more than two decades of experience in higher education and for the last 10 years served as director of the School of Planning and the Planning Degree Program at the University of Arizona.

An experienced administrator and accomplished faculty member, she has more than 35 publications and presentations in her field and has secured more than $1 million in grant funding. She co-wrote a widely used text, Community Planning: An Introduction to the Comprehensive Plan, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Becker, who started at UT Arlington in August, earned her Master of Science and doctoral degrees in community and regional planning and geography, and a Bachelor of Science in social studies, all from UT Austin.

She joined the faculty in the Department of Geography, Geology and Planning at Missouri State University in 1988 and became the coordinator for the Community and Regional Planning Program in 1989. In 1995 she joined the University of Arizona as associate director of the Roy P. Drachman Institute for Land and Regional Development Studies. In 1998 she became director of the university’s School of Planning.

Karl Petruso

Dr. Petruso has 30 years experience in higher education and for the past six years has served as associate dean of the Honors College. He has directed the Anthropology Program in the College of Liberal Arts since 2005.

Petruso, who began his new post in September, joined UT Arlington in 1990. As associate dean of the Honors College, he oversaw study abroad programs; the Washington, D.C., Archer Fellowship program sponsored by the UT System; access to prestigious national and international graduate fellowships; summer undergraduate research assistantships; and the Honors College thesis/creative project process. His previous administrative appointments include associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts (1990-95) and associate vice president for research and graduate studies (1995-2000).

A professor of anthropology and a classical archaeologist specializing in the prehistory of the eastern Mediterranean, he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in classical archaeology from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in classical languages from Villanova University.

Petruso has published extensively on the weight metrology of Minoan and Mycenaean Greece and its ramifications for understanding the mechanics of ancient trade. In the 1990s, with major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, he directed the first American archaeological excavation ever permitted in Albania.