rosebud*
01-12-2008, 11:51 AM
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080111_ac_aggiepres.10aaeeda.html
College Station: Aggieland. It’s home to the governor’s color guard, big-time college football and, for the first time, a woman leads the university.
It is the story of Dr. Elsa Murano. Her family left Fidel Castro’s Cuba when she was 2.
Then came a 12-year odyssey when her father’s job took the family to Curacao, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador and Puerto Rico before winding up in Miami when Elsa was 14 and only speaking Spanish.
“I think someday when I am old, I am going to write a book, and the title will be, ‘Only in America,’ because only in a country like this where it’s not perfect, but my goodness, the opportunities,” she said.
She took advantage of the opportunities, earning a Ph.D. in food safety. She first came to Texas A&M in 1995, before heading to Washington, D.C., to become undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Now she is the big Aggie on campus, replacing Robert Gates.
The story of an immigrant who becomes the first woman president of Texas A&M almost didn’t happen. Dr. Murano didn’t pursue this job; in fact, she didn’t want it.
“I tried to talk the Board of Regents out of it,” Dr. Murano said. “To be honest I told them surely there is someone more qualified, and I was just having so much fun frankly in agriculture and life sciences.”
But the regents liked her resume and her managing skills.
“I do have a sense of urgency, we need to get a lot of things done, and we don’t have time to waste,” she said.
In the next four years she wants to improve the faculty and the infrastructure, raise more money and boost diversity.
At times, A&M has been criticized for not being more diverse and more tolerant.
“The goal would be to get the university to match the demo of the state. … If we don’t set a goal we will never get it, that’s for sure,” she said.
There are more than 40,000 students there. But only 11 percent are Hispanic; 4 percent are Asian; and 3 percent are African American.
“This is a new day at A&M in the sense of we got it all teed up by Dr. Gates, and now it’s time to hit it out of the park,” Dr. Murano said.
She said her own appointment to president could itself be a draw to minorities and a signal the university though rich in history isn’t stuck in the past.
College Station: Aggieland. It’s home to the governor’s color guard, big-time college football and, for the first time, a woman leads the university.
It is the story of Dr. Elsa Murano. Her family left Fidel Castro’s Cuba when she was 2.
Then came a 12-year odyssey when her father’s job took the family to Curacao, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador and Puerto Rico before winding up in Miami when Elsa was 14 and only speaking Spanish.
“I think someday when I am old, I am going to write a book, and the title will be, ‘Only in America,’ because only in a country like this where it’s not perfect, but my goodness, the opportunities,” she said.
She took advantage of the opportunities, earning a Ph.D. in food safety. She first came to Texas A&M in 1995, before heading to Washington, D.C., to become undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Now she is the big Aggie on campus, replacing Robert Gates.
The story of an immigrant who becomes the first woman president of Texas A&M almost didn’t happen. Dr. Murano didn’t pursue this job; in fact, she didn’t want it.
“I tried to talk the Board of Regents out of it,” Dr. Murano said. “To be honest I told them surely there is someone more qualified, and I was just having so much fun frankly in agriculture and life sciences.”
But the regents liked her resume and her managing skills.
“I do have a sense of urgency, we need to get a lot of things done, and we don’t have time to waste,” she said.
In the next four years she wants to improve the faculty and the infrastructure, raise more money and boost diversity.
At times, A&M has been criticized for not being more diverse and more tolerant.
“The goal would be to get the university to match the demo of the state. … If we don’t set a goal we will never get it, that’s for sure,” she said.
There are more than 40,000 students there. But only 11 percent are Hispanic; 4 percent are Asian; and 3 percent are African American.
“This is a new day at A&M in the sense of we got it all teed up by Dr. Gates, and now it’s time to hit it out of the park,” Dr. Murano said.
She said her own appointment to president could itself be a draw to minorities and a signal the university though rich in history isn’t stuck in the past.