New vision includes
research partnerships for Florida Tech
University president focuses on enrollment growth, sports
development and increased research resources
by Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal
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After more than a year and a half in his role as president of Florida Institute of Technology, Anthony Catanese has developed what one professor calls the university leader's favorite phrase. The maxim combines Catanese's prime goal with Florida Tech's perennial challenge. As the president likes to say, "There's no point being a well-kept secret."
Catanese, who took the top spot at the Melbourne university in July 2002, has spent a large part of his time "telling the Florida Tech story," as he calls it. "I think Florida Tech could emerge as one of the top technical universities in the world," Catanese said.
But for now, Florida Tech continues to be better known in some other countries than it is in Central Florida, the president acknowledges. That situation continues despite 46 years of history, significant contributions to research in high profile areas such as software engineering, recent sizable grants and having what Catanese calls one of the best corrosion labs in the country.
"It's one of those classic stories where you can't be a hero in your hometown," he said.
Catanese has made a strong start at promoting the university, an area where he excels, said Geoffrey Swain, professor of oceanography and ocean engineering at Florida Tech. "That helps us all," he said.
Swain calls Catanese a pro-active supporter of increased resources for research."He's coming in with renewed energy and focus in that direction," Swain said.
Research never has been neglected at Florida Tech, but neither has it clearly been communicated to the faculty as a top priority, said James Whittaker, an associate professor and director of the Computer Sciences Department's Center for Software Engineering Research. Catanese already has developed momentum for research, said Whittaker, who serves on the faculty research council.
"He's a man with a lot of energy," Whittaker said. "The confidence in the university is pretty high right now."
Catanese joined Florida Tech after serving as president of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton for 12 years. During that time, the university experience rapid growth, more than doubling the student body, building four new campuses, introducing degree programs, expanding athletics, launching the first capital campaign and increasing sponsored research.
Could Florida Tech see similar advances? "Maybe even better," Catanese said.
His basic goal is quality, 10 percent annual growth in enrollment. Florida Tech now has about 5,000 students, including 3,600 in Melbourne and the rest at campuses in Panama and other extended campuses around the country. Catanese would like to see 5,000 students at the Melbourne campus.
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Currently, half of Florida Tech's enrollment is graduate students, a high number compared with other universities, and only 25 percent are from Florida. Catanese would like to see undergraduate enrollment grow as more Florida students seek education at Florida Tech. The university also is increasing recruiting efforts toward women and minorities.
Catanese is comfortable with the size of the university's international enrollment, at 25 percent of the student body. Applications from Middle Eastern students dropped after 9/11; the university's largest group of international students are from France, with India a close second.
An athlete himself - Catanese is a marathon runner who jogs five miles every morning - Catanese also has designs on Florida Tech athletics. He wants to add new teams: soccer for women and tennis and golf for both genders. He also sees a return to the glory days of Florida Tech soccer and crew, and eventually, a Florida Tech football program.
Any growth won't come at the expense of Florida Tech's reputation for teaching, Catanese promises. He plans to hold the student-faculty ratio at 10 students per faculty member.
"We're selling personal access to our faculty," Catanese said. "Freshman actually get professors. Here, the faculty know you."
In fact, Florida Tech aims to reinvent the traditional division of teaching faculty for undergrads vs. research faculty for graduate students. "We want to get every undergrad involved in research. We actually have a pretty good start," Catanese said.
Involving undergraduates in research can serve as a selling point that Catanese thinks will help make the university stand out. "They understand there's more to life than lectures and books," he said of today's undergraduate students.
Florida Tech's current $27 million in contracts to sponsor research represents a 10 percent increase over last year. Within a decade, Catanese wants to see that figure near $100 million. Big increases could come in areas including computer software security and transportation, and in fields where location and expertise set Florida Tech apart, such as ocean science and marine biology.
Catanese pinpoints ecotourism as an area that could use commercial applications of Florida Tech research. University research on how fish bite, for example, could be applied to the design of lures, and developments of ways to detect underwater mines could be used to spot other things as well, such as big game fish.
Developing business partnerships and commercial applications of technology will be a larger part of Florida Tech's future, helped by the university's position as a private institution, Catanese said. "It's a brand new day in the academic world today. You've got to talk about, 'Can this research be transformed to a commercial approach? Can we work joint ventures? Spinoff companies? Partnerships?' The answer to all those things is, 'Yes,'" he said.
Catanese is the type of person who can motivate people to work together to accomplish those goals, said Wilbur Henderson, a member of the university's board of trustees. Henderson, a commercial real estate developer, calls Catanese "a comfortable person to follow."
"He does well with students, faculty, the board, political leaders, movers and shakers - he's almost a Renaissance man when it comes to dealing with people," said Henderson, who also serves on the board of his alma mater, Drexel University in Philadelphia. He sees Florida Tech as an institution that has done well all along but is ready to surge in some areas - a process that Catanese appears to have the sensitivity to manage well. "In many things, he's taking giant steps and in other things, he's moving more slowly and nurturing things along," Henderson said.
Catanese, 61, was born in Brunswick, N.J., and grew up in various cities in the Northeast before his family relocated to Ocala. A bachelor's from Rutgers University, master's from New York University and a Ph.D from University of Wisconsin all pointed toward a career in city planning and urban development.
He did some consulting in those areas, including evaluating Hawaiian beaches for recreation development and tourism and working in land transfers to native Americans in Alaska. But he eventually found his teaching job at Georgia Tech was more compatible with family life, and turned his career focus toward academia.
Catanese has been married to wife Sara for almost 40 years. They have three grown sons.
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