UTEP engineering leaders depart in wake of NSF grant suspension

by Daniel Perez

November 19, 2024

Jack Chessa has stepped down as chair of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering – the latest move tied to UTEP’s actions after the National Science Foundation announced its suspension of a major grant in May.

Chessa, who had been chair since 2018, announced his decision Nov. 6. In an email to department faculty obtained by El Paso Matters, he expressed his regrets at leaving his position, but said it was in the best interest of the department. He will remain as a tenured professor of mechanical engineering.

The professor, who UTEP hired in 2003, had voiced his frustrations previously with Kenith Meissner II, dean of the College of Engineering. 

On July 29, Chessa sent a letter to Meissner that expressed how he and many department faculty had concerns about how the UTEP Aerospace Center was being run under Executive Director Shery Welsh, who began July 15.

Welsh replaced Ahsan Choudhuri, who had been the center’s associate vice president until the university relieved him of his center duties in early May.

“The Dean has expressed the need for the AME Chair to work closely to support the current Aerospace Center Director and I am personally unable to do this,” Chessa wrote in his November email.

When contacted earlier this month about his decision to step down, Chessa’s only comment was that he planned to “clean out my office and get back to work.”

Yirong Lin, associate department chair and professor of mechanical engineering, was named interim chair, UTEP told El Paso Matters in a statement. The university called Lin an accomplished aerospace and mechanical engineering faculty member with a long record of leadership, research, teaching and service in the department. He is an affiliated faculty member with the Aerospace Center and has been similarly affiliated with UTEP’s W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation. UTEP hired him in 2011.

The NSF announced in January that UTEP was among the 10 initial recipients of a Regional Innovation Engines grant that was supposed to help grow the region’s defense and aerospace manufacturing capabilities. Each engine could receive up to $160 million during the next 10 years. 

On April 25, the NSF directed UTEP to suspend work on its engine pending further review. The NSF asked its Office of Inspector General, an independent investigative authority, to review the allegations. To this point, the NSF’s OIG has only said that it could not confirm or deny that there was an investigation, but if there was, it could take months or years to complete. The grant remains on hold. 

The change of leadership was among the shifts in the department that has seen the departure of several faculty members since May.

That includes the Nov. 8 retirement of Ryan Wicker, founder and director of the Keck Center, and professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Wicker, an El Paso native, also had issues with university administrators this past year.

In a Feb. 3 email to Ahmad M. Itani, UTEP vice president for Research and Innovation, Wicker mentioned what he considered the administration’s “very unsupportive culture … that makes it very difficult to continue in a positive manner.”

The email was in response to a memo Itani sent to Wicker and Choudhuri on Feb. 2 that detailed how the university wanted to deal with governance, oversight and accountability of the National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines award that was granted to UTEP in January for the Paso Del Norte Defense and Aerospace Innovation Engine.

“Based on these actions (and mainly lack of actions/communications/leadership) and your latest communication, I can only assume that the intent of the UTEP administration is for the two of us (Ahsan and me) to leave, rescind the grant, and cause damage to UTEP, the City and County, numerous other collaborators and especially the community and students we serve,” Wicker wrote in his Feb. 3 email.

When contacted for this story, Choudhuri said he had no comment.

Wicker has spent the past several months trying to determine how he could stay at UTEP and produce at the high-level standards of the Keck Center, he told El Paso Matters in a statement this week about his retirement after 30 years at UTEP.

He said his decision to leave was difficult, but he was confident that he left the Keck Center in a strong position to continue on a positive trajectory.

Wicker said that he remains committed to his students and El Paso through previous economic development initiatives. He said he was ready for future challenges.

“We are not finished,” Wicker said, but did not elaborate on the other members of “we.”

In its own statement, UTEP thanked Wicker for his decades of service to the university and wished him well in retirement. The institution stated that the Keck Center staff and faculty are maintaining operations under Meissner’s direction and that it will name an interim director soon.

In response to a question about the loss of faculty, including some who were principal investigators or co-principal investigators responsible for millions of dollars in research projects, the university stated that grants impacted by these changes will be assigned new principal investigators where needed in accordance with relevant agreements with funding agencies.

“With 25 full-time faculty, and a number of adjunct and research faculty, the AME department is well-positioned for continued success in launching the careers of great engineers under the leadership of Dr. Lin,” said Meissner, who added that the department faculty respected and supported Lin.

Bruce Cushing, president of UTEP’s Faculty Senate, said during the group’s Nov. 12 meeting that three of the departed AME faculty stated that their decisions to leave were due to a lack of ability to effectively conduct their research and concerns about the department’s direction. When asked about the information after the meeting, Cushing did not want to provide any additional information.  

As for Chessa’s announcement, Cushing, a professor of biological sciences, said that a chair’s decision to step down mid-semester was uncommon.  

“Chairs serve at the pleasure of the deans,” Cushing said, adding that is the standard at all universities. “That means that the dean does have the right to ask you to step down at any moment and there does not have to be a cause. It’s really important that we understand that.”

An aerospace and mechanical engineering faculty member, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said that Wicker was a smart and capable colleague who helped the university and served its students well.

During the past decade, Wicker has served as the principal investigator on more than $30 million in funded activities and more than $60 million in additional funding as a co-principal investigator. Including cost shares, Wicker’s numbers exceed $150 million over the past decade.

“His retirement is heartbreaking,” the professor said.

The instructor added that Wicker, Chessa and Lin were strong and talented leaders, but was concerned that the department had lost some of its senior leadership before a scheduled accreditation process next year.

“It’s alarming, to be honest,” the professor said.

In a prepared statement, UTEP Provost John Wiebe said that Lin, Meissner and the rest of the college’s leadership team are well equipped to guide the aerospace and mechanical engineering department and the Keck Center through this transition. He said such transitions are common at institutions like UTEP and expressed confidence in the college’s current status.