How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Lalia Rach, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management announced last week that she will step down at the end of the 2009-10 academic year.
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According to Robert Lapiner, dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Rach has decided to catch her breath and redirect her focus after a 15-year tenure. She will return as a full-time faculty member to conduct research and mentor students at the Tisch Center.
"Professor Rach is doing what many academic administrators do," Lapiner said. "She is taking a well-deserved and much delayed authorized leave to reenergize and have more time for her personal life."
Rach contributed to the undergraduate curriculum at SCPS during her tenure by recruiting experts and scholars for faculty positions. Though she will no longer serve as dean, Rach will still organize NYU's International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference in June.
"Lalia Rach has been a refreshingly frank, insightful and clear-headed member of our school's academic and administrative leadership, and her voice and her energies have helped shape the progress we have all achieved together," Lapiner said.
Lee Igel, a clinical assistant professor for the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management, said the decision was not a surprise.
"It's been some time since we've learned of this, at least a few months," he said. "The reaction is the same as you would get from anywhere else where somebody who's been a big figure is transitioning into a new season of her life."
According to SCPS, a search committee is currently active in finding the new divisional dean.
SCPS freshman Eli Gordon is uncertain over the future of SCPS without Rach's strong leadership.
"I'm disappointed and I don't even know why she left," Gordon said. "It worries me because I am a current student, and I hope the program will continue to grow."
But SCPS freshman Shuang Ji, a hotel and tourism management major, is just awaiting Rach's new position.
"She is really inspiring and a real role model in life," Ji said. "I'll definitely take her class if I have the chance."
