After more than two decades as the dean of the College of Design, Marvin Malecha will be retiring at the end of this semester.
Known for academic innovation, experimentation and his round, thick-framed eyeglasses, Malecha has recently accepted the position of president and chief academic officer at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, California.
“I don’t want anyone to construe that I am leaving because of something at NC State,” Malecha said. “I am leaving here the same way a graduate leaves — proud of what’s been accomplished, proud of the place, proud of the people.”
Malecha said that he received the offer from the NewSchool during the summer.
“It is a location in the world where my granddaughter lives 15 minutes by car away from where we will be living, it is San Diego — which by the way, there is no humidity or snow there — and it’s this kind of new adventure of doing the same thing, but in a very different context,” Malecha said. “[The NewSchool] is asking me to build the same spirit of institution that has been achieved here. They are asking me to build, and I am a builder.”
Malecha first came to NC State in 1994, and during his 21 years as dean of the College of Design, he has compiled an extensive list of accomplishments.
In 2000, the College of Design began offering a Ph.D. in design and a Master of Art and Design in 2002. In 2010, an undergraduate major in design studies was also added.
Malecha also oversaw a significant increase in private funding to the college, which now surpasses $2 million each year, and he also established the Designlife Board and the Leaders Council as a means of revamping the college’s alumni engagement efforts.
Malecha served as the design architect for The Point, the new chancellor’s residence; he redesigned the chancellor’s ceremonial lavalier and was responsible for designing the university mace.
“Transitioning into the NewSchool is giving me a chance in the fairly senior part of my career to go and do it all again,” Malecha said. “It is hard to turn down when you are a creative person.”
The NewSchool, which is a part of the Laureate network, is also offering Malecha the role of content curator for design thinking, a course Malecha co-teaches and created while at NC State.
“When I was a student, there was a lot of discussion about design, but nobody ever took the time to work through what it meant to be a design thinker,” Malecha said. “That is what this course is about.”
The Laureate network is composed of more than 80 campus-based and online universities, and becoming content curator will allow Malecha to turn his 175 student class into a worldwide agenda.
At NC State, Malecha will participate in five final lectures before leaving his design thinking course solely in the hands of Tania Allen, an assistant professor of art and design.
Allen said that Malecha’s legacy will live on in the class through the projects that he created for the course as well as through the aspirations of the students.
“I can’t replicate what it is that he does, and I don’t want to because that would be disingenuous,” Allen said. “It is really hard for me to imagine him not being around.”
Allen believes that one of Malecha’s greatest values as a dean and a mentor relates to how he approaches education in the spirit of experimenting and trying new things.
“If you have an idea that is genuinely focused on trying to make this college better, trying to get students to collaborate, trying to get them to think differently, trying to get them to open their mind in any number of ways — he always supports that,” Allen said. “He is so present, and I think that we take that for granted.”
Allen hopes that the next dean will challenge the college in a similar way and encourage students and staff to get out of their comfort zones and seek different perspectives as Malecha has done.
“I am leaving here with real emotions,” Malecha said on the verge of tears. “I do care about this place and the students, a lot. But, I joined the alumni club with a lifetime membership, so I am red and white for life”.
