Wayne Raskind, Ph.D., professor and founding director of the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (SoMSS) at Arizona State University, was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) at Wayne State University on August 15, 2012.

In Raskind's three years as director of SoMSS, the number of math majors at ASU increased by more than 50 percent, and the school hired and nurtured talented junior faculty who earned prestigious grants such as the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award. Prior to joining ASU, Raskind was chair of mathematics (1999-2005) and dean of faculty (2005-2007) at the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California.

Raskind's research interests include algebraic geometry, number theory, algebraic K-theory, partial differential equations, cryptography and mathematics education. Fluent in French, he spent a year as a visiting researcher at Universite de Paris-Sud in France. He has given numerous lectures and facilitated seminars at institutions throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, England and a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania.

In a recent interview, Dean Raskind spoke about CLAS and his vision for the future.

As you get to know CLAS after years at Arizona State and USC, what do you see as its strengths?

I like that at Wayne State there is this dual mission. One is research excellence and the other is access. These are two extremely vital missions, and it's important to harmonize them. I think in doing so, Wayne State represents a great opportunity for students.

With regards to CLAS, when you're as strong in the natural sciences as we are, those areas tend to get the most attention. But looking at the other departments of CLAS, there is a lot of strength there as well, and the very best universities are strong across the board.

CLAS is the biggest college at Wayne State, and is described as a small liberal arts school within a research institution. How do you see the 19 departments of CLAS in relationship to the university as a whole?

I think CLAS is the core of the university, and it has to interface with every part of the university, in particular the School of Medicine, College of Engineering, College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, and the School of Business Administration. While we do that very well now, I think we can do it even better. As Wayne State continues to grow and build on its strengths, CLAS will be an important engine for doing that.

You have said that you wanted CLAS to reach out to all other academic units. What kind of partnerships are you looking for with other colleges?

When considering medicine or engineering, they deal with more applied aspects of science and the CLAS science departments tend to deal with what is sometimes called basic research. A lot of research problems serve both aspects. And, at times, there are scientists in CLAS and other colleges at Wayne State who are working on two aspects of the very same problem and don't know it. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but what I've seen in my own work is that when you bring two points of view to bear on a research question or problem, researchers can make a lot more progress than if they work by themselves.

To remedy that situation on a big campus like this, the first step is to get people to talk to one another. So I would like to establish regular encounters with faculty, even informally. The best thing about a university is how many really smart people there are, in terms of both students and faculty members. When you provide forums for people to get together, great things happen. Research interests are shared and commonalities are identified. Often, that is when the best work gets done.

CLAS is often a first step before a professional school such as law or medical school. How would you describe the college's commitment to the future of professionals in Detroit and Michigan and beyond?

I think professionals are best at their jobs when they have context, both in terms of the environment in which they work and the people who they serve. With CLAS, I think our majors, courses and curricula are meant to give people that context, whether it's historical or scientific.

That's why the value of a liberal arts education is greater than it's ever been. Fewer and fewer people stay in the same profession these days, and I believe that will be even more typical in the future. Working for the same company, or even the same university, for your lifetime is just not as common as it once was. So if we're going to prepare students for this paradigm we must help them to be nimble, with a foundation of knowledge and the ability to adapt to new conditions. I think having a good general knowledge of the world - its history, its science, its languages - helps do that.

Wayne State is gearing up for its next major fundraising campaign. What are some of the key priorities and goals you are considering for CLAS and how will philanthropy help you achieve those goals?

One thing we have to do is to engage more with alumni across the country, as well as in the local area. We have to let more people know about Wayne State and the great things that are happening here. There's some great work being done in Detroit and on campus and we have to share that with as many people as we can.

And there are things we can do with philanthropy that we cannot do only with state funds or federal funding for research. That's why faculty endowed chairs, for instance, are so precious, and the donors who are able to provide those show such incredible support for us. In my previous position at the University of Southern California, I helped recruit the faculty, and as a means of support, endowed chairs make a huge difference in recruiting top-flight faculty.

Scholarships and student support are always an important part of fundraising at Wayne State. How do these funds ensure that we can attract strong, talented students? How do scholarships help support students at CLAS?

When I talk to the donors to Wayne State, I'm impressed by their loyalty. For example, there are wonderful and passionate donors to the English department, and that department has donor-driven scholarships that are extremely helpful to students. With the cost of college rising and with state and federal support diminishing, private support can help fill the gap and allow students to focus on their studies.

Research and faculty support are also key areas in need of funding and CLAS has a diverse group of needs. How does support in these areas strengthen CLAS?

One of our goals is to increase sponsored research for CLAS. Sponsored research totals about $23 million right now, and we would like to make that much more. We are investing a portion of our discretionary funds in our faculty with a new program devoted to faculty research. These funds will support small things like travel, the purchase of computers and other research equipment.

They also will provide a pathway to larger, sponsored research grants from a variety of funders, including foundations, federal grants and industry. If we want our faculty to do great research, we have to invest. Providing start-up funds is an important part of this process. The prestige and pride that we gain from the faculty doing this research is more than worth our investment. So we are starting this program for all tenure-track and tenured faculty.

What makes CLAS a good investment for donors?

As I mentioned, I think a liberal arts education is the best education you can get, and though that has always been the case, it is even more true now. For donors to invest in us so that we can strengthen that form of education at Wayne State will be very advantageous for our students and graduates. As they say in those Master Card ads, that's priceless.