Role and Company
President Emeritus, and Regents' Professor of Business , University of West Georgia
Expertise
42 years experience in education
Location
Carrollton, GA
About Beheruz N.
From 1994 to June, 2013, Dr. Beheruz N. Sethna served as President of the institution now known as the University of West Georgia (UWG). When he retired, he was the longest-serving University President in the State of Georgia (among public and private colleges and universities). The following accomplishments are shared ones, and reflect the work of hundreds of others.
During Dr. Sethna’s tenure as President, the institution saw transformative change from a College to a State University to a Ph.D.-granting SACS Level VI University (this is SACS’s highest level – e.g. the best private and public universities in the South are SACS Level VI, such as the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, U of Texas, U of Virginia, Emory, etc.). In August of 2013, the Board approved a sector change for UWG to a Comprehensive University with a mission to be a world-class academic institution.
During Dr. Sethna’s tenure, UWG’s academic standards increased several times and full-time equivalent enrollment increased by approximately 50 percent to close to 12,000 students.
Almost 40 new buildings have been added during Dr. Sethna’s tenure at UWG. During his tenure, more square footage was added than every other President combined since the institution started in 1906 – at an investment of almost one third of a billion dollars of new construction and renovation funds.
During his tenure, UWG awarded more than 33,000 degrees, more than every other Presidential administration combined in the institution’s 107-year history.
The endowment was increased by more than 10 times its 1994 level.
Dr. Sethna has also served two terms in 1999-2000 and 2006-07 (each 12-15 months long) on an interim basis as Senior and then Executive Vice Chancellor for the entire University System of Georgia. He had functional responsibility for approximately 260,000 students and 10,000 faculty members, in all 35 public institutions in the State, including four Research Universities, 15 Comprehensive Universities, and 16 Two-year and State Colleges, in the following areas: Academic Affairs (all program and faculty decisions), Student Affairs (including admissions, registrars, and other student-related matters), Planning and Policy Analysis (research on University System data), the Office of Information and Instructional Technology (all technology decisions, including Y2K implementation, PeachNet – the Statewide backbone, and related areas) and (in 2006) Fiscal Affairs for part of the term. Plus: In 2006-07 as Executive Vice Chancellor, he had line responsibility for all 15 Comprehensive Universities, in which these Presidents reported to him.
As Tom Peters said, the best leaders don’t create followers; they create more leaders: Dr. Sethna has helped develop, mentor, and/or give opportunities to many senior administrators, some of whom have reached the position of President and Vice Chancellor. He also serves as a Presidential Mentor for the American Council on Education’s Spectrum program, from which at least two of his protégés have risen to presidencies.
In December of 2013, after his retirement from the position of President, he was given the University of West Georgia’s highest honor, The Founder’s Award.
Dr. Sethna is the first known person of Indian origin to become President of a University in America. He was also the first person of any ethnic minority to become president of a college or university in Georgia other than a historically black college.
OTHER RECOGNITIONS, HONORS, AND AWARDS:
Although Dr. Sethna would be the first to state that UWG’s accomplishments have been a team effort, perhaps some of that recognition falls to its President of 19 years. For example, among other things, UWG is nationally known in academic debate and undergraduate research. UWG won two national championships in academic debate, and beat Harvard four times in his last 5 years as President. During a 15-year time span, UWG beat every university in America 8 times in undergraduate research papers at the National Collegiate Honors Council. UWG won seven first prizes at the National Social Sciences Association – 6 of the 7 have been from Dr. Sethna’s class; he taught a course each year as President. He was elected Honors Professor of the Year by the students of the Honors College.
He has received personal Resolutions of Commendation from the Governor of the State of Georgia, the Senate, and the House of the State of Georgia, and from the State of Georgia Board of Regents, and has been named among the 100 Most Influential Georgians six times.
The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has also awarded him several other honors. It named him a Regents’ Professor – the first Regents’ Professor in all of the 110-year history of the University of West Georgia, and named him President Emeritus. Earlier, the Board awarded Dr. Sethna the prestigious Cornerstone Award, which is not an annual award, but is given occasionally. In 2012-13 UWG was named the Customer Service institution of the Year, and Dr. Sethna the Customer Service President of the Year.
He has had hundreds of media appearances to his credit based on his academic work and his administrative contributions, including national TV appearances such as the CBS Early Show with Bryant Gumbel and CNN's American Stories.
Dr. Sethna has also earned a large number of academic honors. Perhaps most distinctive is his record of being nationally recognized for instructional innovation by the Decision Sciences Institute eight times. (No other person in the history of this national competition has been so honored more than two times.) He also has an extensive record in the field of undergraduate research, briefly described on the following page.
He has published a book, Research Methods in Marketing and Management. In addition, he has published 75 papers, several case studies, and obtained externally funded research from the U.S. Department of Energy, IBM, AT&T and others.
Dr. Sethna is a Distinguished Alumnus of the two most prestigious higher education institutions in India/Asia: IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad. It is estimated that no more than a handful of people hold both these honors. Dr. Sethna has been personally honored by universities and University Presidents in China, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and countries in Europe; and also by Vice Chancellors and Board Chairs in India. Dr. Sethna has been an invited speaker at hundreds of meetings, and at universities in many U.S. states and foreign countries, including the University of Oxford in England; he has also been the keynote speaker at various corporate forums.
He has been a Fulbright Professor and has taught at some of the most prestigious institutions in India and South Asia. He also taught a landmark program in computers in Nepal – taught to senior professionals from the national Government, Higher Education, and the corporate sector.
On July 4, 2014, he was honored by the Carnegie Corporation by being named one of the “Great Immigrants – The Pride of America” http://greatimmigrants.carnegie.org/profile/beheruz-sethna/
POST-ADMINISTRATION HONORS AND ACTIVITIES:
Since he retired from administration in July of 2013, Dr. Sethna continues as a full-time faculty member at UWG. He was given a very rare honor by the governing board of all Georgia Universities, the title of Regents’ Professor. He is the first and only recipient of this honor in the 110-year history of The University of West Georgia. This honor has to be renewed after the first three years by the Board of Regents. They recently approved that renewal on the strength of his work done in the past three years. Some of these academic honors are mentioned below.
His teaching evaluations continue to be in high 4s on a 5-point scale. Two sections of one course had evaluations of 4.9 on a 5-point scale, and other course had a perfect 5, in which every student gave him a 5 out of 5 on every dimension of instructor evaluation.
In 2014, his course was selected on the basis of a national competition sponsored by the Decision Sciences Institute as one of the three most innovative courses in America. An earlier version of this work had received the same honor in 2004.
Guiding undergraduate research continues to be his major academic activity. This is very significant, because making competitive national research presentations is not normal for undergraduates, particularly those as young as his students, some of whom have been 15-16 years old at the time. Many students have written to Dr. Sethna years after taking his course to say how much they have benefited from the rigorous instruction they received, and the opportunities for national accomplishments.
Over the past seven years, teams of undergraduate students working under his guidance have had six journal articles published or accepted, two of them with Dr. Sethna as a co-author.
Dr. Sethna’s students and he have crossed a major milestone in undergraduate research. Since 2003, more than 150 of his students have had their work accepted for presentation to at least one national conference; some more than one, for a total of more than 230 such national presentations. In addition, his students have garnered six national first prizes for undergraduate research at the National Social Sciences Association.
In 2017, Dr. Sethna was elected Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year by students in the Honor Society for Business. Also in 2017, he received a Faculty Research Award in the Richards College of Business, and in 2018, he received a Faculty Teaching Award.
Since he retired from the position of President in June of 2013, he has had ten journal articles (single author and co-authored) published, including one 2019 acceptance. Over his career, his record includes 75 publications.
In academic circles, one measure of performance in addition to the publication of articles, is the number of times a faculty member’s publications are cited by authors of other publications. According to Google Scholar, Dr. Sethna’s work has been cited in more than 1,350 publications.
KEYNOTE SPEECHES:
Dr. Sethna is a popular speaker with well over a hundred speeches to his credit. In addition to scores of speeches to service clubs such as Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, he has been the keynote speaker at several international and national conferences and meetings sponsored by various corporate and academic groups.
He has also been the keynote speaker at two Naturalization Ceremonies sponsored by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service in which new U.S. Citizens are sworn in. He has also been the Commencement (graduation / convocation) speaker at U.S. colleges.
The Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP) is a national professional development program sponsored by the Institute for Educational Leadership, which provides potential education leaders with the knowledge and networks to advance the core issues of education policy. Dr. Sethna was involved with the conception of the EPFP in Georgia and has been a major speaker in the program each year for the past ten years, which is as long as the Georgia program has been in existence.
In April of 2016, he presented a TEDx Talk entitled, “An American Star” – that talk was published on the web on May 17, 2016. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xgdPxDPCaQ
OTHER ACTIVITIES:
Since he relinquished the position of President, Dr. Sethna teaches in the summers at Balgram, an orphanage school in rural Maharashtra. He brings equipment for science experiments with him each year, so that the children can learn science concepts by doing hands-on science activities themselves. He leaves the equipment behind so that the children have access to this equipment even after Dr. Sethna has left. The students also gain a degree of familiarity with English in this process, which will come in useful to them in their search for employment.
He also raises funds for the orphanage using his connections and fund-raising experience. For example, thanks to a U.S. donor, he has been able to provide computers, solar lights, and recently completed a fund-raiser to provide solar-powered water heaters for the approximately 100 children at the orphanage.
Dr. Sethna is an invited speaker at American Council on Education (ACE, the largest such association in the US) at several national meetings for aspiring leaders; most recently, he was the keynote speaker in 2016 in New Orleans. He is also a Presidential Mentor to help aspiring administrators rise in the hierarchy. Two of his protegés from ACE programs have already reached the level of President, in addition to four others, not affiliated with the ACE program.
Dr. Sethna was named the Most Outstanding Zoroastrian Professional in the World in 2014.
FAMILY:
Dr. Sethna has been married for more than 44 years to the multi-talented Dr. Madhavi Sethna, who has an MBA from IIM-A, an MA from Columbia University, an MS from Clarkson University, and her doctorate from UWG.
Together, they have two children and three grandchildren. Dr. Anita Sethna is a surgeon specializing in facial plastics and reconstructive surgery at Emory University, married to Dr. Robert Cole, a cardiologist; they are the parents of 4-year old Zarina Cole and 2-year-old Cyra Cole. Shaun Sethna is an intellectual property attorney in Houston, married to Sunita Shirodkar, also an attorney; they are the parents of 2½-year old Surin Sethna.