Stephen Boswell has been President of Boswell Engineering since 1990. First graduating from NYU in 1974 and then William Patterson, Dr. Boswell started his career as a high school chemistry and physics teacher. From there, Boswell moved out to California to pursue a career in industrial engineering, though he ultimately came home to what is now a 94-year-old family business. Boswell had started working at the company at the age of 14 helping with surveying and design, only to find himself back there as COO and eventually President in 1990.
In order for Dr. Boswell to run a civil engineering company, he felt that it was important to earn the Civil Engineer Degree, which is a double Master’s degree. Earning the degree is what ultimately lead Boswell to earn his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering.
Dr. Boswell has been on the Stevens Board of Trustees since the late ’90s. At the time, Boswell and the rest of the board were constantly saying, “What the heck are we going to do?” due to Stevens’ poor outlook. But thanks to the leadership of the former chair of the board, Virginia Ruesterholz, members of the board now aren’t worried about Stevens surviving, but rather motivated and excited for its future. During his almost 20 years on the board, Boswell has served as chair of almost every committee. He has even been one of the four vice chairs for a number of years.
Now stepping into the role of chair, Boswell’s main goal is to continue the work outlined by the Stevens 10 year Strategic Plan. This includes recruiting more students and faculty while still increasing the quality of both parties, increasing and improving facilities, and acquiring more funds for the school. In addition to this, he sees his biggest challenge as doing as good of a job as Mrs. Ruesterholz did, seeking to be “almost as good as she was,” and “not screw up what she did.” Ruesterholz was “transformational” in her ability to introduce financial discipline and make the university more student-centric. Boswell had nothing but praise for Ruesterholz, noting that she is incredibly bright and honest, “allowing everyone to speak,” and providing Stevens with its current momentum.
Boswell does not seek to make any major changes, but rather build on all of the work already done. “Most of the board will not notice a difference except for the person who is holding the gavel.” He noted small changes like changing the name of the annual board retreat to a summit. His goal is not to reinvent the wheel, but rather tweak some things.
At the same time, Boswell recognizes the many challenges that the Stevens community as a whole face, particularly the undergraduate community. The accelerated growth of the student population here at Stevens is a major point of contention for the undergraduate students who now suffer from being moved off campus at higher prices, and from more people stuffed into the classrooms. Boswell empathizes with these “growing pains” as part of the strategic plan to grow Stevens to 4,000 undergraduates but notes that relief is on the way. Particularly, he highlighted the new building set to replace Jacobus and Hayden. According to documents obtained from Stevens, the new building will host an additional 866 beds. In addition, a new university center will be included, which has yet to be officially named.
Another major issue due to the growth of Stevens is the lack of faculty resources for students, mainly in the Computer Science department. With Computer Science majors now overtaking Mechanical Engineering students for the second year in a row, the department has undergone rapid expansion. But Boswell assures students that “we are striving for excellence” by recruiting top quality faculty and noting that faculty growth is exceeding student growth. Boswell even joked that with the rise in number and quality of applicants, “most of the board members could not get in anymore.”
Even with all of the issues, the board is closely looking at every aspect of Stevens in great detail during every meeting. Their goal is, in conjunction with President Farvardin, to “run the school like a business.” To Boswell, the board is almost like the legislative branch — it sets policy for the executive branch, in this case, Farvardin, the provost, and the deans, to execute and oversee. In this sense, the two have worked to grow the Stevens endowment from about $58 million when Boswell joined the board to now $200 million.
As far as student involvement is noted, Boswell encourages students to get involved. With the Middle States Association only counting DuckLink, they estimated student involvement at 27%. But the way this is counted does not fit his definition of involvement which, in his view, should include Greek life, athletics, volunteer work, and more. Leading with that, Boswell made it clear that undergraduate involvement will not include a member of the undergraduate student sitting on the board due to conflict of interest. However, he did appear willing to encourage student presentation to the board on a more consistent basis.
Boswell noted that it is important for as many graduates to give back as possible. Not only does it help the school financially, but it also helps with rankings like U.S. News & World Report, which includes the percentage of undergraduates that give back to the school in ranking schools. The way he sees it, “it’s like paying it backward.” Stevens’ most recent giving percentage was 18% according to the Alumni Office. But the main reason for this is that even at full price, a Stevens education costs twice what any student may pay, and it’s important for alumni to remember this.
Finally, when asked what Stevens means to him, Boswell responded with, “Stevens is an institution that wants to stay on the leading edge of educating the next generation of leaders for America and the world.” He is very proud of Stevens and all of the students he has seen during graduation. “We have to be worth it, we are worth it.”
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