During this year's traditional New Year's reception at the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society, the university's two long-serving vice presidents, Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Dallmann (59) and Prof. Dr. Andreas Gissel (53), were bidden farewell. After university president Prof. Dr. Peter Mudra looked back on an eventful 2018 and previewed 2019, Mudra paid tribute to the achievements of his two vice presidents.
In his New Year's speech, University President Professor Dr. Peter Mudra looked back on an eventful and moving 2018: "2018 was not a child's birthday, but an extraordinarily challenging year," Mudra summed up, referring, for example, to the delays in the new building, the discussion about an alternative "City Campus" in Ludwigshafen's city center, or the strategic further development and sharpening of the profile as part of the university development plan of the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science. At the same time, however, it was also an immensely successful year, if the traditional indicators for the performance of universities are used as a yardstick, said Mudra: "The number of students and the third-party funds raised are currently at an all-time high. Furthermore, the university has again received funding approval for two projects in the second stage of the prestigious application line of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) "Advancement through Education - Open University." And we have held more events beyond education than ever before." According to the president, it was precisely the team spirit, the good and effective cooperation in the self-administration, that created the basis for this.
Looking ahead to the new year, Mudra focused in particular on the state's higher education future program and the resulting Higher Education Future Act, which is due in 2020. Here one waits anxiously for the concrete defaults on Mainz. What is already clear, however, is a more intensive cooperation with Worms University of Applied Sciences - "while preserving autonomy" - as well as a further profiling in the areas of health and care. In addition, the negotiation processes for the fourth higher education pact of the federal and state governments are pending, from which the university management would like to see, in particular, solid basic financing of the universities, more flexible study programs and an expansion of research professorships.
The second part of the event was then dedicated to the farewell of the long-standing Vice Presidents for University Development and International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Dallmann and Prof. Dr. Andreas Gissel - "both a stroke of luck for the university, which they have decisively helped to advance," as University President Mudra and the two laudators, Prof. Dr. Arnd Götzelmann from the Department of Social and Health Services and Prof. Dr. Klaus Blettner, Dean of the Department of Marketing and Human Resources Management, emphasized in unison.
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Dallmann, Professor of Theology and Ethics at the Department of Social and Health Services, has held the office of Vice President since 2008. His areas of responsibility include, in particular, quality management (QM), diversity and program development. In addition, the theologian, who holds a doctorate, has been teaching and conducting research in Ludwigshafen since 1991 in the areas of ethics, social science foundations, philosophy of science, systems theory approaches and migration. Now Hans-Ulrich Dallmann will hand over the office to the previous dean of the Department of Social and Health Services, Professor Dr. Ellen Bareis, on March 1, 2019. He will remain with the university as a university lecturer in the Department of Social and Health Services.
Since January 2015, Dr. Andres Gissel, professor of business administration, in particular logistics and organization, in the Department of Marketing & Human Resources Management, has been active as vice president for international contacts and international affairs. During his four-year tenure, Gissel traveled from Europe and America to Asia, Africa and Australia on behalf of the university, in addition to his teaching activities in Ludwigshafen. Now, at his own request, he is handing over the office to his successor, Professor Dr. Edith Rüger-Muck, head of the Master's degree program in International Marketing Management. Like Dallmann, Andreas Gissel will continue to teach at the Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society.
