The City University of New York Board of Trustees has named Dr. Fred W. Beaufait president of New York City Technical College. He comes to the school from Wayne State University, where he was dean of the College of Engineering and director of the National Science Foundation's Greenfield Coalition for engineering education.

Beaufait received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Mississippi State in 1958, a master's degree from the University of Kentucky, and a doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

He was a faculty member and assistant dean for engineering education at Vanderbilt University from 1965 to 1979, when he became chair of West Virginia University's Department of Civil Engineering. In 1986, he was named dean of the engineering program at Wayne State, a post he held for 10 years.

During his tenure there, he greatly strengthened the college's research program, attracting grants and contracts totaling nearly $9.5 million by 1995. He also rebuilt the college's minority engineering program and inaugurated master's programs in manufacturing engineering and in engineering technology.

Beaufait also has served as a structural engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and has been a visiting professor at universities in England, Wales, and Mexico.

Founded in 1946, New York City Technical College has an enrollment of 11,500. The college offers 40 career-specific baccalaureate and associate degrees in the fields of arts technologies, business, communication, health and engineering-related technologies, basic and applied sciences, human services, and technical and occupational education.