Citing a combination of personal reasons and professional opportunities, Joseph Bilello, dean of Ball State University's College of Architecture and Planning, will end his term as dean at the conclusion of the 2006-07 academic year and rejoin the college's faculty.

"The dean's position has been extremely challenging and gratifying, but it demands a huge commitment of time and energy and a person who can bring undivided attention and enthusiasm to the work," Bilello said. "I have a family that has stood by during a dozen years of my architectural education leadership commitments here and at Texas Tech University, and I'd like to spend more time with them."

Bilello was associate dean at Texas Tech's College of Architecture before coming to Ball State in 2001 and national director of education for the American Institute of Architects for eight years prior to that.

"It is a most exciting time to be a part of the architectural profession and discipline now with great diversification, emerging syntheses with other fields and significant international opportunities for practice," Bilello said. "Rejoining the faculty will give me more opportunities to be engaged in the field again."

Bilello plans to return to teaching, research and architectural practice. In addition, he plans to spend more time with family and in his nearly completed studio in the mountains between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M.

Bilello's term at Ball State was marked by the creation of the CAP Indianapolis Center, the first national rankings of the architecture and landscape architecture programs, the conversion of the architecture program to a master' degree and the 40th anniversary retrospective for CAP.

Also during this time, Bilello was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects, selected by architectural educators nationally to run for president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and cited by Design Intelligence's "Almanac of Architecture" as one of America's top 30 exemplary leaders in architectural education.

The university's search for a new dean will begin later this summer.

(Note to editors: To arrange an interview with Bilello, contact Glenn Augustine, associate director of university communications, at (765) 285-1560 or ggaugustine@bsu.edu.)