Strategy A: Attract outstanding students to our undergraduate programs.
The better and more motivated are our students, the better will be the level of classes, the rate of throughput, the better our product for industry and society, and the larger will be the added value of an engineering education.
Action 1. Aggressively recruit the very best students from all elements of society.
The future of the engineering profession truly depends upon our ability to draw the best students from the broadest cross-section of society. This College should continue to seek innovative methods for increasing diversity and supporting our diverse student body.
Responsibility: Assoc. Dean for Student Affairs, Asst. Dean for Graduate Recruiting
Resources: Funding for targeted scholarships through Texas Exes or other external bodies
Timeline: Continuing
Success Metric: Increasing numbers and proportion of diverse student populations
Progress: Samsung/Austin, EDS/Dallas, and Schlumberger/Houston each hosted a Recruitment Dinner for admitted, high achieving students. Sixty-nine students and over 160 parents attended. The dinners also included alumni, Ambassadors, faculty, and staff.
All admitted prospective students were sent a letter of congratulations from Dean Streetman. The Student Affairs office also attempted to call all admitted prospective students with a total SAT (or equivalent ACT) score of 1400 or higher.
Dr. Glenn Masada, Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs-- We recruit students at graduate and professional school recruiting fairs, such as the Texas Swing. We also supply material to Graduate School representatives who attend GRE fairs throughout the country.
The College makes presentations about graduate school to various campus organizations and on-site industrial forums.
Action 2: Enlarge the pool of scholarship funds for undergraduates and enhance the attractiveness of scholarships by providing associated corporate internships and other scholarship enhancements.
The attractiveness of scholarships to outstanding prospective students is correlated with the size of the scholarships and the associated benefits that go with them. Additional benefits can be added to financial packages, including associated guaranteed internships with industry in the summer preceding enrollment plus one additional summer, international internships for National Merit Scholars, and the provision of laptop computers. Other possibilities for enhancement include naming scholarships (Ramshorn Award, Alec Award, etc.), and giving awardees a choice of enhancements from a menu (all cash, partial cash plus internship, still less cash plus internship plus laptop, etc.)
Responsibility: Primary: Asst. Dean for Development, Assoc. Dean for Student Affairs; Participatory: Departmental Chairmen
Resources: The College plus University resources presently provide about $3.1M/year of scholarship support ($1.7M CoE and $1.4M University). These are awarded under varying criteria to about 1,400 students at an average award of about $2,200 with the highest being $7,500. This action would add 250 targeted high-achievers with scholarship packages such that:
- 100 students receive $10K/yr $1M
- 150 students receive $5K/yr $0.75M
This action would require an additional $1.75M/yr ($1.3M from the CoE and $0.45M from the University). Corporate internships (summer) should be associated with 50% of the scholarships. Laptop computers should be offered to select scholarship recipients.
Timeline: Phase in to reach goal within 4 years
Success Metric: Meet the target number of students by department; monitor increase in number of National Merit scholars attracted, and average GPA and SAT scores of entering students
Progress: Available scholarship funds increased due to higher return on endowments and more funding from Friends of Alec. Tricia Berry, the new Director for Engineering Scholarships, will also be responsible for development of additional scholarship dollars from corporations. The focus will be on entities that would not necessarily fund an endowment, but would fund a scholarship on a one year, or more basis.
John Halton reports that we are actively pursuing the development of scholarship funds as a part of the overall University Capital Campaign, "We're Texas." Of the $70 million goal for the College, approximately $50 million is projected for support for graduate and undergraduate students.
We have pursued the development of "recruiting internships" with Motorola and IBM whereby high school graduates are offered summer internships contingent on their intent to attend our College. The Engineering Career Assistance Center also encourages all companies hiring for permanent positions to also hire for co-ops and interns.
Mechanical Engineering has recently begun offering some newly funded scholarships.
Action 3: Mount an aggressive recruitment effort through the CoE alumni, faculty and College of Engineering Ambassadors program both in and outside of Texas.
One-on-one contact is a proven effective strategy for recruiting outstanding students. This will require organizing and enlisting alumni volunteers and expanding the Ambassadors program. Effective web information for prospective students should be available to showcase the opportunities for a quality education and back up the face-to-face information exchange with prospective engineering majors.
Responsibility: Associate Dean for Student Affairs
Resources: One half-time staff member in Dean's office, approximately $25k/yr; College of Engineering Ambassadors
Timeline: Initiate program within 1 year. All potential scholarship candidates reached within 3 years
Success Metric: Number of students contacted, success rate for enrolling recruited students
Progress: Tricia Berry, the new Director for Engineering Scholarships, will have a role in recruiting students. With the installation of the new Sequituir system for identifying selected groups of high school students, our ability to provide information to College of Engineering alumni, faculty, and staff in a timely fashion will be improved. No staff has been added.
Mechanical Engineering will start organizing faculty for this work. This department has also improved their web page to assist new student inquiries.
Action 4: Intensify efforts to publicize the importance of teaching in the College.
The number of COE faculty who have won major awards for both teaching and research is impressive. We need to work on dispelling the myth of the research/teaching conflict. Publicizing the importance placed on teaching through success stories and student testimonials would help the community and the University recognize our commitment to the highest quality teaching.
Responsibility: Communications Director
Resources: Minimal...possibly some additional staff time in CoE communications department.
Timeline: Immediate
Success Metric: Improved perception as measured by surveys of incoming students, current students and graduates
The Communications Director has successfully pitched stories on Dr.Bourell's Lockheed Teaching Award and Dr. Lawler's Piper Professor Award to various news media.
Strategy B: Establish a strong liaison with high school math and science teachers and career counselors.
The College probably loses many engineering prospects because high school advisors do not fully understand engineering and the potential for careers in engineering. To improve communications, the College should:
Action 1: Expand our K-12 outreach efforts, especially to counselors and science/math teachers. Begin with a target set of high schools chosen to represent a cross-section of Texas, and use this set to implement and test improved enrollment and communication.
Counselors and science/math teachers are important advocates for universities. Promoting the awareness of the excellence of our programs and contributing directly to their professional development through training programs will enhance the visibility of the College to prospective students. Effective use of Web-based information aimed at potential students, especially in the K-6 range, should be made the basis for this activity. Consider preparing instructor aids with engineering problems, prominently displaying the UT CoE logo and nameplates. Special emphasis should be placed on the availability and activities of WEP, EOE, and other student support programs.
Responsibility: Dean's office leads organization and planning; faculty to work with Dean's staff (CES) to obtain grants and carry out training. College Development Office, Student Affairs Office, Department Alumni Liaisons
Resources: One half-time staff member in Dean's office ($25k/yr) plus cost of teacher training programs to be supported by corporate, federal and state grants, College of Engineering Ambassadors; WEP and EOE programs, UIL, ECAC, corporate assistance, EFAC, Visiting Committees, Faculty, Friends of Alec, Texas Exes.
Timeline: 1 year for development of comprehensive plan, 3 years to implement on a statewide scale
Success Metric: Number of students reached, number of applications and enrollments from these schools
Progress: The College of Engineering recognizes the importance of exciting more students on becoming engineers and of educating the community at large about technology and its benefits to society. Using the advice and guidance provided by the College's Advisory Board, the College is pursuing the creation of a Center for K-14 Partnerships. The Center will focus on increasing the number of Texas students enrolling in engineering programs, on informing and exciting teachers, counselors, faculty and parents about the engineering profession, and on identifying resources from private industry and state and federal agencies for reaching these audiences.
The College is pursuing having an executive-on-loan from a local industry partner to join its staff on a full-time basis to initiate the creation of the Center for K-14. Once the Center is launched, many of the initiatives associated with the College's Strategic Plan and the K-14 community will be addressed and institutionalized.
Action 2: Hold an annual symposium for counselors and science/math teachers on campus.
Responsibility: Associate Dean for Student Affairs
Resources: UIL, ECAC, College of Engineering Ambassadors, WEP, EOE, corporate assistance, EFAC, Visiting Committees, Faculty, Friends of Alec, Texas Exes, some staff support
Timeline: In place within three years, self-sustaining
Success Metric: Number of participants and improved enrollment from target schools
Action 3: Take advantage of the faculty/alumni network to provide on-site information/communication at the high schools. Web-based backup information should be in place as a resource.
Responsibility: College Development Office
Resources: Alumni office, ECAC, College of Engineering Ambassadors
Timeline: In place within three years, self-sustaining
Success Metric: Number of participants and level of activity, improved enrollment from visited schools
Progress: John Halton notes that we have not been able to move on implementation of this item because of the need for staff support or reallocation of duties, although the Academic Affairs Office is strengthening the College's web site which is available to high school students and counselors.
Strategy C: Nurture and retain undergraduate students throughout their programs.
After students are successfully recruited to our programs, they should be immediately made to feel a strong affiliation to the College and Department. Students at all GPA levels contribute to the strength of this College, and all should be offered the greatest support in their studies and student activities.
Action 1: Implement programs for improving student retention rate.
The College has many programs aimed at retaining students and promoting their sense of community. These include the Honors Program, WEP, EOE, student organizations, and others. Yet we continue to suffer a high attrition rate. A study of the reasons for the attrition rate should be undertaken. It may be that the programs in place, which each address a certain segment of the student population, still miss an important portion of our students. Innovative programs for involving and retaining all students should be evolved, and they should be strongly linked to University retention programs.
Responsibility: Associate Dean for Student Affairs
Resources: Existing staff, faculty committees
Timeline: Immediate
Success Metric: Increased retention rate of undergraduate students
Progress: The name of the Freshman Fall Gathering was changed to New Student Fall Gathering and new transfer students were added to the program. The Student Affairs office participated in The University's pilot program for Freshman Interest Groups (FIG's). The College of Engineering had three FIG's with faculty, staff, and student mentor participation. Next fall, the College will have seven FIG's. Student Affairs is providing input to the President's committee on the Undergraduate Experience, which will use retention as one of its outcome measures.
The College of Engineering Research Advisory Committee suggested posting a web page for undergraduates to view research job opportunities. This site has been established and the Administrative Associate in the Bureau of Engineering is responsible for posting the jobs. Students may view this information through a link on the Engineering Career Assistance Center's web site. It was noted that the Pi Tau Sigma advisor of Mechanical Engineering currently gathers job information and posts job opportunities each semester.
Action 2: Develop undergraduate research internships to involve undergraduates systematically in the research enterprise of the College.
The size and quality of our research program is one of the main selling points of being at UT. An organized program of involvement in research would be a big attraction to undergraduate students and would encourage the best of them to stay here for graduate work. Faculty should be encouraged to write support for undergraduate research assistants into proposals. This program might be patterned after the very successful UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) at MIT.
Responsibility: Associate Dean for Research, Research Policy Advisory Committee
Resources: Minor. The primary need is organizational. Faculty need encouragement and incentives to enlist their participation.
Timeline: Program could be put in place within one year.
Success Metric: Number of students participating in the program in each department, retention rates relative to overall population, job offers and salaries of participating graduates, number of participants admitted to graduate schools both here and at other top tier institutions.
The Office of the Associate Dean for Research and the Engineering Career Assistance Center have created a new web site where faculty can post undergraduate research positions to be listed through the ECAC job site. This will allow faculty to fill their jobs and involve undergraduate students in research.
Strategy D: Attract outstanding students to our graduate programs.
Action 1: Provide graduate support packages competitive with top-ranked institutions.
To compete for the very best students, we must provide support on par with our competitors. We should assess what support level this requires by surveying other top-ranked colleges, then seek adequate external funding to provide it for 100% of our doctoral students and 50% of our masters students. Research provides a significant portion of this support.
Responsibility: Assistant Dean for Graduate Recruiting.
Resources: To be determined by study of competitor institutions and our current support resources. Additional endowed fellowships of $27.5M will double the support presently provided from College and Departmental resources.
Timeline: This program should be fully funded and implemented within 4 years.
Success Metric: Number of offers accepted in comparison with historical performance.
Progress Report from Dr. Glenn Masada, Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs--The following data is shared with Department Chairs and graduate advisors:
In general, UT salaries are lower than the average for teaching assistants and graduate research assistants. Dr. Glenn Masada recommends raising salaries. He notes that UT benefits for students employed half-time far exceed most peer institutions and are comparable to that provided by Texas A&M and University of Michigan.
Action 2: Provide travel grants and an enhanced organized visitation program for outstanding U.S. grad school applicants.
Visits by prospective graduate students to our campus are a strong recruiting tool. The present successful program should be enhanced to make our recruiting more effective, and to expose prospective students to the facilities that are available here. Web-based information should be kept current and effective by each department as backup. The College presently devotes $25,000/year to this program.
Responsibility: Assistant Dean for Graduate Recruiting
Resources: $660 grants to approximately 250 prospective students per year (50 ME, 60 ECE, 25 ASE/EM, 55 CE, 10 PGE, 50 ChE) for a total of $165k/yr. Industrial sponsorship may be sought for some areas of recruiting and student interest.
Timeline: 100 grants first year (Spring, 2000), 250 grants second year and out.
Success Metric: Percentage of visiting students who enroll at UT compared with historical figures or non-visiting population.
Progress Report from Dr. Glenn Masada, Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs--The College provided approximately $40,000 in 1999 ($25,000 for College Fellows and $15,000 for other good students). The $15,000 allocation for other good students is not an automatic yearly allocation.
The departments/graduate programs provided approximately $50,000 in 1999.
Thanks to John Halton, Assistant Dean for College & Alumni Relations, Motorola has committed $20,000 to help support the 2000 recruiting efforts of the College. These funds will be used to expand the scope of the site visit programs.
Dr. Masada will be working with John Halton to identify additional industrial donors.
Action 3: Evaluate the need for graduate programs to serve the local and regional industrial community and develop an appropriate response.
This action should be referred to the Outreach Education and Instructional Technology Committee for study and to provide a plan for action if this is found to be a College priority. The Committee should recommend a suitable reward structure for faculty who advise non-thesis and report option students in these programs. [Also see (G2:SD:A1); (G3:SC:A2-5)]
Progress--The local and regional industrial community seeks a broad-based offering from The University of Texas at Austin when it comes to continuing education. This offering, or portfolio, should include degree programs as well as shorter non-credit programs.