Distance Education and Professional Master鈥檚 Programs
The Regents have approved a new tuition structure for Engineering Professional Master鈥檚 Programs, $860 per credit for residents and $990 per credit for nonresidents. All master of engineering (ME) students will be charged this rate next year, as will distance-education students (we were originally told distance-education students pursuing MS degrees would be charged the regular, on-campus tuition rates, but that is no longer the case). Programs will also have the opportunity to propose new professional master鈥檚 programs.
Open Access Publications
The campus is establishing a digital repository for journal publications, which will be open/free access. The administrative council supports this concept, though some journals may charge a fee or require a delay before its papers can be posted open access.
Engineering Advisory Council Meeting on April 24
Department chairs will present their gap analyses relative to the college strategic growth plans, followed by small-group discussions with administrative council members. Each chair may invite 1 -2 other faculty leaders to participate.
Review of Faculty Hiring Status
Some departments have made early offers as a result of the new process, with several acceptances in advance of completing all interviews. We are also playing the odds by making multiple offers, though it is too early to know the acceptance rates. The application and interview pools have had similar diversity as last year, though again too early to have offer/acceptance statistics. Dean鈥檚 Assistantships can be used as part of the departmental contributions to the startup packages, provided that they have a mechanism for the new faculty to select PhD students from among those awarded the assistantships.
Renovation Update
A firm has been selected for the design of renovations of the Engineering Center (primarily the civil engineering and former chemical engineering wings). The design will start in April, and the renovations will take place in 2016.
In Attendance
Rob Davis, JoAnn Zelasko, Doug Smith, Diane Sieber, Mary Steiner, Scott Palo, Sarah Miller, Penny Axelrad, Janet deGrazia, Hari Rajaram, Jim Martin, Bob Erickson, Todd Murray, David Reed