Instead of a regular Admin Council meeting on Monday (2/24/2014), a special meeting of just the chairs, ATLAS director, and dean was held. A summary of the discussion is provided below.

Graduate Enrollments, Recruitment and Programs

While graduate enrollments are up 35% in the past six years, they are leveling off, and enrollments of new PhD students are declining. Reasons for the decline in new PhD students cited by the chairs include:

  1. limited offers with funding,
  2. pool of highly talented students nor large enough,
  3. lower yields as competing schools now have overcome their budget crises and are making good financial offers,
  4. poor facilities,
  5. relatively low numbers of international admissions, and
  6. admissions are made by research groups in some departments but student interests often differ from areas with available funding.

Most (not all) departments require individual faculty members to make commitments to support specific prospective students before financial offers are made. Some ways that the college could help departments to grow their PhD programs as we add new faculty include

  1. additional funding for grad students,
  2. additional staff support for grad programs – especially during peak time of Dec – Feb when applications are being processed,
  3. improved marketing to attract more applicants, and
  4. share best practices through the Graduate Education Council.

Rob noted that the number of Dean’s Graduate Assistantship offers made has been doubled in two years, while the Dean’s Graduate Fellowship offers have increased 2.5-fold. The TA funding to departments has also increased as undergraduate enrollments have grown, and Rob indicated it would increase at least 10% this coming year. He urged departments to use this funding to make more offers with financial support to prospective PhD students. Overall, departments are encouraged to be less risk adverse, by pooling resources and playing the odds on how many offers will be accepted. It was also noted that the promise of travel funds for conferences may be more attractive to prospective PhD students than one-time supplemental fellowships.

Faculty and Staff Evaluations

Evaluations of exempt staff are now done, and supervisors are to meet with their exempt staff and discuss evaluations. Overall in our college, about 28% were rated “outstanding”, 32% “exceeds expectations” and 40% “meets expectations”. Faculty evaluations are due at the end of March. The campus has requested a 3% raise pool for faculty and exempt staff, but a decision will not be made until at least April and will depend on tuition levels.

Initial Discussion of Proposed BS in TAM degree

ATLAS is proposing to extend its popular Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) certificate and minor to include a BS in TAM major, with students matriculated in our college. A more complete discussion will be held at the next meeting, but initial feedback included support for APPM calculus in the curriculum, even though it will limited student eligibility, and for using tenure-line faculty and instructors with PhD degrees. It was also noted that this degree would not likely be ABET accredited.

Faculty Searches and Hiring

The interview season has been in full force but should wind down soon. Departments and programs should contact Rob when they are ready to make offers. There are some possibilities for making two offers from a single search, if there are sufficiently strong candidates.

In Attendance

Rob Davis, Penny Axelrad, Dan Schwartz, Jim Martin, Keith Molenaar, Mike Lightner, Jana Milford, Mark Gross