MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Growth and Self-Sufficiency Key to Survival
The quality is good, but financial reality means we must work on upping the quantity

 By Jeff Goldberg, Dean of the College of Engineering

It has been quite an adventure in the college with the recent major changes in the campus budget system. As we become less dependent on state appropriations, UA colleges will increasingly finance the majority of their missions through undergraduate and graduate student tuition. For UA Engineering, this means adopting strategies that increase enrollment and boost graduation rates at all levels.

We have improved undergraduate quality during the past 5 years and it is now time to increase student quantity. Some of you will remember being lined up with your fellow freshmen and being asked to look to your left and to look to your right, and then being told that only one of you would finish. Those days are long gone, and we now need to look at strategies to support students to completion.

We are assembling a group of our best teaching faculty to work more with freshman and sophomores. We recently received special tuition authorization for reducing class size, adding more teaching assistants, and increasing tutoring programs. We are also developing a student innovation center for our student club activities and for senior design project teams (more on this new building in future issues!). If we want the best students joining the college, then we need the best facilities and the best teaching and retention strategies to go with our strong professors and staff.

At the graduate level we are developing master’s degree and certificate programs that reflect industry needs by providing flexible class schedules and online distance learning. We will be rolling out programs in engineering management, systems engineering, mining engineering, sustainability, solar energy, and construction management. Programs in electrical and computer engineering and aerospace and mechanical engineering are scheduled for 2012-2013. The goal is to provide a base of programs in a wide range of engineering disciplines that help alumni, professionals, and companies enhance their technical skills.

I want to thank you for your continued support. Over the next few years, our strategy is to grow and become more financially self-sufficient. We cannot do this without the generous support of our alumni and friends.

Go Cats!

Jeff