University Goal 2: Attract and Retain, Support and Develop Excellent Faculty

Students are the lifeblood of a university. Faculty are the heart and soul. The College supports the University goal of attracting, nurturing, and retaining excellent faculty. The last ten years have been particularly fruitful.

A goal of the College is to attract excellent faculty. As Figure 4 below shows, the number of faculty has increased by 30 from 108 in 1988 to 138 in 1996.

FIGURE 4. College of Engineering Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty.

Departments which hired faculty reported the hiring of excellent faculty from strong applicant pools. Most faculty hires have come from nationally and internationally recognized universities with reputations for education and research. Adequate start-up funds have been available for new faculty hires. Obtaining tenure has not been a problem for these faculty in most departments. Uneven progress has been made in hiring from underrepresented groups. Four departments with no women tenure-track faculty in 1988 now have several: Civil and Environmental Engineering (3), Mechanical Engineering/Engineering Mechanics (2), Chemical Engineering (2), and Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (1). Two departments have increased the number of women tenure-track faculty from one to two: Electrical Engineering and Geological Engineering and Sciences. However, no hires have been made from minority groups.

Another College goal is to retain faculty. Most departments have retained the excellent faculty they hired. New faculty are usually given lower teaching and service workloads so that they can develop their research and teaching. Electrical Engineering had a serious problem with faculty not being tenured because of high teaching loads, which left little time for professional development. This problem has been resolved by reducing teaching loads and better mentoring. Although no department has a formal mentoring program, junior faculty are given feedback on progress through annual reviews and obtain advice from the senior faculty. "New Faculty Orientation" and seminars throughout the quarter help prepare new faculty for teaching and research and introduces them to the University.

A third goal is to support and develop faculty. All departments, with the help of the College, are committed to supporting their faculty with available funds. Most provide funding for modest travel, computer support, and minimal technical support. All new faculty are given a financial start-up package that is generally used for computing, graduate students, and summer support. Some faculty have also received funds for equipment. Start-up funding comes from the departments, the College, and the Vice Provost for Research, in roughly equal amounts. One weakness is that some departments have higher than average teaching loads (see Goal 1.1). This makes it more difficult for their faculty to conduct research while maintaining high-quality teaching. Electrical Engineering made a concerted effort to reduce teaching loads, which has paid off in terms of increasing research and graduate activity and a better student-faculty ratio.

Another weakness in faculty development is that Michigan Tech faculty as a whole, including those in the College, do not often take sabbatical leaves. The University recognizes this problem and has been trying to create incentives for faculty to take advantage of sabbatical leave. In addition, operating budgets of the College and departments are often insufficient to support adequate faculty development. Some departments also noted that lack of adequate space is a problem, although some space problems will be alleviated when the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building is occupied in the Fall of 1998 (see Goal 7).

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