In support of both undergraduate education enhancement and graduate program development, the College has made progress in attracting and retaining faculty from nationally and internationally recognized research universities that include Harvard, MIT, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon. Since 1988, we have increased the number of tenured/tenure track faculty from 126 to 153 (see Table 4 below). Strengths and opportunities which allowed us to attract these faculty include retirements, eight conversions of instructor positions (2 in Computer Science, 3 in Mathematical Sciences, and 3 in Humanities), 19 new faculty lines, a poor job market which created a deep pool of candidates, and the development of graduate and research programs in all degree-granting departments. In the Humanities Department, TAs have replaced most part-time instructors in the first-year-English sequence. Overall, the faculty numbers reflect the change from part-time/temporary instructors to TA/tenure-track faculty, consistent with the implementation of Ph.D. programs and the increase of research expenditures.

TABLE 4. College of Sciences and Arts Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty (Fall Count).

Department	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Biological Sciences	13	11	10	11	12	14	14	13	13
Chemistry	13	14	17	17	17	17	19	19	19
Computer Science	6	7	4	6	8	9	9	9	8
Education	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Fine Arts	-	-	-	-	-	-	8	8	9
Humanities	32	34	34	35	35	35	29	32	32
Mathematics	29	27	27	29	28	31	32	33	32
Physical Education	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Physics	16	17	17	18	17	18	18	19	19
Social Sciences	14	13	13	12	14	15	15	16	17
Total	126	125	124	130	133	141	146	152	153

The College of Sciences and Arts was the first unit on campus to improve the tenure and promotion process by systematically updating and clarifying its tenure and promotion guidelines and expectations. Since February of 1992, updated departmental guidelines have been available—headed by College Summary Guidelines. As a result, the recommendations from faculty (departmental and college committees) and chairs have become very consistent. Pedagogical research has been recognized as a viable path to promotion.

More faculty in the College of Sciences and Arts take advantage of sabbaticals than faculty in other colleges and schools. Departments succeed in supporting conference participation and other professional development of their faculty by combining funds from Supplies, Services, and Equipment (SS&E), return on overhead, release time and leaves, and the Michigan Tech Fund. The resulting faculty research profile is discussed in Goal 4.

The College continues to make progress in diversifying its faculty ranks. Currently, 30% of our tenured/tenure track faculty are female (47 out of 157). Also, four out of twelve department chairs are female. Minority hiring is still a weakness; we have only two tenured African-American and one Native American faculty.

University Goal 3: Strengthen and Develop Graduate Programs.

For the past decade, doctoral-program development has been a high priority for the College (see "Program Developments," above). The Ph.D. program in Rhetoric and Technical Communication has been especially successful in placing its first graduates in tenure track positions at nationally known universities including Purdue, Clemson, and Syracuse.

Since 1988, the number of graduate students has increased by 74% from 128 (93 MS, 35 Ph.D.) to 223 (109 MS, 114 Ph.D.). The enrollment figures for the College show that our students make up 29% and 41% of the University’s masters and Ph.D. student body (see Tables 5 and 6).

TABLE 5. Masters Enrollment in the College of Sciences and Arts (Fall Count).

Unit	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Biological Sciences	16	18	14	12	13	17	18	18	18
Chemistry	7	15	13	16	15	13	18	16	13
Computer Science	15	12	18	20	22	26	25	26	25
Mathematics	15	17	17	16	19	16	16	12	14
Humanities	25	31	31	33	22	17	20	23	23
Physics	15	9	11	3	1	2	2	2	0
Social Sciences	-	-	-	-	4	8	10	9	16
Total	93	102	104	100	96	99	109	106	109

TABLE 6. Doctoral Enrollment in the College of Sciences and Arts (Fall Count).

Unit	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Biological Sciences	16	15	16	18	19	20	23	25	20
Chemistry	11	13	17	20	23	25	23	25	19
Mathematics	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Humanities	-	4	17	32	40	46	45	49	51
Physics	8	12	20	18	23	27	29	28	23
Total	35	44	70	88	105	118	120	127	114

Tables 7 and 8 show the number of masters and doctoral degrees granted by the College.

TABLE 7.Masters Degrees Granted by the College of Sciences and Arts.

Degree Earned	1990/1	1991/2	1992/3	1993/4	1994/5	1995/6	1996/7
Biological Sciences	3	7	3	8	2	2	5
Chemistry	4	4	6	5	7	7	5
Computer Science	3	5	8	12	11	11	12
Industrial Archeology	-	-	-	2	1	4	4
Mathematics	7	7	4	8	10	7	6
Physics	2	4	6	2	3	4	7
Rhetoric and Technical Communication	12	10	14	12	3	5	4
Total	31	37	41	49	37	40	44

TABLE 8. Doctoral Degrees Granted by the College of Sciences and Arts.

Degree Earned	1990/1	1991/2	1992/3	1993/4	1994/5	1995/6	1996/7
Applied Physics	3	3		2	1	3	3
Biological Sciences	2	4	2	3	2	5	3
Chemistry	5	1	1		5	5	2
Physics	-	-	-	-	3	1	3
Rhetoric and Technical Communication	-	-	-	2	3	3	7
Total	10	8	3	7	14	17	18

Because the MS degree in the College of Sciences and Arts was more traditionally a transitional degree towards the Ph.D. rather than a desired terminal degree, the College chose to put most of its efforts towards Ph.D. degrees. In light of recent employment opportunities for MS graduates, this decision needs to be re-examined.

All departments have guidelines which summarize the duties, training, and supervision of graduate student assistants (either teaching or research). For example, the Department of Humanities developed an extensive GTA Handbook for Teaching Composition at MTU in
1994/5. The Department of Mathematical Sciences has had an in-depth training and supervision program in place since Fall 1993. Computer Science has a week-long training program each fall for new TAs followed by close faculty supervision.

One opportunity for strengthening the graduate programs is by encouraging interdisciplinary research. A strength is the availability of a highly qualified research faculty among MTU departments and the fact that many of these faculty have overlapping research interests. For example, the Computer Science and Engineering Ph.D. program is designed to be interdisciplinary. Biological Sciences currently has seven graduate students who are conducting their research in biology laboratories but who are members of other departments and who are receiving graduate degrees from departments other than Biological Sciences. A weakness is the fact that the university lacks an administrative mechanism which would allow for interdisciplinary enrollment and provide credit and incentive to pursue these collaborations.

A potential barrier to growth is physical space limitations, especially in Fisher Hall (Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics) and in the Academic Office Building (Social Sciences). This will be discussed in more detail under Goal 7. The completion of the Environmental Sciences Building and space reassignment in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Building should provide some relief for Biological Sciences and Chemistry. Two other possible weaknesses include inadequate library holdings which frustrate both graduate students and faculty, and the lack of a regularized, centrally administered graduate program review process.

University Goal 4: Enhance and Expand Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity within the University.

The faculty in the College of Sciences and Arts have a very respectable research profile (Table 9.)

Table 9. College of Sciences and Arts Faculty Research.

Category	Number per faculty annually
Refereed Publications	1.3
Books and/or Book Chapters	0.2
Non-refereed Publications	0.7
Presentations	1.4
Invited Presentations	0.7
National offices, committees, editorships, etc.	1.1

Eighty percent of the graduate faculty has been cited in citation indices. Such a large percentage is evidence that these numbers are true average numbers, not numbers generated by a few faculty doing most of the research and scholarship. The faculty of the College exhibits the same trend in externally funded research, which has more than doubled since 1990, from $1.1 million to $2.7 million in 1996 (see Table 9).

TABLE 10. College of Sciences and Arts Research Expenditures per Fiscal Year (Dollars in Thousands).

Unit	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Biological Sciences	651	743	678	689	529	526	840	884	1230
Chemistry	0	0	0	257	349	154	38	118	366
Computer Science	20	181	0	0	24	69	89	189	175
Humanities	122	117	103	0	0	0	1	1	23
Mathematics	68	80	61	56	67	100	152	253	190
Physics	709	582	265	376	236	287	440	522	633
Social Sciences	43	43	8	78	156	35	61	97	85
Total	1,613	1,746	1,115	1,456	1,361	1,171	1,621	2,064	2,702

The relatively high number in 1988 was due in part to a large equipment grant in Physics. Also, in 1989, part of the Physics research funding was transferred (together with the principal investigator) to the College of Engineering. What is even more encouraging and promising than the substantial increase in external funds is the fact that a larger number of faculty from more departments is now successfully engaged in writing and winning grants from a larger group of agencies including National Science Foundation (NSF). The College's grant base has diversified, is less monolithic, and therefore less vulnerable to sudden shifts and changes in trends. It is quite remarkable that the faculty was able to achieve this kind of profile within the context and constraints of our institutional profile of roughly 90% undergraduate and 10% graduate students.

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