Subgoal 2: Assure the Recruitment and Retention of a High Quality, Diverse Student Body.

Enrollment.

Enrollments in the School were 280 in 1988 and fell to about 260 in 1991. Since 1991, enrollments have steadily risen. The enrollment history for each program in the School of Technology from 1988 to 1996 is presented in Figure 1.

TABLE 1. Total Enrollments—School of Technology (Fall Count).

Year	Student Head Count
1988	279
1989	282
1990	261
1991	241
1992	338
1993	346
1994	347
1995	368
1996	374
1997	361

Faculty have revised admissions criteria to allow students to directly enroll in the School’s BSET degree program. Before this change, students were required to enroll in an A. A. S. Degree program and then apply for admission to the BSET program. The change has had the effect of attracting students who know they want a four-year degree and who would otherwise self-select not to enroll in a two-year program.

Recruitment.

The School recruits from the top half of graduating high school classes and looks for students with ACT composite scores of 20 and above. This is a different group of students than the College of Engineering seeks; the School of Technology thus helps to support a more diverse student population within the University community (see also Figure 1, enrollment by gender, and Figure 2, minority representation).

FIGURE 1. Enrollment in the School of Technology by Gender.

FIGURE 2. Percentage of Students from Underrepresented Groups Enrolled in the School of Technology.

The reality is that most of the School’s students are transfer students who were admitted to MTU under more restrictive admissions standards. Therefore, faculty work with a high-quality student body. Transfer statistics for the academic year show that the School enrolled 52 new students during Fall, 1996 and received 33 transfer students from all sources, but primarily from other programs at MTU. During the Winter quarter, 1996/7 no new students enrolled, however, 29 students transferred (internal transfers) into the School. This data is typical for the School of Technology.

The School’s new Chemical Engineering Technology program is designed with a community college partnership at Delta College. Delta College is located near several large chemical-process industries in the Saginaw Valley area of Michigan and is in an area with large minority populations with an established infrastructure for recruiting minority students. In this situation, students can stay at home, perhaps co-op, and take first-year classes from Delta College. Then, for their second year, they travel to MTU to complete their degree. Our corporate partners, Dow Chemical and Dow Corning, have agreed to support this program and the students will have opportunities to co-op with these companies. The School hopes that many women and minority students can be attracted to this program through the partnerships with the community college and industry.

Distance education has brought into the School a new group of students who are more diverse than the on-campus component of the School’s student body. Off campus students are generally older and have a higher proportion of women and minorities. Efforts are made to have interaction between on and off-campus students to bring the positive effects of this greater degree of diversity to those students who are residents at MTU. To this end, e-mail lists have been established to which both on-campus and distance-education students are subscribed. Other e-mail lists are set up to support distance-education students who are enrolled in specific classes. >

Recruitment Methods

The School uses a variety of methods to recruit students. It works to develop name recognition with high school counselors by sending counselors letters each time one of their former students is named to the MTU Dean’s List. At the time a student graduates, the counselor is notified of the success of their former student. Counselors are encouraged to send more students to MTU’s School of Technology.

WWW pages have been written to be used as recruiting tools for all programs in the School of Technology. Much is being written in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, The Detroit News, and other similar publications about the need for engineering technicians, technologists and surveyors. Those articles are used, with permission, on the School’s web pages to attract new students and are reproduced for distribution to students on campus who have an interest in the School’s programs.

Faculty members willingly participate in a variety of outreach activities that include visiting high schools, participating in women/minorities in engineering programs, and by conducting TRIG Star competitions for potential surveying majors. Additionally, several new scholarships have been established or obtained through the efforts of faculty in the School. The faculty’s orientation toward students and their education is a major strength in the School of Technology.

Students who have taken the Scholastic Achievement Test and who have an interest in engineering technology, forest technology, or surveying are identified by MTU Admissions. They provide our administrators with a list of names; the potential students are then contacted with information about programs in the School of Technology.

Retention

The curricula of School of Technology’s programs aid in retaining students because the core classes in a major are taken in the first year. Students do not have to endure the frustration of waiting until their third or fourth year to take a class in their major. This delay, common to other curricula, has the potential to cause the students to lose their enthusiasm for the program in the intervening two years. The applications approach to technical education appeals to many students who transfer from other programs within the University. At graduation, more than half of the School’s graduates will have transferred into the School from other programs at MTU. This aspect of retention is a major strength of the School.

Although a majority of the students who graduate from the School of Technology have transferred from other MTU programs, the School’s programs are not generally well known throughout the MTU campus’ greater student population. Many times other departments and administrative-support units share this lack of familiarity with the School’s programs. This is an internal weakness that can be remedied through continuing education for others about the School, its programs, and its faculty.

Recruitment and retention can be enhanced with the addition of administrative help in the School of Technology. There is a great need to prepare brochures and alumni newsletters. The School needs to track graduates and obtain performance reviews from their employers. Improved communications between the School’s programs and their industrial advisory committees is essential. Program coordinators can best accomplish these and many more functions. However, area coordinators are faculty who receive little or no release time to perform these functions during the academic year. The School could realize great benefits by making the appointments for the six area coordinators ten-month appointments.

Subgoal 3: Provide an Environment that Enhances the Quality of Student Life.

Keeping in mind that the School’s mission is "to provide a quality education to students who wish to pursue a career in the practical application of engineering, forestry, or surveying principles," it is important to faculty that the School provides an environment in which students can explore applications of engineering, forestry, and surveying. The recent acquisition of the School of Technology—Technology Center has the potential of enhancing that environment.

The School’s computing labs are readily accessible to students. One facility is equipped with ID card access at any time the building is open to students. This service may be extended to other facilities in the School.

All students in the School are subscribed to major-specific e-mail lists. With a message to any list, the Dean or faculty can get a message to all students in a major. The Dean is actively publicizing the lists to potential employers and is encouraging them to directly contact students by using the lists.

Each faculty member in the School is an academic advisor. This close interaction between faculty members and students is a strength for the School.

Students groups are supplied with an office area in support of their professional and honor societies. From this space, students run their organizations and offer drop-in tutoring sessions for other students in the School. With the addition of new programs in the School, this space will probably be lost to make room for new faculty offices. Attempts will be made to identify a new space for students to use for these functions. Student organizations represented in the School are: Alpha Chapter of Tau Omega Pi Honor Society, American Society of Certified Engineering Technicians, Douglass Houghton Student Chapter of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, and the Forest Technician Association.

The School’s Charter calls for student involvement in many areas of the School [3.4E]; this involvement includes the review process for the Dean of the School. Students are included on committees—the most important of which is the School’s computer committee.

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