The School of Technology had a stable faculty from 1988 until about 1994 when the first of several faculty members retired or left the University. In 1988 the School had 19 faculty. In 1997, the School has 17 faculty with 2 open positions to be filled by Fall 1997. The hiring of new faculty is an opportunity to review both curricula and degree content in light of new ideas brought by the new faculty. New faculty must have the basic credentials as outlined in our accreditation guidelines (see TAC-ABET and RAC-ABET guidelines).

The ability for faculty to participate in faculty-development activities is very limited. Each program has a discretionary budget of less than $1000 after providing for the re-occurring expenses. One trip would easily wipe out this allotment. Travel is not the only need that competes for this money. This is a serious weakness for faculty in the School of Technology.

Since the last NCA visit, two School of Technology faculty have participated in summer research activities with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This experience has been helpful in their professional development.

Supplies, Services, and Equipment (SS&E) support is another area of weakness in the School of Technology. The 1% realignment has deeply impacted the SS&E budget because no faculty positions could be eliminated to provide this money. To accomplish the School’s goals, an increase in SS&E is needed to support faculty development, new faculty, and initiatives associated with the School of Technology—Technology Center. The Provost’s allocation of funds for faculty computing has helped free up SS&E resources.

The School of Technology has provided all of its faculty with a copy of Peter Seldin’s book, The Teaching Portfolio, and has encouraged each faculty member to keep a teaching portfolio. They are also encouraged to participate in on-campus faculty seminars that deal with teaching effectiveness. Student evaluations of teaching results are analyzed by the Dean to compute a School of Technology average and the standard deviation from the School’s average. The results are presented to each faculty member in graphical form so the individual can compare his or her results to the MTU average. A memo usually accompanies the graph in which the Dean discusses some aspect of teaching or recommends resources to the faculty. The graph provides a good discussion object each quarter.

The School of Technology’s Charter [3.4E] provides excellent information for new faculty with regard to promotion and tenure and the expectations of and procedures for working toward these goals.

University Goal 3: Strengthen and Develop Graduate Programs.

This goal is not immediately applicable to this academic unit other than in the area of team interactions whereby technicians and technologists could cooperate with graduate students to assist with matters of a technical nature. Faculty would like to see increasing interaction between the School’s students and University graduate students. This is an untapped opportunity at MTU.

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

The School of Technology’s mission is primarily one of teaching with a lesser emphasis on research than in the other Colleges and Schools. However, Ernest L. Boyer, in his book Scholarship Reconsidered, Priorities of the Professoriate, discusses four types of scholarship: the scholarship of teaching, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application and the scholarship of discovery. [Boyer, E. L., Scholarship Reconsidered, Priorities of the Professionate , (Publisher, Location, Year).] Each faculty member in the School is expected to participate in one or more of these scholarship areas to fulfill their "research" responsibility.

One area in which the School’s faculty has participated in such scholarship is in interactions with local industry. Through consulting and student projects, faculty have aided business and industry with their technical problems. Some of the business partners have been the Upper Peninsula Power Company, Stone Container Corporation, Stranwood, Inc., Somero Enterprises, and Pettibone.

Since 1988, School faculty have authored five texts which have been well received—one used internationally. The ability of our faculty to teach and communicate in this form is a great strength.

The School’s faculty are not prepared to move into the area of electronic publishing via CD-ROM technology, the World Wide Web, or any of a number of new technologies for presenting information. They have the technical knowledge but have not had a good exposure to the capabilities and opportunities for electronic-publishing technologies.

The School’s faculty has been successful in obtaining substantial gifts-in-kind from industry in support of teaching and research.The School of Technology—Technology Center is a recently acquired asset that will greatly aid in carrying our scholarly endeavors. This technology center will provide some of the support for the School’s weather radar project. However, the School will require further support to fully implement this and other creative endeavors that we have planned. The weather radar project has support from other departments on campus but will require some funding for the moving and installation of the system.

NEXT