Site Team Report

14. The North Central Association Criteria

The institution is accomplishing its educational and other purposes. The mission of the College of Sciences and Arts has changed over the past decade from primarily a service mission to dual role and purpose: a general education mission in which the College provides the foundation for all baccalaureate degrees at Michigan Tech, and specialized studies for baccalaureate majors, masters, and doctoral students in the Sciences and Arts.

In the 1988 North Central Association review, the College of Sciences and Arts received an excellent report, with few areas of concern, most notably the need for more library resources and a prediction of tension between undergraduate programs and the proliferating graduate programs. In the self-study, the frank statement that "the library remains a challenge" indicates that this concern has not been adequately met at the campus level. According to the Dean of the College of Sciences and Arts, library resources remain tight. At the same time, increased resources for the newly established graduate programs have enabled new journals and monographs to be purchased, thereby enhancing holdings for both graduates and senior undergraduates.

While there are perceptions among some students and faculty that resources for the graduate programs have diminished resources for undergraduate programs, there is no documented evidence to support this. Faculty numbers have increased and the student-faculty ratio has decreased. Since the tables in the self-study do not differentiate undergraduate from graduate classes, it is possible that numbers have actually increased in undergraduate classes. No faculty member or student expressed concern over larger classes, however.

One innovative response to the changing mission has been the Dean's encouragement for faculty to determine the shape of their academic career. While new faculty of necessity must research and publish, senior faculty who are more interested in teaching than in research may choose to teach more classes. Merit increases do not favor research over teaching, and the new emphasis nationwide on the importance of teaching is fostering a culture change whereby those who define their scholarship in pedagogical terms are considered to be making as significant a contribution to the intellectual life of the College as those who focus on research. However, current promotion and tenure guidelines and most of the faculty recognition and reward systems favor research.

With respect to its traditional role, the College offers the required communication, writing, and other general education courses to fulfill its general education mission within the current general education program. With respect to its newly defined role to offer specialized courses at the baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral level, the College has established several new graduate programs, has doubled its graduate enrollment, and has annually increased the number of baccalaureate degrees granted.

Biological Sciences

Due to the size of the College of Sciences and Arts, it is helpful to give some additional specificity by examining one department in detail. The Department of Biological Sciences is an excellent academic unit. This Department is the largest in the College and the fifth largest in the University. It does a lot of teaching, providing instruction to its ca. 350 majors as well as contributing significantly to interdisciplinary thematic clusters. The size of the faculty (16 total, 14 tenure-track) is small relative to the large number of students and this may lead to increasing student-to-faculty ratios. The faculty is vigorous and contributes to the Department and University. Although some of the faculty do more (service course) teaching, and others train more graduate students, there is a genuine sense of collegiality and cooperation among the faculty. Several of the faculty have been very successful in attracting extramural research support, and much of the research exploits the unique features of the area (e.g., aquatic ecology, forest biology) thus establishing Michigan Tech as a recognized leader in selected fields of biology.

The undergraduate students are, as a group, outstanding. More than half of the undergraduates are pre-medical and clinical laboratory students. Their curriculum is rigorous, and this leads to a high level of successful placement of the graduates. Biology students score above the national averages in the GRE general exam and the MCAT exam. Several programs are in place to encourage undergraduates to participate in independent research projects and in laboratory instruction. A concern identified in the department's self-study is the need to increase the effectiveness of undergraduate advising, especially counseling during the first year.

The graduate students are also impressive; they are articulate, motivated, responsible, and generally successful. The current group of ca. 40 is evenly divided between M.S. and Ph.D. students. Although there is a sentiment among some of the (research active) faculty to increase the size of the graduate program, there are also limitations due to space and mechanisms to support students. Despite large and sustained increases in enrollments, the number of GTA's awarded by the Provost has remained static. Because admission of a graduate student is essentially determined by whether or not there is a funded slot--TA or RA funded from a research grant--recruiting is made more difficult. This situation also could promote an atmosphere in which a student feels more loyalty to a specific mentor than to the program, and also could limit the availability of mentors. It is important that a graduate program strive to be a Program and not just a collection of bodies, and that individual grant support not be the single overriding criterion by which a student identifies a mentor.

There is great excitement and anticipation about the move by most of the Department to the new Dow Environmental Sciences building later this year. One advantage of the move is that the new space may make it possible for individual research groups to grow, including adding more graduate students. One problem that has not yet been resolved, however, is that there is not enough space in the new building to accommodate the entire Department; this means that some, including the teaching of large introductory laboratory courses, will need to be located in space not yet identified.

Assessment. Every department in the College of Sciences and Arts has participated in the campus assessment program, with detailed goals, anticipated outcomes, strategies for assessing these outcomes, procedures of evaluating the findings and for using these findings in curriculum and instruction. The 1996-1997 Assessment Report shows each of these detailed plans and their findings.

For example, assessment of student learning in the Department of Social Science includes a combination of generally accepted and effective methodologies. Locally generated multiple choice tests designed to test social science skills and value development are administered in a pre- and post- pattern during the sophomore and senior years to majors. In addition some majors utilize student portfolios. Faculty in discipline areas meet with students to assess progress in skill development and there exists feedback loops on the effectiveness of courses and pedagogical techniques.

In summary, all evidence in the undergraduate and graduate catalogues, the self-study, the assessment report, and meetings with faculty, students, and administration lead to the conclusion that the College of Sciences and Arts is fulfilling its stated mission and purposes.

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