Site Team Report

14. The North Central Association Criteria

SFWP is meeting its mission of providing educational and research programs " to solve natural resource problems in response to the needs of science and industry." It should be added that the School also is attempting to solve natural resource problems in response to the needs of society more broadly defined, and in response to the requirements of environmental systems. Its vision statement is consistent with this broader view.

The leadership of SFWP provides strong and articulate advocacy for faculty and students and has been willing to adapt the infrastructure and administrative arrangements in the School to better accomplish its mission. By dint of the quality of SFWP's faculty and the academic culture present, SFWP has achieved high productivity goals for annual per faculty research funding and the per faculty volume of peer reviewed publications.

As a consequence of a concerted effort to develop strategies to increase enrollment, undergraduate enrollment has risen from a low point of 40 in the mid 1980s to its current level of approximately 155. The design and implementation of the new B.S. in Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences promises to help SFWP to meet its long-range enrollment goal of 200 undergraduates. Graduate enrollment continues to grow, increasing to 65 (37 in 1988), with much of this growth being achieved through the doctoral program.

The integration of the Institute for Wood Research (IWR) as, in effect, an academic department within SFWP has been regarded as a very positive step, and the creation of program coordinator positions for Forestry and Wood Science is perceived by the campus community to have been a creative approach in organizing SFWP's academic effort.

The serious space problem that has dogged SFWP for many years will largely be resolved by the planned addition of 32,000 square feet. The long-standing issue of the adequacy of equipment modernization has not yet been fully addressed, however.

There seems to be a general consensus among the faculty of SFWP that shared governance is working both within the School and at the University as a whole.

Applying the criteria for accreditation to the School level, SWFP meets each of the five key criteria required for the institution as a whole.

Commendation: SFWP is to be commended for the productivity and achievement of its faculty and the expansion of enrollments and its academic programs.

Concern: The inadequacy of equipment if unremedied may limit SFWP's ability to continue its educational and research programs with the high quality SFWP strives to maintain. As the research and graduate program continues to grow in SFWP there needs to be a plan to cover the ongoing equipment costs of this effort.

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