Brian Rogers, Chancellor (907)474 7112

(907) 474-6725 tax

UNIVERSITY OF uaf chancellor@alaska edu

ALASKA FAIRBANKS Bob Shefchlk, Execlltlve Officer

(907) 474-7489Office of the Chancellor (907) 474-7475 -ax

320 Signers' Hall, PO Box 757500, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7500 ITShefchlk@alaSka.edu lNINWuaf.edll

April 26, 2010

Kathy Campbell, Chair DAF Engineering and Science Management

Advisory Committee PO Box 84466 Fairbanks, AK 99708

Dear Kathy:

Thank you for your March letter summarizing the January 15, 2010, meeting of the Advisory Commjttee for the Engineering and Science Management (ESM) Program.

Enclosed is a summary prepared by Dean Doug Goering that discusses the current status of both the ESM and Construction Management programs, highlights their successes addresses their challenges, and responds to the committee's 2010 recommendations. I hope you and the committee find the document informative and responsive to your recommendations.

Enclosure (as stated)

cc: DAF ESM Advisory Committee (with enclosure) David Bames, DAF Chair of Civil lEn vir on mental Engineering Dept. (with enclosure) Doug Goering, DAF Dean of College ofEngineering and Mines (with enclosure) Susan Henrichs, DAF ProvosVExec Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs (with enclosure) Robert Perkins, DAF Coordinator of EMS Program (with enclosure)

dlmlltrCampbellresponseadvisoryrecs

Alaska's First University - America's Arctic University UAF 15 an ANEO employer lind educlIhonll l Institution

College of Engineering and Mines

ESM/CMC Program update

Apri l 23 20 10

Douglas J. Goering Dean, College of Engineering and Mines

Current Status of ESM and CMC Programs

The College of Engineering and Mines currently offers a Master's degrees in Engineering and Science Management through the long-standing ESM program, and a new graduate certificate in Construction Management (CMC). The Construction Management certificate program was formally approved by the BOR last summer. The ESM and CMC programs are cun'ently housed

in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and rely on Dr. Robert Perkins as the primary UAF facu lty member for course delivery. However, ESM and CMC co urse

delivery is also heavily augmented with adjunct instructors. During the current academic year 9 sections of ESM courses were delivered utilizing three tenured or tenure-track faculty from the CEE department and 4 adjunct instructors. One of these courses (ESM 450) is a required economic analysis and engineering ethic course for fo ur of the college's undergrad uate programs. Most of the other ESM courses are taught at the graduate level and serve both students in the graduate ESM or CMC programs and non-degree , eeking students wishing to engage in continuing education. The need for adjunct instructors l1a' increased during recent years as a result of Dr. Perkins ' inc rea ed research activity and related course buyouts.

The CMC program offerings arc no t taught on a regular semester schedule but, rather, are taught

as I-credjt short courses often at off-campus locations or via distance delivery. Dr. Perkins has been involved as the instructor of some of these courses but more o ft en he organizes the

offerings with the actual course being delivered by adjunct instructors. CMC course offerings arc very fluid and are often formulated based on the necds of given organizations (i.e. AKDOT as one example).

Financial resources available to support the ESM program include the academic saJaries of Dr. Perkins and approximately Y2 additional FTE through the CEE department. For the past few years, adjunct instructors tcaching in the ESM program have primarily been supported via released salary from Dr. Perkins. Financial resources available to support the CMC program include a $49K fund 1 budget increment that was received in FY09 in addition to revenue from sp cial tuit ion which is charged for CMC courses. In FY09 revenue from special tuition was "25K, but that is expected to increase since the CM program was only recent ly approved.

Additionally, TVEP funds in the amount of$50K (FY08 & FY09) and $70K (FYIO) have been received fro m Fred Villa's office.

The graduate ESM program currently has eight active students and graduates two to three MS students per year. At the undergraduate level about 50 students took ESM 450 during the

current academic year. The relatively new CMC program has not produced any graduates as of

this date and Banner does not yet rep0l1 certifi cate-seeking students in the CMC program.

Enrollment in the short courses that have been offered have been healthy, but matriculating

those students into the fo rmal CMC program seems to remain an issue.

Successes and Challenges

The ESM program has been successfully training graduate tudents and providing the core

undergraduate course in engineer ing economics and management fo r more than 20 years. Enrollment in the two MS programs has hovered between 5 and 10 students without much ofa

trend up or down over the past five years. The program complains that they lost one faculty

position many years ago (at one point there were two ESM faculty) and that that accounts for

some of the lighter enrollment in the program as compared to the higher enrollments back in the

1980' s and 90's. This is partly a resu lt of CEE departmental priorities in facu lty hiring earlier in

th is decade. In my view, rebuilding enrollment is the biggest challenge facing the ESM program.

This was also noted by the ESM Advisory Committee and is the essence of their fist 2010 recommendation.

The CMC program in its forma l state is new as of last year however, CMC courses were offered

in 2008 and 2009. The program is successfully reaching working engineers in the state in a

tlexible and adaptive way and is seen as a uccess by our colJege and the advisory board. The

major chal1enge with the program now is effective organization and administration. Dr. Perkins,

as stated earlier, has had increasing research commitments over the past few years and does not

have adequate time to administer the program. Additionally, office staff in CEE has at times

been overtaxed by the additional burden of the CMC courses. In my view the management of

the CMC program is the major challenge that we currently face. In an effort to solve this problem a new term facu lty position has been approved and the recruitment is currently on­

going. This is a non-tenure track bi-part ite position that will be responsible for managing the CMC program and perfol111ing some of the required CMC teaching.

2010 Advisory Committee Recommendations

During their January 20 10 meeting, the ESM Advisory Board issued seven key

recommendations. The first of these was that we engage in an expanded marketing program to better promote the ESM graduate degrees. I have discussed this recommendation with Dr.

Perkins and he is star1ing two targeted efforts in this regard. The first is to market the ESM

prObrram in key undergraduat e engineering courses within CEM each semester in the hopes of

attracting existing underf,rraduates to continue studying engineering management. The second

was a commitment to engage one of our paid external advisors (Dr. Larry Bennett) to provide

recommendations regarding more effect ive marketing techniq ues for the CMC and ESM programs. My understanding is that that work is on-going this spring.

The second committee recommendation was simply an endorsement that we proceed with hiring

an additional faculty member to manage the CMC program and provide teaching support. As

mentioned above, a bi-partite term position was approved this spring and the recruitment is cun·eotlyon-going.

Recommendation three involved adding addit ional administrat ive support beyond the new

faculty position to help admin ister the CMC and ESM programs. We have not acted on that

recommendation yet, partly because ofbudget constraints, but also because we fe lt it was more

important to get the new bi-partite faculty member engaged in the process before further commitments are made.

Recommendation four involved the development of add itional graduate cert ificate programs

beyond the CMC program that was approved last year. Dr. Larry Bennett is also considering this

recommendation in his work this spring and will provide guidance on this recommendation later this year.

The fifth recommendation concerned the integration of the CMC and ESM curricula so that

certificate students in the CMC program could potentially matriculate into the full ESM Master's

program. Dr. Perkins has advised that these pathways exist and that no formal action is needed

in this regard. My understanding is that the CMC program does offer the possibility ofgrouping the I-credit offeri.ngs to galn course credit for the ESM program.

Reconunendation six concerned a pecific suggestion that a "knowledge management" course be

offered. Dr. Perkins is in agreement with this suggestion and has proposed that we investigate

coordinating such a course offering with SoM, however 1 do not beheve that we have made any

progress on c pecific discussions at this t ime.

Finally, recommendation seven revolved around access difficulty due to the parking situation at

UAF and the suggestion that we investigate off-campus course offerings to help eliminate this

barrier. We have been working to expand the distance-delivered o fferings of the CMC program

and have worked closely with CDE to enhance their hardware capacity to help serve this function. CEM also invested in some distance delivery equipment which has been used by Dr.

Perkins to deliver CMC and ESM coursework on-line. ]n addition, several of the CMC offerings have been conducted at client sites (e.g. at AKDOT offices for instance).

Future Location of ESM and CMC Programs

For the time being 1 believe that the ESM and CMC programs should remain within the CEE

department. The ESM program offers courses that are important to undergrad uates in several

CEM degree programs and, in my view, need to be taught i1-om the engineering perspective.

Further, much of the impetus for the new CMC program revo lves around the new continuing

education requirements for licensed engineers in the state, so it is clear that these programs need to be taught from the professional engineering perspective. [do believe that we could forge stronger ties with SoM in a number of these areas, but feeJ that it is important to maintain

engineering expertise as well.

1n the future, if the ESM and/or CMC programs were to grow or expand significantly, we may

have to consider a separate structure within CEM (as opposed to having these programs housed

in eEE), however I do not believe that that change is needed in the near future based on the current dynamics of the programs.