DEAN’S RESPONSE
Planning and Review Committee
Program: M.S. Risk Control
College: College of Management
Year: 2014-2015
Recommendations for the Program Director:
Issue/Concern: Work with the Department Chair and Dean to secure funding for more up-to-date
facilities, including upgrades for laboratory courses.
Response from Program Director:
The Industrial Hygiene courses previously housed in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (CSTEM) were moved over to the Operations and Management Department. It is well
documented in the CIC materials that a commitment would be needed by COM to provide the needed
equipment upgrades in order to teach these courses.
With this response the Risk Control Program Director will work with the Department Chair of the
Operations and Management Department (OM) to facilitate the acquisition of funding needed to support
the Industrial Hygiene Instrumentation course. A list of needed equipment is attached to this report.
This concern will also be discussed at the next Risk Control Advisory Committee meeting to determine
other avenues that could possibility assist with this endeavor.
Issue/Concern: Work with the Department Chair and Dean to explore feasible ways to minimize
overload teaching to increase the ability of instructors to conduct research.
Response from Program Director:
The Risk Control program director will work with the OM Department Chair to determine if there are
options to minimize the teaching of overloads in order for the faculty to have the requisite time needed to
pursue scholarly endeavors. The Risk Control program director is willing to explore alternatives
suggested by the Department Chair and others in an effort to alleviate the need to teach overloads.
Issue/Concern: Work with the Department Chair and Dean to investigate other program delivery
methods (remote locations, weekend courses, hybrid courses) that would make the program accessible to
the large potential market.
Response from Program Director:
The Program Director is more than willing to work with COM administrators in an effort to expand
program offerings using suitable delivery methods. However, there is an urgent need to increase the
number of the core faculty to support the growth of the program
MS RiskControl PRC Deans Response
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Recommendations for the Department Chair:
Issue/Concern: Work with the Program Director and Dean to secure funding for more up-to-date
facilities, including upgrades for laboratory courses.
Response from Program Director:
The Operations and Management Department will work with the Dean of College of Management, the
Discovery Center and also explore other funding sources to upgrade the facilities to enhance student
learning and research. However, this is dependent on budget constraints to be determined by the
Wisconsin government cutbacks.
Issue/Concern: Work with the Program Director and Dean to explore feasible ways to minimize
overload teaching to increase the ability of instructors to conduct research.
Response from Program Director:
The Operations and Management Department will work with the Dean of College of Management to
recruit a tenure track faculty to fill the current vacant position. The department will also use the expertise
of other faculty in the department in the areas of ergonomics and occupational safety to support the
program to minimize the overloads.
Issue/Concern: Work with the Program Director and Dean to investigate other program delivery
methods (remote locations, weekend courses, hybrid courses) that would make the program accessible to
the large potential market.
Response from Program Director:
The department will work with the program director to develop new delivery methods (example: Online
courses with residence programs) to make the program accessible to a larger market. However, this is
dependent on the availability of core faculty, new equipment and other resources to support student
learning.
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Recommendations for the Dean:
Issue/Concern: Work with the Program Director and Department Chair to secure funding for more upto-date facilities, including upgrades for laboratory courses.
Response from Dean:
The Dean’s Office will work with the Program Director and Department Chair to seek out funding for
upgrades to laboratory courses through university funding sources. A constraint will be the Wisconsin
government funding cutbacks that are still to be determined. The Dean’s Office will support external
funding sources such as NIOSH in the future.
Issue/Concern: Work with the Program Director and Department Chair to explore feasible ways to
minimize overload teaching to increase the ability of instructors to conduct research.
Response from Dean:
The Dean’s Office will work with the Program Director and Department Chair to support minimizing
teaching loads where possible so that instructors may conduct appropriate research. With successful
recruitment of a tenure track faculty that is now being conducted with a department search committee, the
workload can be better accommodated.
Issue/Concern: Work with the Program Director and Department Chair to investigate other program
delivery methods (remote locations, weekend courses, hybrid courses) that would make the program
accessible to the large potential market.
Response from Dean:
The Dean’s Office will work with the Program Director and Department Chair to seek out other delivery
methods. A potential that may be very successful is online, which may need to be accommodated with a
residency piece, especially for potential lab work.
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