Office Memorandum
Phone: 906/482-2156
College of Sciences and Arts
email: bseely@mtu.edu
TO:
CSA Department Chairs
FROM:
Bruce Seely, Dean
SUBJECT:
College chairs retreat August 9
DATE:
July 25, 2011
______________________________________________________________________
In about two weeks, we will convene for our annual retreat. We will keep this to a half-day as
happened last year. We will meet at the University Residence beginning at about 12:30. We will have
sandwiches and open with some general updates, and then turn to the primary topic of conversation
this year, updating enrollment projections as part of the review of Strategic Plans that is being
launched by the administration. Attached are a couple of documents relevant to the discussion. But
let me lay out some of the background to the issue so you have some sense of what we need to
discuss and how things will proceed.
Background to Strategic Plan revision
The general conversation of this subject began at the dean’s retreat with Max in early July. The
administration will begin a conversation about the status of the strategic document for Michigan Tech
this year, in line with the desire to review strategic efforts ever y three years. The process will not be
different from the last one, as evidenced by the attached timetable (attachment 1). The intention is to
devote the coming academic year to this review.
The most immediate task Max has asked the deans to work on as part of the review relates to a review
of enrollment projections. (There are other elements, but we will talk about these at the retreat.) Max
introduced this topic to the deans by noting that engineering enrollments nation-wide now look like
this: 60% BS, 33% MS, and 7% PhD. Tech looks like this: 82% BS, 14% MS, and 4% PhD. Against
the larger backdrop of a stated goal for Michigan Tech to 3,000 graduate students by 2030, the
question of enrollment plans and goals looms large in strategic discussions.
The outcome of the conversation was a directive from Max that the deans (aided by the department
chairs) undertake a very preliminary review of enrollment targets for 2020. The Exec Team identified
the following Enrollment Goals by 2020: 6000 undergraduates, 1500 graduate students. Max has
asked that the colleges and schools provide a first approximation for 5 year & 2020 target enrollment
numbers per college and school per BS, MS, PhD and male/female; iterative process. To do so, we
need to be thinking about the following questions:
a) Should it be 2000 graduate students? (that’s the number that Jackie Huntoon has identified
as necessary to get Michigan Tech to 3000 by 2030.) What about undergraduate numbers?
b) Differentiate clearly between and define separate targets for MS and PhD numbers;
BES NOTE: THIS IS A MAJOR TOPIC WE WILL NEED TO SPEND TIME ON – IN SOME
QUARTERS, MS ENROLLMENTS ARE BEING SEEN AS THE WAY TO REACH MTU’S 2030
GOAL IN TERMS OF GRADUATE STUDENT POPULATION. SO WE WILL NEED TO
CONSIDER WHERE OPPORTUNITIES FOR MS GROWTH EXIST WITHIN CSA
DEPARTMENTS.
c) Enrollment goals in light of AQIP Gender/AQIP gender enrollment group’s template
(35% of all students (graduate and undergraduate) at Michigan Tech will be women by
2020; Top 10 for number of engineering undergraduate degrees granted to women;
Exceed national average for women faculty and students in STEM disciplines)
BES NOTE: THIS IS ANOTHER ASPECT THAT WE HAVE GENERALLY DISCUSSED, BUT
WHICH LIKELY WLL NEED TO BE MORE DIRECTLY REFLECTED IN FUTURE
ENROLLMENT TARGETS. SO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS DURING THE RETREAT.
d) recent increase in female engineering students/decrease in CSA/SBE students:
targeted financial aid necessary?
In-depth discussion of these issues will be the main purpose of this year’s retreat. To facilitate the
discussion and establish a more concrete focus, I ask that each academic department chair review the
enrollment targets for your units that we have evolved over the past seven years or so and propose
initial targets for 2017 and 2020. I need to ask you to break out MS and doctoral students and also to
break out gender goals. Max will expect a report from the deans containing this information by midAugust. He knows how preliminary this information will be, but wants something in hand as we begin
the academic year.
To facilitate your efforts, I attach the following documents:
1.
The latest spreadsheet of enrollment targets from CSA. It includes some cumulative
data, allowing us to track the actual outcomes vs. projected numbers.
2.
A workbook that has spreadsheets with the gender breakdown of CSA enrollments by
degree from 2008, 2009, and 2010. We will develop a more comprehensive picture showing
CSA data over the past decade, but these sheets allow you start reviewing this aspect of
enrollment.
3.
A document from an AQIP group tied to the ADVANCE that review gender enrollment.
I am sorry to spring this assignment at this point in the summer, as I know that time is short. I can
only re-emphasize that the exercise is by definition intended to be very preliminary. We are not going
to be held to these numbers; we will devote more time to getting better estimates assembled as the
strategic plan review moves forward. But we need to get some input to Max about the 2020 targets
early-on, mainly to provide a check on the feasibility of accepting (and thus meeting) the aggregate
targets that have circulated from the Exec Team over the past year. Our unit-level reviews will serve
part of that purpose.
One additional question for our retreat is one that Max asked the deans: What are the critical success
factors that will enable your units (and thus the university) to meet their strategic goals?
Let me know if you have questions. And thanks again for getting started on this effort.