The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Engineering college needs more faculty for research

Editor's Note: This is the last part in an occasional series taking a closer look at the University one year after a national science consulting firm visited SIUC to measure its research strengths, weaknesses and ability to achieve the goals of "Southern at 150."

The College of Engineering is still struggling with its biggest obstacle: a lack of a faculty.

More than a year ago, a national science consulting firm reviewed the College of Engineering's research capabilities and found its total research dollars and the number of faculty were deficient.

Although quality new faculty and resources are hard to come by, student enrollment, especially in the graduate and doctoral studies, continues to increase, according to Engineering Dean George Swisher.

SIUC's two hiring initiatives in recent years have helped the small engineering college begin fixing the faculty problem. The new faculty hiring initiative, announced by Chancellor Walter Wendler earlier this semester, is a part of the University's "Southern at 150" plan to attract high-quality faculty.

"Southern at 150" is Wendler's plan to push SIUC into the top 75 public research institutions by its 150th birthday in 2019. To help evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, the University hired a consulting firm, the Washington Advisory Group, last year.

While the college's doctoral enrollment is at an all-time high, Swisher said it is advertising a total of nine faculty positions, including those vacated due to retirements. Swisher, who will step down as in dean in June 2005, said some of these lines have been vacant as many as two years, but the college is working hard to fill those positions and is not going to rush into it.

"These new faculty hires are going to help us," Swisher said. "We want to be very careful about who we hire."

Electrical and Computer Engineering, the college's largest department, will receive two of the three most recent faculty hires allotted to the college through the hiring initiative.

The report pointed out the need for faculty in this area because of high student demand and a hot job market for that area, but reported the Computer Engineering department had low levels of faculty research support. It also suggested the University consider combining the department with Computer Sciences, part of the College of Science.

Glafkos Galanos, department chairman, declined to comment on the report itself, but said electrical and computer engineering is in high demand at SIUC because of the excellence of the program, not the job market.

Galanos, who has been with the department for more than 15 years, said its good reputation is a result of a long-term effort by the faculty to improve the program. In the last five years, enrollment in the electrical and computer engineering programs has grown tremendously, particularly in the graduate programs. The department is now the second largest in the state in both public and private institutions.

In 1999, there were 47 electrical engineering masters students. The program reached its peak in 2003 with 223 students enrolled in the program. Galanos said the department also holds two-thirds of the college's doctoral students.

"The high enrollments resulted from the desire of the department to meet the high demand, which reflects the high quality and international visibility of our programs," Galanos said.

The report also said there was a low research rate of the college's faculty, particularly in that department. Swisher said for the past three years, the college has averaged about $3 million a year in total research and development expenditures.

Galanos said research has always remained steady within the department, with senior faculty teaching two classes a semester and junior faculty managing about one and a half classes.

He said the sudden increase in enrollment was somewhat startling, but faculty members are working to manage the demand. Master's level classes have become larger, while the department seeks to replace two retired faculty and recruit two additional faculty. Galanos said the department chose larger class sizes over more classes because it had to watch the teacher workload.

"The one most important function is hiring new faculty, and hope to have someone you hope will be here for the next 30 years," he said. "We aren't going to fill a position just for the sake of filling the position. We want someone who will have the potential to drive this place higher.

"Hopefully, the University will give us the resources to help us maintain and improve the quality of the University."

Swisher said the mining department is the college's most successful in terms of research money.

The SIUC mining program is the only one in the state.

He said it could benefit greatly from the FutureGen Clean Coal Power Plant project that is still in the developmental stages at the federal government level. The project aims to further clean-coal technology and limit emissions.

Associate Dean Hasam Sevim said the mechanical engineering department is trying to find continuity in its research by recruiting its own master's students for the doctoral program. In the past, the department's mission was to attract more master's students.

"Now the emphasis has changed to attracting more PhD students because it will provide a continuity in their research," Sevim said.

Above all, Swisher said, funding is the largest issue. Funding is needed for startup packages and for additional space. The E-Wing of the Engineering building opened in the late 1990s, but Swisher said sufficient space might become an issue as more faculty come on board.

 

 

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