PLANNING AUTHORITY FOR ENGINEERING PROGRAMS

Approval is sought from the Board of Regents to request planning authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for engineering programs at both the baccalaureate and master’s levels.

Rationale:

Interest in engineering among UNT’s potential and current students is very strong. The office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, as well as individual science departments, receives frequent calls from students seeking engineering degrees; and there is no sign of such inquiries abating in the foreseeable future. The impact of engineering on UNT will be manifold. The overall quality of our students, but particularly those in science and mathematics, will increase. This increase, along with the acquisition of new faculty and facilities, will strengthen existing programs in the natural and computational sciences. The enhanced state and federal funding base afforded by an Engineering program will promote a generally enhanced research endeavor at UNT.

At present two state-wide committees studying higher education, under the separate auspices of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Lieutenant Governor, call for increased attention to the education of students in technological subjects and the development of closer ties with the state’s high technological businesses and industries. The report of the Coordinating Board, approved by that body on October 26, 2000, calls upon the state’s educational institutions to "Close the Gaps" in four areas: "Participation," "Success," "Excellence" and "Research." The creation of engineering programs at UNT would resoundingly answer the call sounded by the Coordinating Board’s report in the following ways:

Selected engineering courses and programs will be offered at both the Denton campus and the UNT System Center in Dallas. UNT will also establish a feeder program with Texas Woman’s University to permit TWU undergraduates to move into a baccalaureate engineering program. (TWU students will take UNT engineering courses for two years before transferring to UNT to complete the program.) Likewise, UNT will continue to work with community colleges throughout Texas to develop common, fully transferable high-technology core courses. This effort will be modeled after the Field of Study program and the new core curriculum plan approved by the 76^th Legislature. In this approach, engineering students in Texas will enroll in a group of lower division, engineering science courses, usually 12 credit hours, that will transfer and be applied to the students’ degree plans at UNT. In addition, these students will be advised to complete requirements for the core curriculum during their first two years and these 42+ credit hours will be applied to their degree plans. These articulation agreements with community colleges for engineering will be similar to those developed for assuring that the core curriculum taken at a community college will transfer to UNT. Articulation agreements with community colleges are greatly aided by UNT’s close alliance with the North Texas Community College Consortium, whose director and headquarters are at UNT. Thus, in many ways, establishing engineering programs at UNT will underscore our goal of providing more "Access" to students. Engineering is a career by which underrepresented but talented students have historically been able to become upwardly mobile in society, while enjoying a rewarding career.

Engineering bachelor’s and master’s degrees will be offered in fields directly related to Texas’ workforce needs. Our intent is to develop a conventionally organized program with offerings in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering, but then under these umbrellas playing to our additional strengths in material sciences and environmental sciences (see "Building on UNT’s Strengths", below).

Engineering programs will enhance current undergraduate and graduate programs in the natural and computational sciences, particularly UNT’s highly interdisciplinary science and technology fields. It will also help us retain many of our brightest and best students currently in our Texas Academy of Science and Mathematics. These phenomenal students, who are selected in UNT’s TAMS program on the basis of their interest in science and engineering, currently opt at the completion of their program to enter engineering programs outside of Texas or engineering programs within the State. We feel that offering a seamless continuum between TAMS and an Engineering program at UNT would have a major impact on our ability to retain these students.

The national competitiveness of the state and the Metroplex will be materially enhanced by UNT as it develops an engineering program. UNT is long accustomed to fruitful partnerships with industry and other academic institutions. For example, the Metroplex Research Consortium for Electronic Devices and Materials (MRCEDM) combines the research and development capabilities of UNT, Texas Christian University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Texas at Arlington to assist companies that originate and manufacture advanced technical components and systems (the Consortium was formed in response to a large equipment donation from Texas Instruments to the four member universities.) If authorized for engineering, UNT will be in a greatly enhanced position to increase participation in such Research and Development partnerships. In fact, one might argue that as we enter the technology-driven 21^st century, our plans to establish engineering become more and more intricately interwoven with UNT’s goal of becoming a top-flight university (clearly articulated in UNT’s Strategic Plan).

Establishment of Engineering programs will be enhanced greatly by building on UNT’s numerous strengths in disciplines fundamental to engineering. The College of Arts and Sciences already has an ABET-accredited Engineering Technology program (which includes the only ABET accredited nuclear engineering technology program in the State), an ABET-accredited Computer Science Department, a Materials Science Department (in addition to large departments in the natural and physical sciences and mathematics), and a bachelor’s degree program in Engineering Physics. Each of these departments has Advisory Boards that draw upon our existing strong relationships with engineers and scientists from throughout the Metroplex. The College of Arts and Sciences already counts many engineers among its faculty, including seven in Engineering Technology alone, who work in both the Natural and Physical Sciences and in the areas of computing, engineering technology and materials sciences. Moreover, the University’s Science and Technology Library is admirably equipped to handle the needs of engineering curricula. Periodic reviews of our science programs by accrediting agencies have universally praised UNT’s library holdings in the sciences, technologies, and mathematics.

The President recommends, with the concurrence of the Chancellor, that the Board of Regents authorize the Vice President for Academic Affairs to request planning authority from the Texas Higher Coordinating Board for engineering programs at both the baccalaureate and master’s levels.