Program Reviewed: _Civil Engineering (G)

3. Date: 2013-2014

4. Contact Person: _P. Denise Cobb

4.1. Telephone: (618) 650-5609

4.2. E-mail:_ [email protected]

4.3. Fax: (618) 650-3633

5. Major Findings and Recommendations

5.1 Description and assessment of any major changes in the program [e.g., (a) changes in the overall discipline or field; (b) student demand; (c) societal need; (d) institutional context for offering the degree; (e) other elements appropriate to the discipline in question; and (f) other].

Although overall enrollment has declined, the field is still healthy. The program is responsive to its advisory board and analysis of employment trends. Shifts in focal areas have brought about changes in the program including increased attention to transportation and geotechnical engineering. SIUE faculty have been advertising their program in the electronic newsletter of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and created a brochure about one of the developing emphasis areas. The economy in the St. Louis region significantly impacts the number of students in our graduate program. Many of our students are working professionals completing their degree during the evenings and with the support of their employers. Note that the geotechnical engineering emphasis area was recently added to our graduate program in fall 2012. It is expected that this area will be under optimal enrollment for the near future. It is likely that enrollment will at least remain constant if not begin to increase over the next five years. It appears that the engineering community is going to make the Master’s degree the first professional degree for engineering, which will increase the demand for the program. In addition, recruiting efforts at the University level are expected to improve international enrollment, in particular diversifying the applicant pool. The faculty have taken steps to continue recruiting our undergraduate students into the 3+2 program.

5.2 Description of major findings and recommendations, including evidence of learning outcomes and identification of opportunities for program improvement.

The Graduate Program in Civil Engineering has an excellent faculty, marked by a strong commitment to both research and teaching. Faculty members in CE take their advising and mentoring duties very seriously and students express gratitude for this demonstration of solicitous professionalism. The program is quite comprehensive, offering four different tracks of specialization. All indications point to an atmosphere of productive collegiality among the faculty and between the faculty and graduate students as well. The Department has a strong assessment plan in place, involving final papers/theses and a final presentation. The graduate program in CE demonstrates admirable self-reflection as indicated by materials gathered in the self-study. Certain issues involving space for offices and laboratories, while not eliminated, have been alleviated by the Engineering Annex. Student satisfaction among those who complete the program, based on the evidence of student surveys and interviews, is high.

Major recommendations from the previous review:

i. Offer courses more frequently so that full-time students can earn their degrees within two years and still be able to take more courses within their specialty area.

ii. Provide more opportunities for graduate students to do research with faculty.

iii. Hire more faculty and provide more courses in transportation to meet student demand as well as the reported demand in the field

5.3 Description of actions taken since the last review, including instructional resources and practices, and curricular changes.

i. The frequency of course offerings remains constrained by resources.

Although recent call staff numbers have been adequate, it is unclear how long this support will remain available.

ii. The amount of funded research (internally and externally) has grown over the past six years. These projects have provided numerous opportunities for students to conduct research with faculty members.

iii. Two new faculty members started in fall 2008 in the transportation engineering area. The faculty have been able to expand the number of courses offered in this specialization to meet student and industry demand.

The new courses include CE 473 –Travel Demand Forecasting, CE 474 - Computer Simulation in Traffic Engineering, CE 574 - Transportation Security, CE 578 - Intelligent Transportation Systems, and CE 579 - Transportation Safety Systems.

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5.4 Description of actions to be taken as a result of this review, including instructional resource and practices, and curricular changes.

Recommendation: With regard to enrollment and retention, the only real area that needs active improvement lies with the discontinuation rate among part- time students. The Department is well aware of this issue and can be trusted to address it. Enrollment should improve based on the improving economy, the growth of the Geotechnical Engineering emphasis, University support for increased international student recruiting, and trends within the Engineering profession favoring acquisition of the master’s degree. Space and technical issues should already be showing improvement based upon completion of the Engineering Annex. “Support for professional development” is a definite area that provides an opportunity for improvement, but it is one that must emanate from the upper administration. Serving on doctoral committees in joint programs with SIUC should be included in such support.

Action: The Civil Engineering Department is working on starting to review the list of graduate students in the Civil Engineering program at the annual graduate assessment meeting. This review can help to identify students who have not enrolled recently so their advisors can follow-up with them to encourage their degree completion. Because many of our part-time graduate students decide to discontinue due to family issues, work demands, change of their career goals, or relocation, the effectiveness of such efforts by the Department remains to be evaluated.

6. Outcome

6.1 Decision:

X Program in Good Standing

Program flagged for Priority Review

Program Enrollment Suspended

6.2 Explanation

The Graduate Council and Programs Committee viewed this as a high quality program for both students with work experience and without. While enrollment is healthy and recruitment efforts are on-going, the program was encouraged to continue to help moving students toward timely graduation. The internal review team noted that the Civil Engineering program has an excellent faculty, marked by a strong commitment to both research and teaching. The program adequately addressed the recommendations from the previous program review. Two new faculty members in Transportation were hired to meet student and industry demand. The program has encouraged students to choose the thesis option and involved them in research activities funded by faculty's research grants. The Department is making an effort to offer more graduate courses so that students

can complete their study in two years. The review team's report states that students in the Civil Engineering program show high satisfaction over the mentoring they receive. Student survey feedback and interview results confirm that active scholarly dialogue occurs between faculty and students. According to program's self-study, it has well-equipped laboratories for practical research in most specializations. Computers and software are up-to-date and ready to be used by students. In addition, with the completion of the Annex Engineering building, the Civil Engineering faculty seem to consider the research and educational facilities to be sufficient. The students wish to gain access to a VPN (Virtual Private Network) so they may have access to software on campus computers from off campus locations. According to the faculty, I.T. has said it is not possible but the review team recommends further investigation. The review team stated that the Civil Engineering program employs two major assessment tools, a final research paper and a final presentation. The assessment rubric has been revised so that it indicates the qualitative and quantitative measurements.

The Programs Committee suggests seeking continuous improvement on assessment tools.

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PROGRAM REVIEW REPORT

1. Reporting Institution: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville