UWT Institute of Technology
Institute 2020 Retreat
Retreat Report
DATE—Friday, April 25, 2014
Retreat Focus Question
What will the Institute of Technology offer and how will it be organized to best serve the students and community in 2020?
Participants
Cathy Adgar-Beal Matt Alden Yan Bai Senjuti Basu Roy
Zaide Chavez Donald Chinn Sam Chung Chuck Costarella
Martine de Cock Ling Ding Adwoa Donyina Marc Dupuis
Alan Fowler Rob Friedman Andrew Fry Bryan Goda
Dave Hazel Beth Jeffrey Joel Larson John Mayer
Michael McMillan Don McLane George Mobus Kim Mucke
David Ross David Schuessler Jie Sheng Monika Sobolewska
Ankur Teredasai Morgan Zantua
Facilitation Team Richard Wilkinson, AVC Organization Development, UW Tacoma
Maureen Noonan, Organization Development Specialist, UW IT, UW Seattle
Stakeholder PanelParticipants / Amanda Bruner, Director of Student Transition Programs
Colleen Carmean, Assistant Chancellor for Instructional Technologies
Graham Evans, Institute of Technology Advisory Board
Joel Baker, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
Peter Pentescu, ASUWT President
Sharon Fought, Academic Director Nursing
Stakeholder Fishbowl Highlights
Stakeholder discussion questions:
· What have you experienced that excites and energizes you about the Institute?
· What experiences raise doubts and concerns?
· What should Institute faculty and staff keep in mind as they plan for 2020?
Selected stakeholder comments
1. Tacoma and the region love the Institute!
2. The idea of the institute. It’s exciting. It’s the right model, the right thing to be doing.
3. The promise that we can be a different institute, and collaborations.
4. Huge opportunity that we have with young people.
5. Great facility, great students, great staff.
6. Perception that technology means information technology. There are areas in IT design and technology that are overlooked.
7. Who are we recruiting as students? We need to be aware of barriers we are putting in place. We should better support students, not think about how they should change for us.
8. Freshmen and transfer students will need a technology skillset regardless of their field. They need to know how to analyze data.
9. Students may not be ready for the way we teach. We lose female students by asking students to conform to our way of teaching.
10. Provide something people see themselves in (in regards to women).
11. Career fair was successful. It required champions. We need more dedicated career development investment. We need to collect the data, and create the pathways.
12. Get more input from students in terms of what they need.
Q&A from Participants
Women in technology. Is it an American concern? It’s different in India. Is it a high school problem?
1. We have young ladies who are passionate about the end product or the outcome. How do we connect them to the appropriate tools?
2. It’s not just females. There are diverse learning styles across people. We need to tie the science to what it means to learn the tools If we can show the bigger picture and tap into the passions, then we can teach the tools to help them get there.
3. Self-efficacy and identity are what drive people.
4. The fun has gone out of information technology.
5. I used to say people had to know how to program. Now, it’s no longer a prerequisite. Do we still need to teach some of those foundational skills, such as programming?
6. What we didn’t have was training around the approach and the thinking of what we want a product to do.
7. What a group of students needs may transcend their discipline: problem-solving working on teams.
How will research play a role in our future?
The challenge is not whether to do research. It’s what research to do? What is our niche? We need to pick our battles. The nature and types of research are quite different for us. Research should inform what is being taught. We have more flexibility in interpreting the research requirement. As we move forward, we want to broaden the definition of research.
Peter, would you talk about your path and what you wish could have happened, but didn’t and what you are prepared to do in the future, what your plans are?
We need structures in place to guide students. Integrate outside folks into the department as much as possible. Have people to speak to gaps before it becomes a problem. Example, have a 400-level course offered or made available if we don't have it.
What are some concrete things I would like to see?
· Here is your guidebook.
· Have a basic familiarity with faculty, access to faculty.
· Get a picture of the whole structure.
Excited about the original idea of the institute. Say more Joel.
As our campus is growing, there are more and more majors that we are not doing that we should be doing. We need to figure out how and where to expand. Typically, you have core sciences, and then all the applied sciences are in the institute of technology. We don't have enough majors and enough diversity of majors to serve all the needs. The good news is we are expanding. Project management, training the technician…we also need to train those managing the technicians.
What about a balance of “job-oriented skills” vs. being part of a team, being a professional, being an effective employee?
What if those are the wrong questions? If this campus is going to achieve our 2020 goals, then how do we create that? Prepare students for jobs we haven’t heard of. If we get faculty who have that core and imagining new degrees, new ways of teaching, then we don’t have just the same ways of teaching. We strive for students who will get out there and represent us in a new world. We need to remember whom we serve. Institutions don’t do that enough. It needs to be dialogue - connect to business, faculty, and the community. What are their hopes and dreams and desires?
Panel final thoughts
Sharon: Faculty and staff are good at processing over time. We need to get to those first couple of steps and see that what we come up with his carried out. We get bogged down in thinking and planning and not doing.
Colleen: I thought the [Institute] faculty would be the brave ones who lead new channels, new ways of teaching. I don’t see it. Some say it’s too scary, I don’t have time. I feel you are the ones who could lead, being from the Institute of Technology. I’d love a core group from here to lead that excitement, engagement, persistence in teaching.
Joel: Faculty have a weakness. Subliminally, we are trying to recreate their experience in graduate school. The world is moving forward. We have to grow and figure it out. If we don't, someone else will figure it out for us.
Peter: Diversity is one of the key pieces we need. How do we transform our approach to the goals of students and help them understand the fundamentals are needed to achieve their goals. Moodle is not great for students.
Graham: Think about your own diversity, individual. I was in group I coached asked, what stops us from achieving the executive level. The execs are involved in many, many things. Think of your own diversity: could you bring in your own diversity.
Amanda: Dream big today. Push each other as good collaborators. Know there are folks here to support you. You don’t have to think about all of this on your own. I’m super-interested in this and there’s huge buzz. I’m dedicated and passionate.
Critical Uncertainties
· What factors in our operating environment are impossible to predict or control?
· Which of these factors threaten our ability to operate successfully?
Bold Ideas
It’s 2020…What bold actions have energized the Institute and best served the community?
The chart below lists all the bold ideas organized by the number of points each one received.
25 / A. Develop new assignments/projects which directly impacts a local business by Dec 2014, in order to show students the great relevance to the community?
B. ASAP, but no later than summer 2015, develop a mentor/tutor/buddy club/group for freshman/sophomore female students that provides a comfortable, colorful tech space/lab that is designed to appeal to their values and ambitions as they relate to tech education. This lab should be part of the marketing materials and tours.
24 / Reorganize into a school structure with departments by June 2015. Doing so will facilitate program growth, diversity and autonomy. First step – Sell the idea to Kenyon.
23 / A. Inter-disciplinary PHD degree (Arts, Social Science) in 2016
B. BFA in Art and Computing with a focus on animation and Web design.
· Feasibility study
· Design degree program bringing together artists, computing, and production professionals.
· Study demand – students and industry.
· Create proposal.
C. Incorporate service learning into curriculum to involve student and faculty with the community to broaden the institutes visibility and impact. First step - Talk to the diversity office and the CSS curriculum committee.
D. Develop and Implement the Its Lab. –Gain approval from the university to move forward by June 1 2014.
22 / A. Implement a new introductory course to start in 2015-2016 which seeks to broaden participation in computing and computer science. The course should take a broad approach by introducing aspects of CES, CSS, and ITS and be taught using pedagogy which encourages curiosity, creativity and exploration. First step - Develop a course proposal with inputs from CES, ITS, and CSS.
B. Officer Degree in Mechanical Engineering (advisors say the potential students ask about this). First step – Look for money…ask Boeing?
C. Identify the top 2 most important research direction of the department and flesh out the details before the end of the year to attract good quality students and faculties.
D. Re-identify the purpose of the IT. Not an institute of technology but an institute of Systems Science and Engineering. Reason: The world is rapidly realizing the need for multi-disciplinary problem solving. System science is an umbrella concept that covers the Computing, Information Technology, and Engineering, but admits that other kinds of degrees such as System Engineering, Developing Modeling Languages, and other Sciences (including social sciences). This institute could provide the nuclei for multi-disciplinary research and new degrees. In the years to come there will be a growing demand for generalists who know how to analyze problems and design solutions and communicate across disciplines.
E. Get the right number of assistant professors and part-time lecturers to meet the demand of the students by 2020.First step – Have a strong administrative support to provide students with practical projects [that help] guide them to the right career.
F. Create a stand-alone building that will house all faculty office, classrooms, and labs. It will have student meeting area for student to work. The building will be 2.5 time the size of Cherry Parkes.
G. [Same as F] Build a building for the institute that meets current needs and allows for innovation and growth by Sept 2020 to enhance the validity and capabilities of the institute. Form an Exploratory Committee
H. [Same as 24-pt idea] Make the Institute into a school by autumn 2015, enabling it to have the capacity to expand into programs and degree it is not or has not considered.
I. Develop a plan to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy (at any level) by the end of the next academic year. This will allow for more effectiveness at our jobs (which is serving students and advancing knowledge).
21 / A. Design and Co-deliver a 2-credit technology careers course by December 2014 for delivering in 2015. Students need assistance understanding the broad opportunities available to them by integrating development technology skills into a variety of career clusters. Curriculum would provide skills, aptitude interest, assessment plus faculty, industry participation with internship opportunities.
B. Create and Electrical Engineering Degree. Develop a Master’s of Science in Information Technology and Systems. (Ask industry and check out the need)
C. Develop competency based degree programs by academic year 2016-2017, to provide student greater flexibility and increased their engagement with their own education.
D. Each person in the institute will reach out to one person, group, institution, business, or community partner to talk about what they do to support student recruitment by October 2014. Example: Donald speaks to a CS 101 class at TCC. Yan meets with a group of girls interested in tech careers at a high school.
20 / A. Development of an online revision of TCSS 142 Introduction to Programing w/entrance requirements and limited enrollment; leading to the same for TCSS 143 Introduction to Operations.
B. By Fall 2020 have an active outside advisory board of a non-profit and small business representatives to collect review and suggest technology projects od specific scope and size for student teams to tackle and complete in 3 to 6 months.
C. Build student-oriented scholarship supporting one junior, senior, and graduate student by Sept 15 2014. First step – Support each factually with a small financial support.
18 / Create a free online Java 1 or Python) Class, self-paced or not, with occasional on-campus gathering that lead to college credit by Fall 2015.
17 / Technical writing with a multi-disciplinary focus
· Consult local businesses/Advisory Boards
· Research other institutions
· Inquire needs/interest of students
· Review accreditation
· Write curriculum
15 / Have more diverse courses in the department. (like graphics) Satisfying our students’ requirement and broadening their eyes. Provide high quality students to our community.
From Vision to Action