Chemical Engineering Academy Meeting

New Mexico State University

24 October 2015

Strengths

  1. Safety continues to be improved. Laboratories are now scattered around campus so we were unable to review them. The feedback from the faculty and students was that in most cases the Department’s safety standards exceed the area they are now located.
  2. The hiring of the Safety Specialist has and will be very beneficial. We are impressed with all that she has already done.
  3. Faculty morale seems to be high even with the disruption caused by the construction and loss of two professors.
  4. Use of adjunct faculty adds additional expertise and relieves some of the teaching load on professors that are doing research.
  5. Department has a good demographic spread within students and faculty.
  6. It is very nice to see all of the accolades the Department has continue to receive over the last year. It helps recognize the Department inside and outside of the University. KEEP UP THEGREAT WORK!
  7. The new pre-med and pre-law curriculum are very good programs and havesparked additional interest. The use of community involvement to help the students enter medical school and the prequalification with the local medical school represents outstanding use of NMSU resources.
  8. Student outreach continues to increase enrollment and should be continued.
  9. Department continues to be a tight family with everyone looking out for each other even with the construction disruption. Use of social media, internet and web page has help build the family and increase external interest and exposure.
  10. Syncing the unit operations laboratories with classes and spreading out of laboratories is a great idea.

Concerns

  1. There seems to be a perception within the students and faculty that academic standards have been softened within the undergraduate program.
  2. We have some concerns on the amount of material the new Numerical Methods class will have included. This may dilute the amount of comprehensive math understanding and how Deferential Equations education is provided ahead of process controls.
  3. ASPEN still appears to be a problem area for the students, the use of pdf files to help training does not instill students with adequate competency.
  4. There is a concern about having the one large laboratory area with too many people; safety concern and the use and breakage of equipment in the shared laboratory.

Opportunities

  1. There is an opportunity to spend some time teaching the graduate students how to look for a job. Career Services also needs to improve their support of the graduate school. There also needs to be some training in controlling expectations as to employment opportunities.
  2. Opportunity exists to provide Graduate students need additional access to journals. Right now it takes up to two weeks to receive information. Online access would be far better.
  3. Thereis an opportunity to improve use of academy by providing a synopsis prior to the presentation explaining the graduate student presentations.
  4. There is an opportunity to engage the new Safety Specialist to review the Jett hall renovations during design stage and throughout construction.