College Of Engineering
The College of Engineering includes five engineering departments (chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical), the computer science department, the mathematics department, and the Gulf Coast Hazardous Substance Research Center. Chemical Engineering appears to be the college’s flagship department, reporting significant enrollment growth, especially at the graduate level among international students. Although Civil Engineering needs faculty lines in transportation and in water resources and environment, they are not as pressing as those in other departments. Electrical Engineering requests faculty lines in electromagnetics, electronics, and computer engineering. Industrial Engineering reports excellent facilities, support staff, and equipment, but it appears significantly understaffed and requests two faculty lines just to meet the instructional needs of its 226 majors. Rebounding from waning enrollments, Mechanical Engineering had a 40 percent increase in undergraduate students and a 58 percent increase in graduate students in 2002. The department requests a faculty line in manufacturing with a specialization in robotics, computer integrated manufacturing, or advanced materials.
Accredited by both ABET, Computer Science reports overly large classes and a need for three faculty lines to handle current enrollments. Playing a major role in teacher preparation, the core curriculum, and service course delivery for other degrees, Mathematics has the highest student/faculty ratio and generates the most student credit hours in the college. The department has pressing need for three faculty lines immediately and for two in the near future just to meet its current instructional obligations to the university. It also has inadequate classroom, office, and computational facilities. Recognized as an Environmental Protection Agency model center, the Gulf Coast Hazardous Substance Research Center brings national recognition to Lamar and provides research opportunities for its faculty. Increasing difficulty in obtaining state and federal support funds motivates the center to seek financial assistance from the university. The College of Engineering reports itself poised for significant improvement and growth. It claims uniqueness as the only engineering college in the Texas State University System and as an engineering college rare for its inclusion of computer science and mathematics departments. The college regards its five engineering disciplines as its strengths. It seeks funding for its graduate-level programs as prioritized below.
Priority 1: Doctor of Engineering Program. The Doctor of Engineering was the first doctoral program at Lamar. With its solid record of faculty research and scholarship and successful grant writing, especially among its younger faculty, the program has a solid statewide reputation for excellence in engineering, has nationally recognized research centers, including the Gulf Coast Hazardous Substance Research Center, the Texas Hazardous Waste Research Center, and the Texas Air Research Center, and its graduates have distinguished themselves in industry and academia.
Priority 2: Master of Engineering Science. The college presented essentially the same rationale for this program as that for the Doctor of Engineering Program.
Priority 3: Master of Science in Computer Science (Thesis Option). The college included no rationale for support of this program.
Priority 4: Master of Science in Mathematics (Thesis Option). The college included no rationale for support of this program.
College of Engineering Minority Report: Department of Computer Science. In its minority report, the department expresses the belief that the college report does not “accurately portray the position of the department within the college and the university” and does not adequately reflect the work of its faculty or the value of the department to the institution. Although the department agrees that all master’s programs should be supported, it also believes the “B.S. in Mathematics and M.S. in Computer Science should be included in the five strongest programs in the College.” Departmental representatives “do not believe that the D.E. program, in its present form, should be enhanced” because “it is largely irrelevant to students and to the future of Lamar.” The Computer Science Department has expressed a desire to be moved from the College of Engineering into a newly created College of Natural and Computational Sciences.
