Goals As Dean ...(a baker's dozen)

Robert Ettema, Dean, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

1. Update and implement strategic plans (for our College, its departments and faculty groups).  To advance the college we must develop/affirm/pursue directions, priorities, areas of emphasis, opportunities, and resource needs.  What are our existing plans?  Where do we go from here (Quo vadis)?  Which progress metrics should we target?

2. Enhance the content, and optimize the delivery, of BS programs.  Our BS curricula should be relevant, contemporary, and delivered efficiently, while still providing a high-value education.  Are we making the best use of our time and resources? Where are the needs and redundancies?  Where are the opportunities for more inter-department cooperation?

3. Boost communication abilities in undergraduate and graduate education.  Our BS, MS, and PhD programs should emphasize written, graphic, verbal, and interactive (e.g., negotiation) forms of communication.  What are we already doing in this regard?  How can we better emphasize communication as a substantial strand running through our curricula?

4. Build and strengthen graduate programs.  While generally increasing graduate-student enrolment, we have to increase particularly the quality and productivity of PhD programs.  Where are the best prospects for growth in numbers and quality of students?  Where are the promising paths for student recruitment?

5. Raise research productivity and quality.  To elevate its stature broadly, to recruit competent new colleagues and graduate students (possibly also undergraduate students), also to grow meaningful graduate programs the College must substantially increase research funding and scholarship.  Where are the best prospects for growth in research funding and scholarship?  How best to grasp them?  Which synergies can we readily expedite?

6. Work closely with inter-disciplinary schools to facilitate graduate programs and research.  College faculty and staff must become central players in the new schools (SER, SENR, others), and help mesh the schools’ objectives with those of the College and its departments.  How can we best engage with the schools?

7. Strengthen academic connections within UW and beyond.  Our fellow colleges are open to collaborate in a variety of ways.  Additionally, other U.S. and foreign universities are interested to work with us.  These connections would benefit our graduate programs and research.  Are there things that we should be doing to utilize these connections?

8. Cultivate leadership within faculty and staff.  The College has to grow more of its own leaders.  In what ways can this be done successfully?  Will increased opportunities for faculty and staff participation in College governance help here?

9. Promote cordial, pragmatic professionalism among faculty, staff, and generally. The overall good of a department is of higher priority than that of any single member of its faculty; and, in turn, the overall good of our College is of higher priority than that of any department (or school). This notion is basically sound, but requires cordiality coupled with an atmosphere of professionalism. How do we foster cordial professionalism?

10. Improve efficacy, consistency, transparency, engagement, and accountability in college procedures.  Several considerations prompt the need for additional improvements in the College procedures (e.g., in areas pertaining to recruitment, performance expectations, promotion and tenure, budgets, committees, advisory boards, outcomes assessment).  To what extent will such improvements streamline operations, avert misunderstandings, and promote professionalism?

11. Facilitate increased faculty and staff participation in College governance.  Faculty and staff need to take greater responsibility for, and participate more in, the college’s operation.  In which ways can participation in governance be achieved effectively so as to aid the College and give faculty and staff a greater sense of having a stake in the College’s development?

12. Improve the functionality and physical ambiance of the College.  The College lacks important facilities, and its ambience seems out-dated (at least in its front and center).  What facility developments are needed and where to configure them?  How much will they cost and what promising funding sources exist?

13. Strengthen external reputation.  The College has good reputations in several areas of activity, and is well positioned to elevate its reputation further.  What steps should we take to enhance our reputation? Do the foregoing goals adequately delineate the steps?

By the way, the term "a baker's dozen" implies value, fairness, good measure, and perhaps sound science too (loaves on a rectangular tray apparently bake better when arrayed as a baker's dozen, 4+5+4). Moreover, the term also implies a certain generosity of spirit