[Faculty] Rapid COE New Faculty Growth & ABET

[Khaled Morsi]

Dear Eugene,



As a College of engineering senator, I understand that a couple of
engineering faculty positions (one in mechanical) are about to be un-frozen
subject to Senate approval. The Provost mentioned in the senate that the
COE need for new faculty positions was a result of our fear of not being
able to get ABET accreditation. Is this true? I never knew this was ever an
issue. Were we given a serious ultimatum by ABET?  In order to prepare for
the senate meeting, could you please share with us any communication
received from ABET saying that, if we do not increase our faculty
numbers, we will lose our accreditation?



I have also been contemplating for some time about our high faculty growth
rate as a college without simultaneously growing our resources (e.g. number
of graduate students on the decline, limited technical staff, limited
space, etc.). Instead of hiring more and more faculty, it could be argued
that we should be first building and strengthening our foundations (support
structure) to enable a stable and sustained growth going forward.



*For example:*



1.  *Building resources in support of our current un-tenured and
un-promoted faculty “first”*, resulting in the retention of successful
faculty and high faculty morale. For example, financial support for
conferences, technician support, space, increasing our MS student
population, establishing a "robust" and "inclusive" program to connect
faculty with program managers of funding agencies to facilitate the
securing of grants, establishing a comprehensive mentorship program in
which 'interested' faculty may join, promoting a grass route discussion
regarding RTP and inviting all faculty to participate in this discussion to
arrive at fair and solid criteria for tenure, on the department and college
levels.



2.  Currently, all recent positions have been given to the college on the
*firm* condition by the provost that t*here will be* *no additional space
given*. This point emphasizes our lack of space to grow into, and the
potential crowding of existing faculty at risk of declining faculty morale,
and faculty retention. *Before long,* *the grass may truly be greener on
the other side.*



3. We cannot assume that when new faculty are granted Ph.D. students as
part of their startup then we have done our part toward them. The
likelihood of a faculty member hiring and graduating a Ph.D. student before
their tenure clock is up is slim. That means they would need to also advise
MS students, to expand their research portfolio. With the increased faculty
hiring and not increasing resources, serious issues are arising. For
example, in mechanical, the decline/low MS student numbers has led us to
change our RTP policy such that we do not now require faculty to advise
students as a requirement for tenure and promotion, this compromise has
happened because some faculty may not be able to recruit MS students due to
the low numbers of students (i.e. it would be unfair to hold them to
this). *Hence,
as a direct result of excessive hiring without increasing resources, our
high standards in RTP are now being negatively impacted.*


There are equally important arguments for looking after our current faculty
before we hire more, but I wanted to make this message brief.



Thank you, and looking forward to learning more about this ABET threat that
has stimulated all this spontaneous growth in the College (in case we get
asked), before our senate meeting.



My best regards



Khaled

K. Morsi, D.Phil (Oxon.)
Professor & Director
Advanced Materials Processing Laboratory (AMPL)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-1323
Tel: 619 594 2903
Fax: 619 594 3599
Website: http://eon.sdsu.edu/~morsi <http://eon.sdsu.edu/morsi>
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