Attendees:
Troy Campus: Jun Abrajano, Jodi Ackerman, Kurt Anderson, Tom Apple, Bud Baeslack, Ronald Bailey, Terry Blanchet, Curt Breneman, John Brunski, Linnda Caporael (Chair, FS), Wilfredo Colon, Ken Connor, Michael Danchak, June Deery, Don Drew, Teresa Duffy, David Duquette, Alan Eckbreth, Joe Ecker, Jacob Fish, Joe Flaherty, Arthur Fontijn, Gary Gabriele, Cheryl Geisler, Lester Gerhardt, Johannes Goebel, Virginia Gregg, Helen Gryzymala, Prabhat Hajela, Mike Hanna, John Harrington, David Hess, William B. Hillig, Cheng Hsu, JJ Jahng, Gary Judd, Ash Kapila, Vera Kettnaker, Eddie Ade Knowles, Mike Kupferschmid, James Lu, Jack Mahoney, Charles Malmborg, Cecile Mars, Rob McCaffrey, Eileen McLoughlin, Leik Myrabo, George Nagy, Om Nalamasu, J. Keith Nelson, Jon Newell, Lee Odell, Robert Palazzo, William Pearlman, Yoav Peles, Peter Persans (President, FS), Bud Peterson (Provost), Steve Roecker, Art Sanderson, Henry Scarton, John Schroeder, Larry Snavley, Frank Spear, Daniel Sperber, David Spooner, Jan Stegemann, Don Steiner, Jian Sun, Boleslaw Szymanski, Carlos Varela, Kirsten Volpi, Wolf von Maltzahn, Sam Wait, Gwo-Ching Wang, David Wark, Morris A. Washington, Bruce Watson, James Watt, Tom Willemain, Bulent Yener
Click here for original Minutes from 12-4-2002
Meeting Welcome- Linda Caporael
Remarks by Peter Persans, President, Faculty Senate
Summary of President Jackson’s Report
Details of President Jackson’s Report
Comprehensive Overview of the Progress
of The
Meeting Welcome- Linda Caporael
Linnda Caporael, Chair of the Faculty Senate convened the
Fall General Faculty Meeting at
Remarks
by Peter Persans, President, Faculty Senate
Peter Persans, President of the Faculty Senate, updated the
activities of the senate over the past semester, including the discussions over
the impact of the new graduate policy resulting in a summary of faculty
concerns, as well as recommendations and suggestions for action. The results of
those discussions will be available in the minutes of the
The senate initiated discussion on ways in which to assess faculty governance, and interactions between the faculty and the administration. The Curriculum, Planning & Resources, and Promotion & Tenure committees have had on-going meetings this semester. The activities of these committees can be found in minutes of the senate meetings.
Some major presentations to the Faculty Senate in Fall 2002, included:
- Bud Peterson, Provost – Issues and initiatives for 2002/2003
- Tom Apple, Vice Provost, Dean of Grad. Education – Grad. Advising: best practices
- Don Vitaliano, President, Rensselaer Chapter AAUP – Faculty governance
- Ken Miller/Robert Block – Retiree and Emeritus status
- Virginia Gregg, Vice President, Finance – Financial state of the Institute
- Curtis Powell, Vice President, HR – Benefits & Compensation Initiative
[- President Jackson met with the FS Executive Committee three times
during the semester.]
In the upcoming semester, a high priority will be updating the Faculty Handbook, especially regarding promotion and tenure issues. The senate will continue to collect information on, review and make recommendations for, the ongoing Performance Plan. The senate will address issues having to do with graduate and undergraduate advising, will update, and have significant input on the Compensation Initiative, and will continue discussions on governance assessment.
Linnda Caporael, thanked Peter Persans for his report, made
special note to greet our
A summary of the President’s remarks appears below. Her detailed report is included as Appendix A.
Summary
of President Jackson's Report
President Jackson stated that she wanted to appraise the
investments being made in
She noted that the nation – and indeed the world – is
experiencing a period of economic fragility, and that
- We have enhanced the student-faculty ratio, and we have made our first constellation hire;
- A new leadership team is in place, with all cabinet and dean-level positions filled;
- We are well underway toward a total compensation strategy, linked to the Plan.
- Careful budget monitoring and two years of favorable variances have conserved resources, which have been, and will continue to be, applied to the Plan’s initiatives and to facility renewal;
- Redeployment of academic resources is enabling us to offer “living wages” or a minimum stipend to all graduate teaching assistants;
- And, we have the continued commitment of the Board of Trustees to utilize the endowment for early constellation support, and further renewal of facilities.
- Cash gifts to the endowment are up – more than 150 percent greater than the next highest year’s total. Unrestricted giving is $10 million more than last year.
- We already are well along in a substantial capital campaign.
- Total research funding exceeded $50 million for the first time in 2001 and grew to $58.5 million in 2002.
The President then expanded on each of the above topics. She
also recognized new members of the faculty and administration, and faculty who
had achieved special distinction. She identified the key challenges
President Jackson concluded her remarks by thanking those
present, and invited questions. Linnda Caporael asked for questions from the
floor, starting with
At the end of the question period the President thanked the
There was no new business brought to the floor. Linnda
Caporael, Chair of the Faculty Senate, adjourned the meeting at
Details of President Jackson’s Report
President Jackson stated she wanted to appraise the
investments being made in
She noted, the nation – and the world – are experiencing a
period of economic fragility created by declining stock markets, a sluggish
economy, and made more uncertain by the threat of war and fear of any future
terrorist attacks. A number of higher education institutions currently are
facing financial hardships, hiring freezes, and budget cuts.
There are several reasons this is possible, given
First and foremost, it is because the
The Plan has prompted coordinated, consistent endeavor across the campus with the following cumulative effect:
? We have enhanced the student-faculty ratio, and we have made our first constellation hire;
? A new leadership team is in place, with all cabinet and dean-level positions filled;
? We are well underway toward a total compensation strategy, linked to the Plan.
? Careful budget monitoring and two years of favorable variances have conserved resources, which have been, and will continue to be, applied to the Plan’s initiatives and to facility renewal;
? Redeployment of academic resources is enabling us to offer “living wages” or a minimum stipend to all graduate teaching assistants;
? And, we have the continued commitment of the Board of Trustees to utilize the endowment for early constellation support, and further renewal of facilities.
? Cash gifts to the endowment are up – more than 150 percent greater than the next highest year’s total. Unrestricted giving is $10 million more than last year.
? We already are well along in a substantial capital campaign.
? Total research funding exceeded $50 million for the first time in 2001 and grew to $58.5 million in 2002.
There is even a flip side to a stalled economy – because we
are taking advantage of the lowest interest rates in 40 years, as we finance
the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies and begin the
Experimental Media and
Comprehensive
Overview of the Progress of The
Here is a comprehensive overview of progress of The Rensselaer Plan, because being familiar with the complete picture helps all of us understand how what we do each day fits into the whole, enabling the achievement of the greater mission.
The Rensselaer Plan is a blueprint for investment in the future:
- Investment in people – students, faculty and staff
- Investment in programs – education programs and research projects, and,
- Investment in platforms – the physical facilities that will enable our students and our faculty to be successful in those programs.
Students, of course are the reason we are here. We continue to attract the best – the highly motivated, the entrepreneurial, the socially conscious, and they are exceptional.
As most of you know, the Class of 2006 joins
The Class of 2002, which graduated last spring, achieved an
average starting salary with a B.S. degree of $51,735, while the Rensselaer
M.S. degree commanded $70,854. More than 23 percent of that class went on to
pursue advanced degrees at some of the most prestigious universities, including
a good number who have returned to us to continue their studies here at
To educate these talented young people,
And, we augment this extraordinary group, with the equally extraordinary faculty who are here and the additional new faculty. As mentioned earlier, in the past two years, 66 new tenured and tenure-track faculty have joined us – 32 in entirely new positions. And you already know of the appointments in several key positions:
- For
- Denis Fred Simon is Dean of the Lally School of Management
and Technology. Before joining
(President Jackson had an aside about her phone call with
Senator Bruno, who has been a good friend to this university, particularly
within the last year or so. He said he had just returned from a series of
meetings in NYC, where he met with a delegation from
- Johannes Goebel joined
- John P. Harrington is Dean of Humanities and Social
Sciences. Dr. Harrington was Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences for ten
years and a full professor of Humanities at The Cooper Union for the
Advancement of Science and Art in
? Selmer Bringsjord is Chair of the Department of Cognitive Sciences. Dr. Bringsjord has been Director of the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning (RAIR) Lab and professor, specializing in the logico-mathematical and philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence.
- Robert E. Palazzo, a renowned cell biologist, is Chair of
the Biology Department. Dr. Palazzo previously served as professor of molecular
biosciences at the
- Donald Siegel, formerly a distinguished professor of
industrial economics at the
- Michael Century, a former professor at
- Wolf von Maltzahn, former Vice President of Biomedical Engineering at the Whitaker Foundation, is the new Associate Vice President for Research, and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
- Ken Ralph is Director of Athletics, overseeing
- Mark Smith was named Dean of Students. Mark previously was Director of the Office of Minority Students Affairs.
- Donald Drew, who has been the Eliza Ricketts Professor of
Applied Mathematics at
This is a stunning lineup of distinguished individuals who
are helping to bring
Several faculty bear special mention:
- Michael Shur, who holds the Patricia W. and C. Sheldon
Roberts '48 Chair in Solid State Electronics, was selected as a recipient of a
coveted Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists by the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation in
- This summer, President George W. Bush named David
Duquette, professor and head of the Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB). This
is a Presidential appointment that requires Senate confirmation, and Dr.
Duquette in fact has been confirmed. As an expert in metallurgy and corrosion,
Dr. Duquette provides advice on the integrity of the nuclear waste container
planned for the proposed spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste repository
at
- I'd also like to introduce, Omkaram ("
- Prabhat Hajela, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and
nuclear engineering, is now a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers (ASME), and a 2003 ASME Congressional Fellow. Dr. Hajela is spending
a year in
In research, there have been exciting developments and appointments, as well:
- We are pleased to welcome E. Fred Schubert, a pioneer in semiconductor research, as our Senior Distinguished Professor of the Future Chips Constellation. His constellation will focus on “leapfrog” technology that will usher in new advances in optoelectronics and communications, and in imaging, lighting, and sensing.
- Our own, Xi-Cheng Zhang, the J. Erik Jonsson Professor of
Physics, is now Director of the new Center for Terahertz Research at
Now, I have often said that
- Performance Management Tools for all staff positions are complete, clarifying duties and responsibilities, core competencies, goals and objectives, career development and improvement plans, and job requirements.
- Career ladders and salary structures have been developed for 12 job families and define career opportunities. Implementation will begin this fiscal year.
- The Performance Management Tools and the career ladders
are linked to a Course Catalogue of training and development opportunities for
- Finally, a staff Handbook will provide staff and managers with guidelines regarding the Institute’s employment practices and procedures.
These rational, systematic standards will guide employee
practices at
What about our programs?
The Rensselaer Plan’s imperative to amplify the amount, quality, impact, and prominence of the Institute’s research portfolio is one of the Plan’s key transformational aspects. Our eminent faculties already are making steady progress toward this goal.
- Partnering with IBM,
- Major funding from the State of
- The new
-
- The State of
As we prepare for a new level of biotechnology research and
education, we are investing in the pedagogy to which it will be linked. This
summer,
While investment in pedagogy is important, we also have
developed new programs that directly invest in our students as people. We now
have completed a second year of “Navigating Rensselaer and Beyond,” which helps
new students transition into the
We have increased the scholarship award accompanying the 80-year old Rensselaer Medal from $10,000 annually to $15,000 annually, making it a more significant form of support for our undergraduates.
As scientific discovery and technological innovation accelerate, especially as we move into biotechnology and nanotechnology, it is incumbent upon us to examine the ethical implications inherent in these new frontiers. To this end, we have initiated, within the
With the arrival of Alan Eckbreth, and with the already
important leadership of the team at
Physical facilities also are important. The platforms
supporting
Meanwhile, the design for the Experimental Media and
Performing Arts Center is being finalized and the site work will begin next
spring. This landmark facility will cement
We also are investing more broadly in the quality of our students’ educational and living experiences. A $35 million investment in improvements to campus facilities is allowing us to complete systematic, rolling renovations and upgrades of freshman halls by next fall, and of upper-class halls between fall 2003 and fall 2005. We are planning a new upper-class residence hall, and we are pursuing graduate student housing options, including a small off-campus residence for first year, single, graduate students.
On the academic front, a new experimental "virtual classroom" in Architecture and an earthquake simulator are underway, as well as renovation of a microbiology laboratory, and the campus gigabit network extension.
While all these projects are promising and exciting, the
concomitant disruption is also a challenge. But it is also temporary, and it,
too, represents an investment in the
The investments we are making – in people, in programs, in
platforms – are having a cumulative effect.
The September 23rd issue of U.S. News & World Report
once again places
As I indicated earlier, research funding, too, is rapidly rising. Total funding exceeded $50 million for the first time in 2001 and was more than $58.5 million in 2002.
Fund raising at
We are in a remarkable period in the history of
As I said at the outset, the
We still face many challenges. We will continue on the path of transformational change by planning and executing the plans, by husbanding and focusing our resources, and by being accountable, as we expend those resources. We will continue to have to make hard choices.
While there have been accusations, there has been no intent to overly manage. The university was without policies in many key areas and had non-adherence to other policies that did exist. So, sometimes when any policy is put into place, it can feel very constraining. However, the intent is not to restrict, but to have coherence, because that is how we multiply our effectiveness, and how we leverage the resource base that we have.
I look forward to working with all of you as we work through
various issues with the clear understanding that we are all working toward the
same goal: to make Rensselaer stronger than it is – financially and in terms of
reputation – and to continue to attract ever-stronger students, both
undergraduates and graduate students, especially as we expand our graduate and
research programs, to enhance and grow the faculty, and, overall, to make
Rensselaer recognized in the way that it should be. In short, to live up to the
legacy that all of us inherited: the greatest technological research university
in
But the continuing truth is that we need three key elements if we are to advance:
1. We need a stronger endowment. This is why, of course, we are planning a Capital Campaign and focusing on giving. [This becomes a greater challenge as the economy slows giving overall.]
2. We need to achieve our freshman class target numbers, because we still are an undergraduate tuition-driven institution. Again, this is harder to do as the competition for the best students mounts. That is why we have to be competitive in terms of what we can offer them financially. That is why we have to do strengthening across the board, and why we have to invest in facilities and faculty across the board.
3. We need to see a definitive increase in research volume [even at a time when the federal budget is in transition, and when discretionary spending on the federal level will likely decline, and of course we know that the states are experiencing unprecedented budget deficits.]
Let me go back over these points in turn because this is reality,
but even as we face that reality, think about where we are when we put our
shoulders to the wheel. We're winning in terms of research proposals, as we
never have before.
Even though "giving" is an uphill issue and it takes ever more time, the very fact that we have doubled the giving, and the cash giving, within the last three years should tell you something. This means we should continue to face forward and not look back. The situation calls upon each and every one of us to lift our standards and to redouble our efforts.
The Rensselaer Plan contains more than 140 “WE WILL” statements aimed at guiding the Institute through a transformation that will place it among a handful of universities shaping the 21st century. Two and a half years into living and working the Plan, I believe that we can say, truly, "WE ARE" shaping the future. So, if nothing else, whatever your disagreements with anyone, whatever your feelings at any given time, you should have confidence, because what I found when I came to Rensselaer, more than anything else, was a group of very bright, hard-working people, but ones who actually had a kind of inferiority complex. I would hope that what we have been able to achieve together should shatter any of those feelings. We are changing the world.
President Jackson thanked everyone for their attention, and said she would be happy to answer any questions.
Jim McKim, Interim Chair, Engineering & Science,
President Jackson: "Well, the answer is 'yes and no,'
we continue to have our focus on partnering with UTC, to create a presence; but
there are a number of things having to do with some decisions that the Governor
needs to make, relative to that whole project completely coming to fruition,
that will guide our decisions about what kind of investments we might make
there. But we are continuing the research partnerships and projects with our
colleagues at
Wilfredo Colon, Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department,
President Jackson: "Tom (Apple) would you like to make a comment or two on this?"
Tom Apple, Dean of Graduate Education: "First of all, in terms of the metrics that we use for quality in our graduate program, all of those are up this year as well. I think we have what I would call the most selective class. The efforts we are making now, with the new graduate policy, we will attract better and better students because we are going to support the students that we bring in. It is very attractive to a student to come in and see that they will get four full years of support because we have the research dollars to do that. So, for our graduate program, we want to improve the quality and the size, and we have to improve the quality first and then the quantity."
President Jackson: "From the statistics I've seen, I would say there are two things that I see, one is that there are basically two renormalizations going on. One is a shift and a bias, in a number of departments, more to Ph.D. students than to Masters students. The second along with that, is a more careful evaluation of who is admitted, relative to the belief in terms of people being successful in research oriented graduate programs. Is that a fair statement, Tom?"
Tom Apple: "Yes that is right."
President Jackson: "So, I think that speaks to what you are talking about. But that renormalization has meant that, in fact, we did have fewer incoming graduate students this fall than we had in the previous fall. But what has happened is, that in fact we essentially have had more graduate students than we've really been supporting with our research programs. So we are renormalizing, but the intent is to grow, as we grow that capability."
Gwo-Ching Wang, Chair, Physics Department, Troy:
"Yesterday, all the Chairs of the School of Science had a meeting with a
Washington advisory group and one comment was made by Frank Press when we were
talking about teaching assistantships and he made a statement saying that, 'If
a school offers a teaching assistantship, but the other school offers a
fellowship then there is no way we can compete.' I think everybody understands
that. My question is that for a teaching assistantship the Institute has set as
a minimum (stipend) $12K for the two semesters. Is there any plan that this
minimum can be raised say in the very near future, because recently I wrote two
fellowship proposals and the guidelines on the NSF and Dept of Education were
always the full year - two semesters plus summer - to $21.5K per year. So if
you renormalize that into two semesters, it is still higher than the $12K for
two semesters at
President Jackson: "Well, I think there are a couple of
things that could be said. First of all, a university does not compete with the
federal government, in terms of whether our fellowships match what the NSF
gives. The NSF fellowships are portable fellowships. Where we want to be
competitive is in attracting those who win these national fellowships to
One of the key priorities in the Capital Campaign is for graduate fellowship support. But even now I am soliciting support for endowed funds, as well as expendable funds, for graduate fellowships for students. The third comment is that the $12,000 for the Academic Year, is a floor not a ceiling, and therefore Departments can augment those if they wish. But the truth is, obviously, we will examine as we go along, the need to increase the baseline stipend for our teaching assistantships. But because we had to renormalize to be able to support 550 full Teaching Assistantships (some institutional RA's) after the minimum stipend, we started with what we could afford. Because as you will recall there were a number of students on TA'ships that were getting half-stipends; that were getting stipends that were less than $12,000; and so the first rule we've made is to renormalize so that any student who does get an assistantship from Rensselaer, gets that minimum stipend. .
That is already an improvement in what students are getting
and therefore in how attractive what we have to offer is. Of course, this is
also referenced to what the cost-of-living is here. So, you cannot exactly
compare what the minimum stipend needs to be in
Now, there is a way to instantaneously raise that stipend, which is to cut down on the number of TA'ships and institutional RA's we offer. Because we are where we are in terms of our money. Again, we are fundamentally undergraduate tuition-driven, and therefore until and when we begin to see these other sources of revenue to support our graduate students, there is a trade-off, because there is a 'pocket' of money and we want to support as many students as we can at a baseline amount that makes sense, but as we go along we will hope to improve the stipend, but we cannot do that instantaneously."
Tom Apple: "Also, to that point, in order to establish a top-quality graduate program, we have to make sure that the number of Research Assistantships available to the students that we attract, at least exceeds the number of Teaching Assistantships we have here. So students can expect that when they come here, they may start out in a TA position, but they know that they are going to have a research grant that they can jump to. This semester for example we are supporting close to 550 students on Institute resources in the form of Teaching Assistantships and Institute-funded Research Assistantships. But we only have 250 externally funded Research Assistantships. I think on a go-forward basis, we can expect to have 425/430 TA's, but we really have to get the number of RA's up well above the 250 it is at now. And I'll remind you that the 250 RA's is at the old rates, so that is grandfathered in. I think our biggest challenge as faculty, is writing more proposals; which are actually up about 25% from last year, but we have to keep that kind of momentum in order to really strengthen the graduate program."
President Jackson: "Most graduate programs have students supported on a balance and a blend of sources. Obviously, there are Teaching Assistantships, some institutional fellowships (which in defacto is what our institutional RA's turn out to be.) But a key component is the support of graduate students on research contracts. What Tom's statistics indicate is that we have been out-of-balance relative to those Research Assistantships which come out of externally refunded research and that is something that really does have to improve in terms of our ability to have the number of graduate students here we would like, and to be able to fully fund them through their graduate careers.
Also departments have to be able to project in terms of their intake, on average, how many students they think they can support down the line. It will not be, at least not any time soon, that the university itself from central funds can support all the possible grad students that departments might want from beginning to end on university TA's. But we feel we've made an improvement because essentially we've had graduate financial aid that was really targeted at supporting about 430 TA's, supporting 540 TA's. What that meant was, there were a number of students who were getting support (if you think $12,000 is not enough!) at $5,000 and $6,000, arbitrary amounts of money. What we have done is said we have to renormalize, whatever number of TA's we support, we are going to fully support them at least at this baseline level and with full tuition remission. But we also upped the number to 550, but fully-funded. So instead of having full funding for 430 positions, we are funding 550 positions at any given time. But Tom's point is a key point, and that is that we cannot expect to grow the graduate program if we are not growing the research, because one plays off the other. We have to be able to have a sustainable model in terms of supporting our graduate students."
Carlos Varela, Assistant Professor, Computer Science,
President Jackson: "Part of the reason for doing that is the fact that it did not allow us to be clear of the fact that we were having students who were getting full support, and there is a movie called, The Road to Perdition and you know that is the kind of splitting-up of things that initially led us to having arbitrary amounts of support for students. So, for the time being, we want to stay focused where we are until we see how this works. We are not even a year into the way we are doing things now with the full-support. In addition, the real point is to have students come in, focus on getting the academic background, getting course work and exams out of the way. The Ph.D., where we are increasingly focused, is a research degree, and therefore when students are then at the point of doing research they should be able to fully devote their time to research and not have this kind of a split. Splitting it at the beginning means they don't get the fundamental academic background out of the way as quickly as they should; splitting it at the backend means they are not fully devoting their time to research, and the Ph.D. is a research-based degree.
Bill Pearlman, Director, Center for Image Processing Research, ECSE, Troy: "It seems to me that the current policy of not being able to split an RA and a TA, is really a disincentive to funding, and also a great risk in having to fund a graduate student for a full year and summer, or perhaps even two years and two summers. I don't see myself actually wanting to commit to that ahead of time and…”
President Jackson: "You know the policy in fact for Ph.D. students says that if we support a student on a TA; that in the year the student makes that transition to working with a faculty member, on his or her grant, we will split the cost 50/50. So, in fact you have a transition here (if a student is moving from a TA'ship) to understand whether you in fact are going to continue to support that student, and that is what we can do with the means that we have and still have a coherent process.
Bill Pearlman: "Well, that is not the way it has been explained. It has been explained that if I want a new student, and I want to bring them in, I will have to pay ahead of time the full amount."
President Jackson: "Well, if you are going to start the student right out in your research group, the answer is 'yes.' But, in fact, what we are saying is that we are supporting a cohort student, at any given time, a certain number of them on TA'ships and that for those who are Ph.D. students, the policy that I just described pertains. What we are not doing, is we are not going to split the TA and RA's for our first-year student, because part of the intent of the policy is not just about money, but about giving that student time to take courses, to focus, to pass exams, to do what the students need to do, so that the student can then really devote full time to research, and hopefully finish faster."
Bill Pearlman: "Well, this is not the way it's been working, what's been working is that we are losing students..."
President Jackson: "Well, I don't know your individual situation, and it is Tom's responsibility to work it out, but working it out does not involve splitting the TA's and RA's at this point in time."
Henry Scarton, Director - Laboratory for Noise and Vibration
Control Research, MANE: "My question relates to Communiversity.
You didn't talk too much about that today, the part I
want to address is the local industries, such as General Electric and Lockheed
Martin. I went to the ASME's Mechanical Engineers
Winter Meeting about two weeks ago and a number of the managers told me they
have made a major change in their policy for the master's program in
particular; if you have five or less courses they are forcing them to transfer,
by distance learning, to Georgia Tech or
President Jackson: "Well, we are aware of what GE and
KAPL have said, (Bud, I don't know if you'd have any commentary) but the truth
of the matter is again, there will be some renormalization and the question is,
'Will people come to us, pay our price point, because of the quality of what we
give them?' We cannot structure our tuition on what Georgia Tech or
Bud Peterson, Provost: "I think you said most of what I
was going to say. Henry, as we talked the other day, we've had meetings (we met
with Vic Abate from GE and with Mike Quinn from Lockheed/KAPL) and have had
on-going discussions with them as to what they are doing, what their
expectations are and how we can interact with them. The fact is that they have
to make decisions about where they think they can get the best value. They have
been using