Advisory Board Meeting:
Industrial Chemistry Technology Program

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Organization

• Welcome and introductions: All of the assembled members and guests introduced themselves. It was noted that Tom Miller is being recognized by the Alumni Division with this year’s Pacesetter Award.
• Student research and presentations: For the past few years, Pasquale Di Raddo has involved several students in research on dyes. A talk based on this student research was recently presented at a conference in Bordeaux, France. Dr. Di Raddo also encourages students to participate in other forums, such as the annual scientific conferences in Midland, National Chemistry week activities, and the upcoming regional ACS meeting in Grand Rapids this summer.
  A student ACS chapter was formed at Ferris in December, 1999. Membership in this chapter is not limited to ICT students; others are encouraged to join. Tom Miller mentioned that student scholarships are available through SPE (a plastics society); he wondered if the same might be true for ACS.
• ICT website: Pasquale Di Raddo (with the help of a student “web” assistant) has developed an ICT website in collaboration with (and with the financial support of) the Dow Chemical Company. The website is found at www.ferris.edu/ict. Part of the rationale behind the website is to distribute information more rapidly and widely than is possible through the ICT alumni newsletter alone. We are open to any suggestions about improving the website. Please e-mail either Pasquale or Bill with any ideas.
• ICT "off-campus."A few years ago, Parke-Davis (now Pfizer) in Holland requested our assistance in providing training to their technicians. At Parke-Davis chemical technicians are usually hired from within, and the company provides training for the position. However, the company also wants the technicians to obtain background in the basic sciences as well. Parke-Davis consulted with Bill Killian to see what help Ferris could provide. The result was the development of a four-course certificate program. These courses included general chemistry, organic chemistry, chemical calculations and instrumental analysis. This has been a cooperative effort between Pfizer and Ferris: Pfizer arranges for their technicians to have time to take the classes, they pay the tuition for the courses and they make their facilities available for the laboratory portion of the courses. Ferris provides the coursework, the books, and the instructor. Last summer the first set of technicians from Pfizer completed the requirements for the certificate, and they were honored with a graduation ceremony on-site.
  Bill would be happy to work with other companies interested in such an arrange­ment. This would include taking individual courses off-campus or tailoring a pro­gram (i.e., certificate) for another company.
• Networking:Please keep Bill informed about the types of companies where ICT graduates can be hired and where they do get hired. We need that information to assist with the placement of our graduates.
  Our placement rates continue to be (essentially) 100% every year. This is one of the strong points we use to “sell” the program to potential students.
• Equipment, resources and donations:Bill stated that we very much appreciate all the donations of company equipment we have received over the years—nmr’s, HPLC’s, etc. Our university has support staff that has helped us maintain the equipment we have received. We would encourage you that if you are replacing an “out-of-date” but still working item to let us know. We may be able to make use of it.
  Through the university (and with the occasional aid of Perkins funds) the department has been able to keep most of the necessary equipment current. However, the department does not have a specific maintenance and repair budget to replace or repair older equipment for the program. Board members agreed that this deficiency should be corrected.
• Recruitment of students:This is a national issue. The Ferris program has graduated between eight and twenty-two students per year over the last ten years. More recently, the trend has been steady at twelve to fifteen graduates per year. In some ways Ferris is “beating” the national trend, which has seen recent decreases in enrollment, even among programs approved by the A.C.S. On the other hand, industrial demand for well-prepared technicians continues to be strong.
  Traditionally Ferris has received few students directly from high school (about 25% of the typical graduating class comes from this route). Well over 50% of the students are transfers from other Ferris programs (such as pre-pharmacy). Pasquale Di Raddo pointed out that students have good reason to make the switch: with only two years of a college education they can begin a good career in a high-paying field. Increased awareness among high school students that Ferris has good science programs in general and an excellent ICT program in particular would help provide greater numbers of students for the program.
  Mechelle noted that students typically aren’t interested in pursuing two-year degrees; many of them look at four-year degrees instead. Bob thought that targeted presentations to select high schools (for example, high schools in the Midland area) could increase the numbers of students in the program. And Tom added that advisory board members could possibly take over the responsibility for meeting with high school classes in their local areas.
  Dave summarized two steps that the program has taken recently to increase the student population. One is the formulation of 1+1 arrangements with community colleges; that is, a student completes the first year of general courses at a local college and transfers to Ferris the second year to complete the technical training. Such an arrangement with Alpena Community College has already yielded two students to the ICT program. The second step is the inclusion of high school chemistry teachers on the board, so that we can see their advice about increasing the interest of their students in science careers.
• Program curriculum:Bill outlined the current curriculum of the ICT program. He noted that funding by Dow allowing for smaller class sections in Instrumental Analysis has permitted more one-on-one contact between student and professor this year. Bill also solicited suggestions regarding curriculum improvement.
  Bob said that it would be helpful if students had experience with the design of experiments…particularly how to handle several variables in a research design. He noted that there have been seminars at the Dow Corning plant dealing with this issue.
  Mechelle made two observations. The first is that graduates need to feel comfortable with making oral presentations to others. This is simply part of their jobs. While it is helpful that students make presentations in their projects class (in the semester just before graduation), it would be desirable if students could also make oral presentations earlier in their education.
  Mechelle’s second observation is that grades in the quantitative analysis class seem to be low in comparison with students’ grades in other classes. It was suggested that Ferris might want to consider adding an SLA component to this class. SLA sections, involving a paraprofessional who teaches evening workshops to struggling students, have been effective in other university classes in increasing the numbers of students who successfully complete a class.
• On-campus program review:Every five years each program on campus must complete a self-study to be submitted to the Academic Program Review Commit­tee (APRC). This study encompasses areas such as program curriculum, student satisfaction and industrial needs/trends. Five advisory board members are on the ICT program review committee. The final report will be submitted to the APRC early in Fall Semester of this year.
• Surveys of advisory board members:Two surveys were distributed. One was to obtain board members’ impressions of how Ferris could assist in their own life-long learning process. The second is a survey of the members’ opinions regarding the ICT program itself. This second survey is part of the program review process, and copies of it will be mailed to board members who were unable to attend the meeting.