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A Walk on the Dean's Side
by Penny J. Christopherson
  Thc UWColl eg of Engineering has a
prowl heritage of outsta nding deans.
Dean Kuirt F. Wendt, the namesake of
loir   ( liblrary, a nld Dea nl W. Robert Mar-
shall hare passed their legacy to our
present (lean, John G. Bollinger. Penny
Ch ristopherson offers th is review of
Dean Bollingrers first year in office.
  When Dean John G. Bollinger as-
sumed the responsibility for the ad-
ministration of the College of Engi-
neering in July, 1981, he knew he had a
few obstacles to overcome to guarantee
engineering students a quality educa-
tion. Bollinger always enjoys a chal-
lenge, and as he saw it then, he had
four:
-- The need to divide the engineering
  program into two levels with separ-
  ate entrance requirements.
-- The need for additional building
  space for classrooms, instructional
  laboratories, and research facilities.
  - The need to hire more top-notch
  engineering faculty and staff.
-- The need to continue building a
  broader communication network
  with industry.
  At a time when the operating budget
was tightened and costs and inflation
rates were spiraling, Bollinger faced
these problems head-on. He rolled up
his shirt sleeves and got down to
business.
  In the process of addressing these
challenges, Bollinger's administration
saw three other innovations occur in
the College of Engineering:
-- The availability of graduate credit
  for off-campus study.
-- The opening of the Computer-Aided
  Engineering Center.
-- Ready accessibility of computers for
  engineering faculty.
Admission and Entrance Require-
ments
  The engineering program was di-
vided into pre-engineering and engi-
neering levels the fall semester of 1981.
At the pre-engineering level, any fresh-
man student eligible for admission to
the UW-Madison campus is also eligi-
ble for admission to the College of
Engineering as a pre-engineering stu-
dent with an EGR classification. At
the engineering level, prior to admis-
sion to any degree-granting classifica-
tion, the student must have a min-
imum cumulative 2.50 or 3.00 GPA
depending on the field of interest.
Although the College imposed stiffer
entrance requirements for admission
to the engineering level, the changes
do not appear to effect the current
trend of swelling enrollments.
The following chart indicates the
pattern of soring enrollments in the
undergraduate engineering program
over the past two years:
Semester/Academic Yr.  # of Students
Semester I, 1980-81 ................ 4,571
Semester II, 1980-81 ............... 4,247
Semester 1, 1981-82 ................ 4,850
Semester II, 1981-82 ............... 4,513
Semester I, 1982-83 ................ 5,101
   Graduate student Weishaung Qu,
 working with Professor Arne Thesen
 of the Department of Industrial Engi-
 neering, formulated a mathematical
 model to study alternative programs
 aimed at curbing the growing enroll-
 ment numbers in the College. Based on
 this study performed by computer
 analyses, Thesen and Qu presented
 two principal options to engineering
 faculty at their October meeting for
 consideration:
 -- Raise the present grade point require-
   ments (in some departments the en-
   trace requirement would be a 2.25,
   2.50 or a 3.00 GPA) for students
   being accepted into any degree-
   granting classification.
 -- Raise the maintenance grade point
   for students already accepted in a
   degree-granting classification from
   the 2.00 GPA standard.
   Bollinger thinks the first option is
the best way to curtail the influx of
undergraduate engineering students
and so do several departments in the
College. For the second semester of
1982-83, the Departments of Mechani-
cal Engineering, Chemical Engineer-
ing, and Electrical and Computer En-
gineering have raised their entrance
requirements from the established 2.50
GPA to a 3.00 GPA. No action was
taken by faculty on the second option
presented by the Thesen/Qu duo.
Space Needs for Growing Demands
  A major success was met this fall
when the final go-ahead was given by
the UW Board of Regents on the Cen-
ter for Applied Microelectronics ren-
ovation at 1410 Johnson Drive, the
former state highway laboratory. The
State Building Commission must still
approve the $2.3 million project, but
UW officials do not foresee any diffi-
culties in obtaining it. Work is sche-
duled to begin this spring.
  Bollinger says another plan is in the
works for takeover and renovation of
an additional building that would pro-
vide a significant space increase. The
building lies in close proximity to the
engineering campus.
      Dean John G. Bollinger
Faculty and Staffing Needs
  "The College is hiring as many qual-
ified faculty as there are appropriate
people to find," Bollinger says. "Com-
petition for qualified candidates is very
severe among institutions."
  The College needs to increase its
faculty rolls to compensate for attri-
tion and earlier fiscal cuts. Several
full-time positions were lost in the last
budget although the College did gain
in teaching assistant positions. Bollin-
ger says the College is being forced "to
become more fluid" in dealing with
decreasing state revenues.
  A new program was introduced to
the engineering campus this fall. IBM
loaned two staff members to serve as
adjunct assistant professors for the
1982-83 academic year. Thomas E.
Dillinger is working on research that
has potential for creating high tech-
nology jobs for Wisconsin businesses at
the Center for Applied Microelectron-
ics. James D. Kelly divides his time
between teaching in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineer-
ing and working with the Engineering
Minorities Program.
Wisconsin Engineer, February 1983
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