There has been a lot of thought going into this effort, with input from the academic department heads as well as many others. As it now stands, there are around ten pages which talk about "revitalizing the commitment to the educational mission and what makes this place tick--what happens in the classrooms, dorms and hallways is learning in many forms."
Those who attended were told that WPI is good at educating its students, and that led some to wonder "why are our finances in such bad shape. . .we end up with being $1.5 million over budget every year." Which, in turn, led to an effort to prioritize spending, for functions outside of the classroom (such as the Registrar's Office and administration), which will hopefully slow tuition increases. Thirteen task forces were established in January to look at everything from faculty orientation to computer facilities and Apelian even stated that one of the questions he asked was: "Can I eliminate my job?"
This type of thinking is refreshing, and perhaps long overdue. An example of something which has already come out of this study is at the Registrar's Office. Chuck Kornik and Kari Blinn explained that they began by looking at all of the things which were redundant in registering for projects and classes. Blinn said that there were many cases where students had to run around and do simple things for the registrar, which for the most part, just took up students' time. By combining the Project Center with the Registrar, students can now register for all of their academic activities in one place.
Another thing which is being paid more attention is the "terribly outdated enrollment at WPI." While many other schools in the region allow students to register by phone, we get the ultimate pleasure of sitting in Harrington. Kornik and Blinn are working hard to make the system work for everyone. Blinn stated that here we use much more paper per student in the registration process than other schools. Kornik is working to eliminate some of the worse course conflicts and he invited students to stop by his office to see the scheduling matrices that line his walls.
The meeting then moved on to the subject of projects. While there is no plan to change the Plan, there might be some movement of the organizational structure into the academic departments. There is some need to formalize the guidelines for off-campus projects, as one third of WPI students now do off-campus projects. Lance Schacterle stated that he was willing to talk with students who had questions on this topic.
The first year experience at WPI is also slated to be enriched, as each department does a curriculum review. One idea is for universal technological concepts to be taught, with the example of teaching the physics of equilibrium and then the same concept from a chemical and mathematical perspective.
The topic of biotechnology could also be a hot one in the near future as more students are interested in that field. Creating a new department would require additional resources, but we already have many talented faculty members who could become loosely associated, without leaving their current departments. It was pointed out that we already have an accredited program, without a standing department (Manufacturing).
The meeting proved to those in attendance that work is constantly being done to make WPI an even better place for the students. They also suggested that we as students can play a significant role in this process, by pointing out some of the areas which might need improvement and offering constructive criticism.