OU Engineering needs to look at A&M

[ou48A]

With its limited resources OU's Administration should give top priority to high demand and high paying degree programs. What A&M is doing will give their university and their state a good rate of return on its investment. It will enhance the states income numbers a help fuel future growth of the state of Texas.
Donations back to the university would in time be enhanced by the success of many more successful alumni.

Texas A&M announces initiative to increase engineering enrollment to 25,000 students | 23 | 01 | 2013 | News & Events | College of Engineering

Texas A&M University to grow engineering enrollment to 25,000 students by 2025.

[BG918]

OU has been expanding its engineering programs and has built two new buildings dedicated to engineering in the past 5 years. I would agree with you that this needs to be a primary focus, especially building up technology and computer engineering. These programs, mostly in Felgar Hall, IMO need a new modern facility in the engineering quad.

[shavethewhales]

As a senior in engineering at OU, I agree. I definitively don't think the university as a whole puts enough emphasis on our college, especially seeing as we actually have a lot of profit-making research that helps support the university financially, academically, and publicity-wise among other things. The new buildings (Devon Hall and the Rawl Engineering Practice Facility), are tremendous resources. I've basically lived out of the REPF for the last few years, and it's hard to imagine what this college was like before we had these buildings. It would be nice if the rest of our facilities were updated to keep up with other schools in the region though, and I think all of our buildings are probably undersized in any case.

My department specifically, CEES (Civil Engineering and Environmental Science) is growing and improving in many ways at least. We continually have the largest freshmen class ever, which is a good sign. They've been improving a lot of things with our core classes and just made a number of hires for structural engineering professors, which was sorely needed. Facility-wise, I think we need investment in Fears Lab, which is a major structural laboratory on what is now the north end of the research campus. In addition to providing space and equipment for classes, it's also where a lot of profitable and important research happens, which in turn helps the university's academic rankings. I think it's the only structural lab of remarkable size in the state, but the labs in the states around us put it to shame. It also just plain looks ugly from the outside, which is a growing problem since the pretty new buildings are starting to crop up closer to it. We're hoping the university will support efforts to expand/refurbish it someday soon instead of sweeping it under the rug.

I'd like to figure out how to get the attention of the university planning group that makes such decisions for the research campus, but wouldn't know where to look right now. I've been told it exists, but haven't looked too far into it yet. Might be something worth pursuing after I graduate in May.

[Snowman]

With its limited resources OU's Administration should give top priority to high demand and high paying degree programs. What A&M is doing will give their university and their state a good rate of return on its investment. It will enhance the states income numbers a help fuel future growth of the state of Texas.
Donations back to the university would in time be enhanced by the success of many more successful alumni.

Texas A&M announces initiative to increase engineering enrollment to 25,000 students | 23 | 01 | 2013 | News & Events | College of Engineering

Texas A&M University to grow engineering enrollment to 25,000 students by 2025.

That makes sense but making the right picks can be difficult, there were at least a few degrees that between when I started my freshman year till I graduated that went from high demand for what seemed like forever to having a glut of graduates looking for positions. This was a few years before the recent recessions, when that happened with a lot of degrees, and does not even take into account the time it would take to building the programs up.

[ou48A]

That makes sense but making the right picks can be difficult, there were at least a few degrees that between when I started my freshman year till I graduated that went from high demand for what seemed like forever to having a glut of graduates looking for positions. This was a few years before the recent recessions, when that happened with a lot of degrees, and does not even take into account the time it would take to building the programs up.

There will always be a demand for various engineers....
I'm firm believer that engineers can cross disciplines without to much effort... they often receive further training after graduation more specific to their job.
I have seen several examples in the energy business, particularly during the boom times.

I believe that having a much stronger and expanded engineer program at OU would help attract good jobs to our state.

Business is always attracted to places with high levels of intellectual capital.

[ou48A]

As a senior in engineering at OU, I agree. I definitively don't think the university as a whole puts enough emphasis on our college, especially seeing as we actually have a lot of profit-making research that helps support the university financially, academically, and publicity-wise among other things. The new buildings (Devon Hall and the Rawl Engineering Practice Facility), are tremendous resources. I've basically lived out of the REPF for the last few years, and it's hard to imagine what this college was like before we had these buildings. It would be nice if the rest of our facilities were updated to keep up with other schools in the region though, and I think all of our buildings are probably undersized in any case.

My department specifically, CEES (Civil Engineering and Environmental Science) is growing and improving in many ways at least. We continually have the largest freshmen class ever, which is a good sign. They've been improving a lot of things with our core classes and just made a number of hires for structural engineering professors, which was sorely needed. Facility-wise, I think we need investment in Fears Lab, which is a major structural laboratory on what is now the north end of the research campus. In addition to providing space and equipment for classes, it's also where a lot of profitable and important research happens, which in turn helps the university's academic rankings. I think it's the only structural lab of remarkable size in the state, but the labs in the states around us put it to shame. It also just plain looks ugly from the outside, which is a growing problem since the pretty new buildings are starting to crop up closer to it. We're hoping the university will support efforts to expand/refurbish it someday soon instead of sweeping it under the rug.

I'd like to figure out how to get the attention of the university planning group that makes such decisions for the research campus, but wouldn't know where to look right now. I've been told it exists, but haven't looked too far into it yet. Might be something worth pursuing after I graduate in May.

Keep up the good work and don't give up.
Several years ago I told the head of the OU Honers program that OU should be putting far more emphasis on its engineering programs....
.... because that's where many high paying jobs are.

[ou48A]

OU has been expanding its engineering programs and has built two new buildings dedicated to engineering in the past 5 years. I would agree with you that this needs to be a primary focus, especially building up technology and computer engineering. These programs, mostly in Felgar Hall, IMO need a new modern facility in the engineering quad.

I would be interested to here more of your views and views from others who have ideas about what they would like to see done

[soonerfan_in_okc]

They already have a specialized engineering job fair, and even the "regular" job fair is packed with engineering companies. So they already are doing a great job in that regard.

[Geographer]

The university should probably just quit having any majors that aren't energy management or engineering.

Just to be safe.

[ou48A]

The university should probably just quit having any majors that aren't energy management or engineering.

Just to be safe.

Why do you say that?
Doing so would be a big mistake IMHO.

[Plutonic Panda]

The university should probably just quit having any majors that aren't energy management or engineering.

Just to be safe.

I do not believe anyone here is saying that.

[Geographer]

Idk guys...