Strategic Plan
Background:
School Overview:
The School of Information Technology and Engineering (IT&E) at George Mason University was established in 1985.
IT&E was the first engineering school in the United States to focus its scholarship primarily on information technology
and computer-based engineering as opposed to the traditional physical, material-based engineering approach. It was also
the first to offer a doctoral degree in information technology. Today, the School's programs cover the spectrum of IT
education, from introductory courses in IT technology to cutting edge research at the doctoral level. The School also
offers degrees in two traditional engineering disciplines in our Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and in
the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering.
One of the hallmarks of the School of IT & E is our responsiveness to the changing IT field. Given the rapid rate of
change of these technologies, School programs must adapt to address workforce needs without losing our primary focus
on quality. Critical issues include:
The IT/technology sector in Northern Virginia is the strongest economic force in the Virginia economy and further growth
is expected in this sector during the next five years. Given the strong student interest and enrollment in the new BS-IT
major, a significant student enrollment increase is anticipated take place at the Prince William Campus. During Fall 2003,
a retreat of School chairs and deans was held to discuss School strategic directions for the future. The results of the
retreat were used to develop the detailed strategic plan that follows.
Student Growth
During the 1996-2003 time period, annual growth rate in the number of students enrolled in IT&E programs averaged 5.6%.
While we anticipate continued strong demand for our courses and programs, it is our view that this rate cannot be
continued. In the current 03-04 Academic Year, we will generate 2,130 FTE and we have committed to raising this level to
2,190 in FY'05. The projections for the remaining years of the forecast are shown in the table below. These values
represent a combination of projections prepared by Renate Guilford and those generated within the IT&E Dean's office.
The average annual rate for this period is about 3.3% and although smaller than that of previous years, we believe it
is achievable and that it will lead to an improvement in the overall quality of our students.
For the past two years, enrollments in our Computer Science-related disciplines have been declining. This mirrors a trend
seen nationally and the decrease is stronger in our female enrollments than is the case for male enrollments. A second
factor affecting graduate enrollments is the visa difficulties experienced by our foreign student applicants. Again, this
is a national trend. Predictions for future demand of technical graduates indicate increases beginning with the next
calendar year. We anticipate, therefore that the reductions in enrollment in these fields will be reversed and that we will
again see growth.
Undergraduate enrollments in our School continue to increase with the new BS-IT degree taking a strong lead. Although the
degree is now less than two years old, we are predicting a degree enrollment of over 1,000 students for the Fall'04
semester. Growth in this program is anticipated to continue for the next 3-4 years with the majority of the new BS-IT
students taking classes at the Prince William Campus.
Other undergraduate majors that are expected to show strong growth in our School are Systems Engineering; Civil,
Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering; and new programs under development in the area of information security.
| FTE FY 03-04 |
FTE FY 04-05 |
FTE FY 05-06 |
FTE FY 06-07 |
FTE FY 07-08 |
FTE FY 08-09 |
FTE FY 09-10 |
FTE FY 10-11 |
% change from FY 04 |
| 2,130 | 2,190 | 2,250 | 2,319 | 2,404 | 2,488 | 2,752 | 2,657 | 21% |
| Annual % change |
2.8% | 2.7% | 3.1% | 3.6% | 3.5% | 3.4% | 3.3% |
Faculty Growth
In Fall 2003, the School had 92 FTE faculty and a total of 4,154 students. In addition, there are about 70 active adjuncts
teaching in the School with an average adjunct teaching load equal to ½ that of full-time faculty. The resulting
student/faculty ratio is therefore 32.7, a level that is deemed to be far too high. Our classes are overcrowded and many
courses have greater than 100 students.
We propose to reduce our student faculty ratio by at least 10% prior to the start of the Fall 2010 semester to a level of
29.4. At that time, our projections indicate that there will be approximately 5,100 students enrolled in our School. Given
this increase and the goal of reducing our student faculty ratio, we propose to add 34 tenure-track faculty, 5 Full-time
instructors and 10 new adjuncts. With these additions, we will not only achieve the desired faculty-student ratio, but we
will have reduced the percentage of adjuncts used in our programs.
Demographics within the School indicate that approximately 10-12 faculty will retire during the next seven years. The net
increase in new faculty needed by our School between now and 2010 will therefore be approximately 45. This influx of new
faces will enable a significant change in the makeup of the School?s overall faculty and enable us to both move into new
research areas and to strengthen those currently under way within the School. At the present time, there are relatively few
academic positions available nationally for faculty with IT-interests. This has become highly evident during our current
recruitment cycle in which we are seeking one new faculty member in Computer Science and one in our Information and
Software Engineering Department. (Both are replacement positions.) The quality of the applicant pool for these positions is
extraordinary. It is therefore highly desirable to ?front-load? our new faculty additions by hiring early.
Research Growth
Current research expenditures in IT&E are at about $12M/year, representing an average of $125K/faculty member. However,
some of our senior faculty members are no longer research active and do not pursue external funding. It is unlikely that
this position will change prior to retirement. As a result, the actual level of funded research for those faculty who
actively pursue research support is higher. Our estimate is that we have approximately 65 faculty in the School at the
present time who can actively pursue external funding. Many of these faculty have reached funding levels that are near
the maximum that they can support as individuals. Their ?equivalent? expenditure rate is therefore about $185K/faculty
member. At the present time, the School currently has two research centers that operate at significant funding levels: C3I
(Prof. Harry Van Trees) and CSIS (Prof. Sushil Jajodia).
Continued significant growth in the School?s total research funding base is therefore critically dependent upon bringing in
new faculty who will actively pursue external grants and contracts. As stated above, we plan to add about 45 new faculty
members by 2010. All of those hired will be expected to be research active. As a result, the number of faculty seeking
external support in our School will grow from 65 to 110 in 2010. At the current level of $185K/faculty member, this will
produce a School funding level of over $20M by 2010, as measured in current dollars. Taking inflation into account, the
expenditures in 2010 dollars will be about $25M. We have two new research centers in Transportation (Prof. George Donohue)
and Intelligent Learning Agents (Prof. George Tecuci) that will each be funded at the level of about $2M/year. Taking these
into account and assuming that other large centers will be proposed by new faculty additions, it is not unreasonable to set
as a goal that the School will have expenditure rates of about $30M by 2010.
The projected increase to $30M in research expenditures has a solid basis but is conditional upon two important
constraints. First, the anticipated increase in new faculty in the School is mandatory as the great majority of
existing research-active faculty are reaching capacity. Second, there are real limits to research expenditures because
of space limitations. At the present time, the School does not have laboratory or office space to accommodate the
anticipated 45 new faculty members and the associated post-docs, grad students, and research faculty that they will
support. The new research building will be of some help but will not accommodate the projected growth. Without the
identification of significant amounts of new space, there will be limits on our ability to grow our research program.
While it is difficult to predict new technology areas, we plan to expand the School of IT&E's national and international
recognition for research excellence in a number of existing and new fields. Strong opportunities exist in the following
existing successful programs:
Growth in Overall Quality
During the next seven years, concentrated efforts will be undertaken to improve the overall quality of the School of IT&E.
Moderated student growth in the presence of strong demand increases will enable us to set higher standards for incoming
students. The competition for the very best students, however, is significant. In order to attract outstanding students,
it will be necessary to offer competitive scholarships. At both the undergraduate and graduate student level, this will
require about $25K/year for the duration of the student's study.
Faculty recruiting will focus on attracting exceptional faculty at both the assistant and associate professor level.
Strong emphasis will be placed on research performance of these faculty. Successful recruiting of outstanding senior-level
faculty will require several funded and named faculty chairs.
In general, the School will focus on increasing overall quality through upgrades in computing facilities, improved
retention of high-ability students, and the expansion of specialized contract courses in local corporations.
As our academic programs both expand and become more technically focused, our requirements for dedicated computing
laboratories increase. For example, the security and web tracks within the BS-IT require specialized hardware and software
resources for the various upper-level courses. Various courses offered by the ECE, ISE, CS and the BS-IT program require
lab facilities to demonstrate computer and network architecture and hands-on opportunities for students to build computers
and to test network designs by building the systems themselves.
Growth in Academic Programs
In 2002, the School introduced a new academic undergraduate major, the BS in Information Technology. This degree has proven
to be extremely popular with both transfer and freshman students. Current enrollment in the degree is over 600 students with
many of these taking classes at the Prince William campus. In May, 2004, a total of 22 students will receive their BS-IT
degrees representing the first graduates of the program. There are approximately 70 similar programs across the US, most of
which have been created in the past one to two years. Our BS-IT degree stands apart in terms of its technical content and
size: It is now the largest IT degree program in the country. Our plans are to pursue accreditation of this degree under
ABET, the body that accredits all of our existing programs. We expect the accreditation process to begin in about two years.
Until the present time, the BS-IT major has been administered from the IT&E Dean?s Office as a program. Given the growth of
this degree and the strong interest it has generated, and its external visibility, it is important to move this program
into an academic department. At the present time, the School has a total of six academic departments and four of these
offer undergraduate degrees. The choices for the BS-IT major are to either incorporate it into an existing department or
to create a new, stand-alone department. From the standpoint of academic content, the most logical existing department for
the degree are Computer Science or Information and Software Engineering. However, these departments are the largest in the
School and adding the BS-IT degree to either would produce a department of extraordinary size. From the standpoint of
administrative efficiency and effectiveness, this is not a desirable situation. The alternative of incorporating the degree
into one of our smaller departments is currently being explored.
It is important to continue our expansion and growth of undergraduate programs. We anticipate introducing at least one new
undergraduate major within the next three years with a second appearing prior to 2010. As was done with the BS-IT, we will
receive inputs and suggestions from local industry, the Northern Virginia Community College, and faculty from both our
School and other academic units at GMU. Possible academic areas for this expansion include information security and
bio-technology.
As the research activities in the School grow in size and breadth during the next seven years, we anticipate that a number
of new MS degree programs will also be proposed. The specific nature of these programs will be driven by the interests of
our faculty.
Programmatic Assessment
All of our undergraduate degrees (except for the BS-IT) have been recently accredited by ABET, the engineering and computer
science accrediting body. Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering (two degrees), and Systems
Engineering all completed their accreditation processes and received full, non-conditional accreditation in fall, 2001.
All four of these degrees will begin their next accreditation process in spring, 2006. Computer Science completed their
accreditation visit during fall, 2003 and we are anticipating full approval this fall (2004). Re-accreditation for CS would
then begin during the spring, 2009 semester.
Under the ABET process, assessment plays an important role. In particular, the ABET visiting team expressed particular
interest in the following issues:
During the accreditation visit and analysis, each candidate degree must provide a detailed explanation of the process that
will be used to assess its program. We have therefore submitted assessment plans for all of our undergraduate degrees and
all were well-received by ABET. We have been using the results of our assessment to modify (where appropriate) our academic
structure. All of these steps have been carefully documented, as required by ABET.
Development Activities
In order to obtain the necessary additional resources that will be required to achieve these goals, we plan to
significantly increase the level of private and corporate donations to the School. We have recently completed a
successful recruiting of a new Director of Development and are in the process of completely redefining our fundraising
office. At the present time, this office consists of two full-time development professionals and one full-time staff
member. Annual donations to the School are now at a level of approximately $800K per year.
We are planning to announce a mini-campaign for the School that will be called the "2010 IT&E Campaign". It will be
announced as a campaign to raise $10M for the School by the year 2010. Of particular focus will be funding for a new
academic/research building that is estimated to cost $40M. It is anticipated that the School will also secure external
funding for five endowed faculty chairs in this same interval. Successful fundraising will be the key to achieving the
School's ambitious goals.
Development efforts will be concentrated in the areas of greatest need for the School:
Stephanie Galloway has recently been hired to assist the School with graduate student recruitment. Since the great
majority of our graduate students are local and work in local IT companies, she will concentrate these efforts within
local corporations. Her efforts will not only help us with a long-term strategy for recruitment of graduate students but
will assist us in our development activities as the education of our workforce is a top priority for local industry. She
will be closely coordinating her efforts with Jennifer Lamb.