LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
KU EDITION
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1996 11A
JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
Carl Locke, dean of the engineering school, is overseeing expansion of the school's facilities and mission.
Engineering school braces for changes
- Changes are in the wind at the Kansas University engineering school.
BY RIC ANDERSON
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
Engineering school administrators at Kansas University are taking a different look these days at the making of a good education.
Locke said that unlike current accreditation criteria, which focus on the educational process, the new standards center on outcomes.
Carl Locke Jr., KU engineering dean, said the school was studying "fairly dramatic changes" being brought about by new criteria for accreditation.
"A friend of mine compared it to sausage-making." Locke said, smiling. "Under the current process, we look at things like, 'How fast does the extruder run, and what type of ingredients did we use?'
"The new criteria's focus is,
'How does the sausage taste?'
During an interview in July,
Locke said he envisioned more student and alumni surveys to determine school performance. Employers of KU engineering graduates also would be surveyed, to give the school an idea of its quality in the business world.
"I think we're going to be doing more and more things ... to see how well our students are doing," Locke said.
Locke said other changes in the wind at Learned Hall, where the engineering school is centered, include expanding students' scope well beyond engineering. He said administrators hope to beef up students' communication and teamwork skills, a move designed to help students determine "how their engineering work affects the social fabric."
The engineering school features about 95 faculty members on the Lawrence campus and satellite programs at the KU Regents Center, Overland Park, and the Capital Center, Topeka. Locke said enrollment projects indicate that 1,400 to 1,500 undergraduate students will take
See Engineering, page 23A
kitchen, private bath and a bedroom which will have desks and bunk beds. The suites will be the size of two current rooms.
Templin will be the first student housing building that KU will renovate.
Watkins Health Center is
Student Affairs office eyes campus life
- The Office of Student Affairs reaches into many aspects of students' lives.
See Student Affairs, page 13A
ter," said Linda Mullen, an assistant in the office.
BY JILL HOGAN SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL-WORLD
Workers in the Office of Student Affairs have their hands full this fall dealing with all of the
offices they oversee, as well as the major reconstruction of Watkins Health Center and Templin Hall.
"Our office oversees the department of housing, Student Health Services, Kansas and Burge Unions, department of student life, Student Senate, Student Assistance Center and the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Cen-
This summer and at least during the first semester Templin Hall is undergoing major reconstruction. According to the department of housing, Templin Hall will have new two-person suites as rooms which will include a living room, small