Industrial engineering program in jeopardy

Academic senate proposal to discontinue program went ahead ‘without faculty notice,’ some instructors say

By Tracey Robertson

An emergency ad hoc subcommittee must decide by Dec. 10 whether the industrial engineering program should end.

The subcommittee, convened by the academic senate, will weigh the controversial proposal and submit a recommendation to the executive committee of the senate.

When complete, the recommendation will move to University Provost Jeronima Echeverria and then University President John Welty before a decision about the program’s future is made.

The academic senate, which operates as a voice for all faculty members, reviewed the program in 2001 after a steady decline in enrollment.

Arriving at a consensus will not be easy. From the time the process started, the department—its faculty, administration and students—has been mired in conflict about the proposal, its origins and the best way to move forward while continuing to serve the students still enrolled.

According to industrial engineering department faculty members Masud Mansuri and Hamo Lalehzarian, a proposal submitted by the dean of the college of engineering, Karl Longley, intentionally circumvented normal procedures and is motivated by personal problems between the administration and faculty.

“ Dean Longley sumitted his proposal for discontinuance to the administration during the summer of 2002 without faculty notice,” Lalehzarian said.

The department had been working toward increasing enrollment, Lalehzarian said, and within a previously allocated one-year grace period that started in fall 2001.

In an Oct. 7 memo to Dr. Barbara Birch, chair of the academic senate, Mansuri and Lalehzarian, as well as faculty member Prakash Mahjan, stated that the proposal submitted by Longley was a gross breach of academic policies and violated the spirit of faculty governance.

The industrial engineering department has existed at Fresno State for more than 20 years. About five other schools offer the major in California. Industrial engineers study various scientific disciplines in order to increase the productivity of processes, achieve quality products and assure labor safety.

Low enrollment and budget considerations prompted the first review of the program in 2001. In 1998, there were 35 students enrolled in the program. By 2001, that number had dropped to 26. In comparison, the mechanical engineering program had 112 undergraduate students in 1998 and 145 in 2001, according to the school’s office of institutional research and planning.

Rather than making a recommendation on the program last year, the senate decided to review what Echeverria called a “flawed” policy for discontinuance. A revised policy was rejected by Welty earlier this year. The ad hoc group will make its recommendation independent of either policy.

Birch said it is too early to predict an outcome for the program, although the ad hoc committee is an impartial group that will review information from all parties involved.

Lalehzarian and Mansuri said Longley and Associate Dean Walter Loscutoff held private meetings with enrolled students, encouraging them to switch majors or transfer to another school.

In February, then-provost J. Michael Ortiz suspended admissions to the program.

Senior industrial engineering student Jason Miller is just one of the students who met with Longley and Loscutoff.

In a February letter to the faculty, Miller stated that he met with Loscutoff in the winter of 2002. He was told that the department would be discontinued the following spring and he could take industrial technology classes as substitutes or transfer to California Polytechnic State University.

“ The conversation I had with the dean did not affect my decision to stay in the program,” Miller said. “It really turned me off the university and the program though.”

Brian Kyle, also a senior, substantiated Miller’s claim with a letter the same month. Kyle said he met with both Longley and Loscutoff just before Christmas of 2002 and, like Miller, was told the program would end in the spring of 2003 and that remaining students would be fast-tracked. He was also given the option to transfer to another school.

“ How does the dean expect us to increase enrollment when he is talking to students behind our back and when admissions have been closed?” Mansuri asked. “It’s impossible.”

When contacted, Longley and Loscutoff declined to discuss the discontinuance at this time.

Mansuri said this is the only program that has ever been recommended for cancellation without the support of its faculty. In its memo to Birch, the faculty demanded that admissions be reopened until an approved discontinuance policy is in place.