Growing academic fields and emerging major/master programs took center stage at the Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting as part of Wednesday’s agenda.

Focusing on the current status, proposed improvements and estimated student enrollment of one recently created major as well as three master’s of engineering programs, the subcommittee of the Iowa Board of Regents aimed to address the success of each and the promotion strategies employed by the respective departments.

One of the fastest growing majors at Iowa State also happens to be one of the newest to be introduced within the past five years. Event management, the only program discussed outside of the engineering field, has enjoyed a prosperous rise in student enrollment and plans to gain popularity at a steady rate.

Bob Bosselman, professor and chair of apparel, events and hospitality management, spoke to the board on behalf of the major and cited its growth as an unexpected surprise.

“The enrollment has exceeded far beyond what I would have expected,” Bosselman said. “The number is getting close to 400 and is showing no signs of stopping.”

Originally proposing an enrollment of only 25 students in the fall of 2011, the actual headcount stood at 130 and then to 227 students with a projection of only 50. Today, the major consists of 360 undergraduates and is still projected to grow by 100 students per year.

Event managers can have positions as caterers, hotel event staff, athletic event managers and convention hosts. One of the newest classes offered helps students pursue careers as wedding planners, which is the most popular occupation among event managers despite the small class sizes.

Bosselman sees the strong partnership between the Gateway and Memorial Union hotels as well as businesses in the surrounding area and Des Moines as a reason for the strong enrollment and job placement rates, which have been nearly 97 percent in past years.

“I’m astounded by the advancement we’ve seen,” Bosselman said. “Our students don’t lack internship opportunities. The partnerships from companies we’ve received far exceeds the number of students we are able to send out every year.”

Though it has a low opening salary of $34,000 compared with the other programs discussed, Bosselman said his own experience with up to nine jobs in the hospitality industry is proof that students can prove their worth early and move up the professional ladder quickly.

As for the future of the program, the apparel, events and hospitality management department plans to add more faculty and hopes that an improved convention facility near Scheman in the next five years will entice more companies to visit Iowa State and offer more experience for students.

An emphasis on the master’s of engineering program proceeded for the rest of the meeting as three recent programs were analyzed for their success at Iowa State in the past five years.

One of the most successful programs in terms of enrollment was the master’s of engineering in information assurance, which is online program taught by Doug Jacobson, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Being a part of one of the oldest cyber security programs in the country, the graduate study focuses on educating students on both the offensive and defensive skills needed to succeed as a cyber security consultant or technician. Much like event management, it has grown at an increased rate and is currently one of biggest growing fields for post-graduate engineering education.

Beginning with an estimated proposal of 10 graduate students per year in 2011, the program exceeded this count by one student. Since then, the numbers have nearly doubled every year, with a current headcount of 50 students.

A common trait across all three master’s degrees is there are no full-time faculty members assigned to the students. Students also work together with peers in classes of different degree programs.

“Half of all our courses have one or more lab experiments, and one capstone is entirely lab based,” Jacobson said. “Students tend to really enjoy this aspect of the courses.”

The most popular lab that Jacobson sees students engaging in involves student-built computer networks attempting to be attacked and defended by fellow classmates. This concept concerned the board because of the possibility of students learning the basics to act maliciously toward company networks and the American public.

“We have every student use the standard ISU admissions program, but how do we know we aren’t teaching the bad guy?” Jacobson said. “We get asked many times if we are luring students to the dark side, and we simply say that we aren’t teaching our graduates anything they can’t learn online. Generally those who want to be bad people don’t expose themselves at a university level inside a classroom.”

Enrollment is expected to stay at its current rate as the need for cyber security increases during the next few years. The department hopes to fund a new Info Security Education Lab to provide a place for students to learn and function.

The master’s of engineering programs in materials science and civil engineering, the remaining degrees shared during the meeting, had similarly lower rates of enrollment but remain hopeful for future growth.

Materials science retained the lowest enrollment during the past four years.

Based on researching and applying available and new materials to different aspects of engineering, the application includes creating lightweight materials for airplanes or new aluminum designs inside cars.

“We are a small but powerful force,” ut of a 15-person crew the materials engineer works with everyone, helping students discover many disciplines making almost all of our work collaborative,” said Kristen Constant, Morrill professor and chair of materials science and engineering. 

Despite the low enrollment, Constant assured the board that the program was small at Iowa State but very large on a national scale, stating material science as the building blocks for most of the eight engineering departments.

A benefit seen by graduates is the generally large base salary of $70,000 to $72,000 and a job placement rate of 97 percent.

Because the degree is designed around a non-thesis approach, meaning research is not required by students, it is much more flexible and manageable for those who are already employed by a company. 

“Our students work alongside their peers in classes and really bring a richness and diversity you can’t get anywhere else due to their work experience,” Constant said.  “It’s a welcome benefit to our graduate students.”

Constant’s plan for improvement begins with the incorporation of more online classes, which is a challenge for the department because of the hands-on nature of the class, as well as a promotion strategy devised directly from Iowa State’s alumni.

“When our graduates talk at other places, we ask them to speak about the program, and it helps that our alum are natural spokespeople for our people in the workplace,” Constant said.

In a similar position as material science, civil engineering has also received a slow but steady enrollment increase.

The degree requires 30 credit hours, with six required outside of the department, taking about a year to a year and a half to complete. Much like material and information assurance engineering, civil has no full-time faculty and takes place in the classroom with other undergraduate students.

Enrollment has been met all five years. 29 graduates pursued a degree in 2015, a number Say Ong, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, believes will grow a much more rapid rate.

“We think that enrollment will grow,” Ong said. “If you want to get a professional engineer license, the NCEES is now increasing educational requirements to receive this license. A master’s degree may soon be required. Without it, many companies see you as a basic engineer making it difficult to take on specialized projects.”

However, the board questioned if the major would continue to grow even if the requirements of specialized projects did not increase.

“I think the requirement isn’t something we are relying on,” Ong said. “Many companies see with a bachelor’s degree that the engineers are very basic and so in order to take on specialized projects they may need this program. However, I don’t see the numbers getting up to the larger 100 students realm.”

Though the department lacks a defined promotion strategy, Ong doesn’t see this as an issue for the near future.

“We are trying to attract students who are wanting to improve themselves, who have gone out into the industry and want to work up the ladder,” Ong said. “It’s an attractive program because it’s only a year long. We aren’t aggressively going after students because if the program becomes too large we won’t have the resources to accommodate every student.”