Volume 7, Number 4, 1998

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

10 things to brag about the next time someone asks you, "What's happening at UD?" More later!

  1. UD was one of 18 research universities cited in a recent Carnegie Foundation report for making improvements in undergraduate education. The report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities, was generally critical of current undergraduate education at large research universities, except for those with model programs. Delaware was cited for adopting problem-based learning in all basic science classes "to promote active learning and connect concepts to applications." Among the other institutions cited with special undergraduate programs were Duke, Stanford, Princeton and Columbia universities.

  2. The Department of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, named seventh in the nation in urban policy programs by U.S. News & World Report, also was praised by the American Society of Public Administration for overcoming the division between theory and practice through nationally recognized internship programs, the Legislative Fellows Program and one-credit professional skills mini-courses.

  3. At UD, more than 90 percent of all engineering, biological and physical science professors now actively participate in undergraduate research opportunities. The research skills learned at UD enabled Mark Settles, AS '98, a biologist, to have his work featured on the cover of the journal, Science, a highly exclusive, peer-reviewed journal. Settles, first author of the Science article, is now a Ph.D. candidate at the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, investigating the molecular biology of maize.

  4. The University of Delaware has been ranked 11th in the nation-fourth among state schools-in "America's 100 Most Wired Colleges," a survey of computing systems in colleges and universities in the May issue of Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine. The rankings were based on classes with on-line materials, classes with on-line work, student home pages, an on-line student newspaper, an electronic ride board, a campus cybercafe, public computers and students who own computers.

  5. The new Fiske Guide to Colleges sums up UD in this manner: "If you're looking for an all-American, traditional college experience, take a gander at the University of Delaware...the school, founded in 1743, has all that the traditional college portrait entrails: Solid academics, rowdy athletic traditions, Northeastern beauty and all." The guide goes on to praise the undergraduate research program, the Honors Program, the solid reputations of the colleges of Engineering and of Business and Economics, and an "upwardly mobile" music department with faculty members who have "impressive professional performance credits."

  6. UD students are accepted in law schools at a rate that "soars" above the national average, according to the Law Services Pre-Law Advisor Reports. In 1997, out of 167 seniors and post-graduates at UD who applied to law school, 137-or 81 percent-were accepted by one or more schools, including Harvard and Columbia universities. The national average is 69 percent.

  7. Professional programs at the University also are receiving recognition. The Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management Program has been selected by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Motel Association as one of only 12 university programs to participate in its hospitality-related Research Institute. The Medical Technology Program was awarded a seven-year re-accreditation-the highest level of recognition awarded to an educational program-from the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences. And, graduates in UD's dietetics program scored above the national average in every category of the national registration exam.

  8. Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine ranked UD 36th in its survey of the top 100 values in state universities. In ranking schools, the magazine considered costs for in- and out-of-state tuition and room and board; and measured quality by comparing four-year graduates, six-year graduates, freshmen who returned for their sophomore year, freshman SATs and admission rates. Financial aid was measured in terms of average aid packages, the percent of aid that is self-help and the average debt of graduates.

  9. Externally funded program support is up this year by more than $9 million, or 13.7 percent. To cite two recent gifts: The Department of Individual and Family Studies received a competitive, $4.4 million five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish an Early Head Start Program in New Castle County, Del., and the Department of Mathematics received a prestigious Group Infrastructure Grant (GIG) from the National Science Foundation, totaling more than $1 million over five years, to help provide broader training for graduate students in mathematics by placing them in industrial internships and funding their studies for two years during their degree programs. Last year, grants totaled $69.1 million; this year, the figure is $78.6 million.

  10. The Princeton Review, in its current edition, cites the University's "impressive" efforts to develop an electronic campus and quotes one marketing major as saying, "UD is so technically advanced, e-mail has become an everyday part of life. If I have a question while studying, I e-mail the professor."