• Economic Development/Workforce Demand
  

  Building Construction, because of the diverse needs of the graduates, has specific areas of specialty disciplines. Although contractors are responsible for the means and methods of construction, they must also be aware of the engineering concepts, which include architectural design, structural and mechanical disciplines. This faculty line will not only assist with a much stronger structural component to the program, but will also assist with community and industry relationships through research in areas of structural engineering.

• Florida Board of Governors Areas of Strategic Emphasis      
  

  The Building Construction program has been identified as a Florida Board of Governors Economic Development STEM Area of Programmatic Strategic Emphasis. Faculty have backgrounds in all the STEM content areas. The new full-time tenure seeking line would require someone with a doctorate in the construction area with an emphasis on soils, structures, and concrete mixtures, all of which include basic physics and mathematics formulations.

• Accreditation Requirements
  

  In the AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR CONSTRUCTION EDUCATION, DOCUMENT 103, has two specific areas which tie to our need for an additional faculty member.
  
  4.1.2 Each faculty member must have demonstrated expertise in the areas for which he/she has teaching responsibility and include adequate background in the supporting disciplines from which his area of specialty draws major concepts and principles.
  * Because our structure series is more engineering related, it is more of a design discipline with a specific area of expertise.
  
  Listed in Section 1 of Document 103 is the required curriculum topic content areas.
  Design Theory (Select one or more from the following
  options.)
  Structural Mechanics
  17 REV 3/12
  The changes to Section IX take effect July
  2014. Current Section IX is shown in black
  first, new Section IX is shown in red below.
  Electricity
  Thermodynamics
  Soil Mechanics
  Analysis and Design of Construction Systems (It is the intent of this requirement
  to ensure that construction program graduates have, at minimum, some exposure
  to all basic systems that may be incorporated into a building project.)
  Civil
  Electrical
  Mechanical
  Structural
  Building Codes and Standards
  Construction
  * In this case, our program has all areas specifically addressed; however, the structural and soils topics are covered by our one adjunct faculty. We are having difficulty with the faculty currently in his inability to work with students outside of class. This past year, our program paid to have a tutor come in to work with the students having difficulty in the first course of the series.

• Community/Visibility
  

  The Construction industry in Northwest Florida is expanding. The Building Construction program at UWF is one of the few programs available to Region 1 students. With the growth potential in both industry and education, the program aligns to secondary academy programs, community college, and technical center programs in the area. Many adult students are pursuing second careers; the programs offered in the Applied Science, Technology Administration Department fit nicely in to the educational preferences for adult learners. The program also includes efforts with continuing education to bring community members into the classroom for non-credit learning, exposing the community to the program and curriculum. The benefit also includes marketing efforts as more community members in the design and construction community know about the program.

The Building Construction program currently has two full-time faculty members. There are a number of possibilities to increase undergraduate enrollment as well as the opportunity to begin a master s program in Construction. The department will be seeking accreditation in the near future; therefore, a full-time, tenure earning position would help meet the requirements of the accrediting body, ACCE.

The University is expanding both its face-to-face delivery and its online delivery of courses. The faculty position would expand the departments CORE research efforts as well as our outreach activities which include workforce development, professional and continuing education.

Construction includes an engineering component, which current faculty has limited expertise. ACCE states, "The Constructor is to have a good understanding of the design disciplines (architecture and engineering) and the design processes to be effective in the construction industry. He/she must be able to communicate with design professionals and must also be able to use engineering principles to solve practical construction problems."

The request is for a tenure earning; however, the Program is open to resolve current needs with any recommended position level.

Teach construction courses in undergraduate program and possibly in a new graduate program.
Conduct research in areas related to Departmental initiatives.
Research in areas related to our CORE Research efforts, which may include: Sustainability, and Storm Mitigation.
Participate in outreach activities, including Department initiatives:
- CORE House, energy, mitigation, workforce development, and
- Provide professional and continuing education.

An adjunct is currently covering the structures series courses. Due to his inability to teach more than one course, this series, which consists of three courses, can only begin for a student one time a year. If a student misses the sequence, he/she is delayed for graduation. A full-time faculty could teach two of the courses each semester, providing students more opportunities to enter the structures series courses.

Additionally, we have raised funds to begin the CORE project, which includes a soils lab; however, there is lack of expertise in the structures series equipment needs. A faculty who can "take the reins" for the soils lab and begin running courses with the required hands-on curriculum needs, would help in the areas of accreditation and for expanded areas of research for the CORE lab.

Two of the Career and Technical Education programs have been deleted. We now only have one program - Workforce and Program Development for the CTE content area. The Electrical Engineering program has been deleted.

Not applicable to this program. None of the specializations have fewer than 10 majors.

* Does not include non-degree specializations (indicated with a † above)