INTRODUCTION

The School of Engineering, Computing, and Construction Management (SECCM) is one of seven academic schools located on the Bristol, Rhode Island, campus of Roger Williams University (RWU). Students majoring in the SECCM programs currently account for ~14% of RWU’s total undergraduate population and are split by primary major as ~43% Engineering, ~14% Computer Science (CS), and ~43% Construction Management (CM). It should be noted that the Engineering major requires a specialization, with Mechanical and Civil currently being the most popular ones; the program also offers several minors. Computer Science offers Bachelors of Arts and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees and a minor. The CS program also requires specialization for its BS students, with Data Science currently being the most popular plan. In addition to a BS degree, CM offers a minor predominantly in demand from Architecture students.

The administration of SECCM includes Dean Robert Griffin, Associate Dean B. Gökhan Çelik, and three professional staff members. They work with twentyone full-time faculty members and several adjunct faculty members to deliver the curricula and manage and improve the operations of the school; these faculty members include three individuals who act in the roles of academic program coordinators. A typical teaching load is seven courses per academic year, but several mechanisms (grants, sabbaticals, extra service, etc.) exist to reduce the teaching load. Faculty responsibilities also include service (advising students, serving on faculty senate committees, participating in professional society activities, etc.) and performing scholarly activities.

The scholarly research performed by SECCM faculty members – in collaboration with RWU students, other RWU faculty members, and external partners –reflects the breadth of our programs and the diversity of our faculty interests. Research areas range from data science to programming to network security, from building information modeling to sustainability to estimating, and from sensor development to transportation infrastructure to alternative energy and beyond. Many SECCM faculty members are invested in pedagogical development, innovation, and assessment, including the scholarship of teaching and learning.

The faculty, staff, classrooms, and laboratories of SECCM are housed in two buildings on the RWU Bristol campus. The shared facilities in what is known as the SECCM building include several faculty offices, a conference room, a specialized classroom/mock board room for the CM program, multiple classrooms (including one with computational infrastructure), storage, and a Civil/Environmental Engineering laboratory currently shared with the Forensics program (in the RWU School of Justice Studies). The Richard E. Bready Applied Learning Laboratory (also called the SECCM Labs Building or SELB) opened in January 2020. It houses collaborative student spaces (including project rooms, an Engineering design space, and an Innovation Laboratory), several laboratories (materials laboratories for both Engineering and CM; an electronics laboratory; a fluid mechanics laboratory; an emerging technologies laboratory for CM; and a computer laboratory), two small conference rooms, and several offices that house faculty, staff, and administrators.

This report highlights the SECCM Strategic Plan for 2023-2027, “Impact, Innovation, and Inspiration,” which includes a description of the process followed in the plan’s development, a SECCM commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), updated mission and vision statements for SECCM, and a series of strategic goals (grouped by theme) for the next five years. The strategic planning process began with the arrival of Dean Griffin at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. The Dean met individually with each faculty and staff member, as well as various other collaborators, including RWU administrators and SECCM alumni and students, to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of SECCM and RWU, as well as the issues viewed as most critical. Following this, Associate Dean Çelik (appointed January 2022) and Dean Griffin conducted a survey asking for faculty input on the previous mission and vision statements and convened a small group of faculty members to perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis at the SECCM level. Based on these efforts, the Associate Dean and Dean developed the first drafts of the DEI statement and the updated mission and vision statements. Faculty had the opportunity to comment on all three drafts, and updated DEI, mission, and vision statements were crafted in response. Similarly, strategic goals (in line with broader RWU strategic goals) were identified upon consultation with numerous partners and were refined with input from faculty members and other invested parties, including members of our professional advisory boards. The results of these efforts are described here.