College of Textiles
Changes in Service Environment
This
has been a challenging year financially. The continued shortfall in the state budget
and resulting cuts to the colleges has put pressure on the
college to combine activities, eliminate positions, and delay
plans. The continued uncertainties in the textile industry
have resulted in cuts in training budgets putting pressure
on our extension activities resulting in further combining
activities, eliminating positions, and delaying programs. The
irony is that in the past year we have had more new research
opportunities, industry interest in our new activities, and
new areas of exploration than ever before. There are strong
positive signs of change in the industry. Several companies
had record sales and profits the first quarter of this year. Several
even set records last year. The consolidations and mergers
have created larger companies with new interest in research
and new product development.
The
industry continues to expand in new, non-traditional areas. One of our challenges is
to move quickly enough to be the leader in these areas thereby
attracting the necessary funding, building the facilities,
and positioning our faculty for these new opportunities. In
the past year we have made considerable progress in expanding
our research facilities in nonwovens research, launching
a new medical textiles concentration, and adding other lab
facilities and faculty to support the “new world of
textiles.” We made great progress working with the
North Carolina Textile Foundation this year. In addition
to our regular Board of Directors meeting in the fall, we
held a full-day retreat in January, a “Vision and Design” meeting
with selected board members in April, and numerous smaller
meetings to improve the foundation’s structure and add
new committees on development, membership, finance, and structure.
Compact
Plan: Major Initiatives from our
Compact
We
completed several major initiatives in our compact during
the past year and
made significant
strides in others. The new Nonwovens Partners Lab was opened
on May 28th. This twelve million dollar facility
gives us unmatched research facilities for this rapidly growing
area of the textile industry. Already North Carolina has
29 companies in nonwovens with over $3 billion in total annual
related revenues. We continued to grow our Anni Albers Scholars
dual-degree program with the College of Design. Ms. Nancy
Powell, formerly Director of Design for Milliken and Company,
joined our faculty in February. Professor Powell brings
new talents in industrial and product design to the program.
We
continued our High School Teachers Summer Research Workshop
for chemistry
and physics teachers
and also had four sessions of Summer Research Workshops for
high school students. Feedback from participants continues
to be outstanding. Many of our incoming freshmen have attended
one of the student workshops in the past. We continued to
expand our college honors program taught by two outstanding
young faculty members. We have also expanded our freshman
mentoring/research program. This year we have gotten over
100 alumni to volunteer to mentor all incoming freshmen in
addition to our normal advising and mentoring programs.
The
Centennial Scholars Program has become the foundation for
our scholarship programs. This
year we interviewed 43 students on campus with teams of industry
senior executives, faculty and staff. Eleven Centennial
Scholars were selected (six are also Park Scholars) with
an average SAT of 1401. Most of the other 32 interviewees
also were offered scholarships. We have continued to expand
the international opportunities for our students and are
now official members of the European Association of Universities
of Textile Engineering (AUTEX). This association of nineteen
universities offers a four-semester textile engineering masters
degree with study in four countries.
One
of our internal initiatives was to increase visibility
of the college through
sponsored
conferences and improved communications. This past year
we co-sponsored with AATCC a special color science workshop,
sponsored our second Symposium on Protective Clothing, and
co-sponsored with Columbia University and the U.S. Department
of Commerce a special conference on “Reindustrialization: Prospects for the
Fashion Industry.” We dramatically improved
our communications by hiring a Director of College Relations,
Ms. Emily Parker. In the past year, we have created a new
college newsletter for both internal and external customers,
had five television spots, thirteen media articles, hosted
a retired faculty and staff luncheon, hosted a medical textiles
focus group, and built an alumni mentoring program for our
freshmen. We also published A Century of Progress,
a delightful history of the college by Dr. Gary Mock.
Diversity: Initiatives and Progress
The
College of Textiles has continued to be a leader on campus
in diversity. Of the last seven
faculty hired five have been female, one African American,
and one international. In the past twelve months, two female
faculty members have received tenure. We have appointed
an American Indian as Acting Coordinator for Diversity programs
and created a college committee led by the dean. We have
just begun an initiative to improve graduation rates for
African American students.
Instructional Program Advances
During
the past year we have developed a new concentration in
medical textiles. This program has
three tracks: biotextiles (inside the body), medical textiles
(outside), and textile healthcare management. The concentration
will be open to majors in textile technology, textile chemistry,
textile engineering and textile and apparel management. The
first course, a modified version of our introductory textile
T105 course, will be offered this fall taught by Professor
Martin King.
The
Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science Department undertook
a thorough review
of its
textile chemistry degree program. The department held a
full-day retreat to discuss the recommendations and is now
implementing this major restructuring of the program. The
new focus will be on color chemistry, polymer science, and
sustainable manufacturing. The Textile Engineering faculty
have developed state-of-the-art laboratories for teaching
circuit design and information systems. The MS/TE Option
B degree was approved. The Textile and Apparel, Technology & Management
Department has also made major changes to their programs. The
MS Textiles program revisions have been approved and new
tracks added in product design, advanced fibrous structures,
and medical textiles. TATM has also spent considerable time
preparing for the 2003 ten-year review for SACS accreditation. The
college has also designed a new, writing intensive course, “New
Product Evolution,” as a substitute for the discontinued
English 112 that we hope will be attractive to a large number
of students outside of textiles. The TTM Ph.D. program has
also undergone significant revision.
Research
Overall
our research indicators have been disappointingly flat. Some indicators decreased
relative to the last two years, although it looks as if expenditures
will be up slightly relative to last year. The severe economic
downturn in the industry, with concomitant rapid industry
rearrangements and repositioning, undoubtedly plays a large
part in our research contract and applied research / service
agreement levels of activity. There are signs that this
has begun to change in 2002.
The National Textile Center continues
to be successful, with this past year marking the 11th year
of support from the Department of Commerce. The College
of Textiles funding from NTC is about $2.3 million per year
in research funding. This year two new universities, University
of California – Davis, and Cornell, have joined NTC. With
the two new universities, we have proposed an increase from
$10 million to $12 million for next year in basic research
funding, and $5 million in new funding for applied research
and technology transfer.
The Nonwovens Cooperative Research
Center (TATM) is operating successfully on state and
industrial funding, with 35 associate, affiliate, and full
members. On May 28th, NCRC unveiled a $12 million state-of-the-art
melt-blown / spun-bonded, hydroentangling pilot line in
Partners I building. This will provide the college an
international showplace research facility for producing
a wide variety of high-performance nonwoven fabrics.
A
research initiative in Electrotextiles (TATM), joint with
the Electrical and
Computer Engineering
Department received substantial seed money last year from
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for investigations
into use of electrically conductive fabric structures in
a variety of applications. This funding has been continued.
The Thermal Protection and Comfort
Center (TECS) continues to serve industry with what
is arguably the finest facility in the world for assessing
protection and comfort issues. Although their funding
is somewhat more sensitive to industry economic conditions,
and is down somewhat this year, industry contracted for
almost $240,000 of testing and analysis services last year. TPACC
announced a new initiative – The Fire and Emergency
Response Garment Initiative – with major support from
the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Extension
Textile
Extension and Applied Research programs suffered from the
economic
downturn in the textile
economy last year. The Applied Research program, although
still quite strong, suffered a 35% decrease in contract value,
although only an 8% loss in numbers of contracts. The Short
Course program suffered a 48% decrease in number of courses,
and a 60% loss in student numbers in programs offered only
by the college. However the success of joint programs in
Six Sigma (with the College of Engineering Industrial Extension
Service) and Supply Chain Management (with the College of
Management) is gratifying. Our In-Plant program suffered
the most – 62% decrease in programs, and 34% decrease
in numbers of students. Due to the shortfall in revenues,
we reduced staff in these areas by two EPA and two SPA employees
in early 2002.
The
success of our joint programs in Six Sigma and Supply Chain
Management
programs points
to new directions of emphasis for our extension educational
programs. Our gross revenues for Six Sigma and Supply Chain
Management were $285,000 and $185,000 and net revenues $95,000
and $40,000 respectively. These gross revenues are $180,000
and net revenues are $80,000 higher than all our other short
courses and in-plant courses combined. We hope to use these
programs and approach as a foundation to rebuild our offerings. We
have also finished a Textile Fundamentals online and/or CD-ROM
course with 25 hours of instruction. We have just started
marketing this program.
The rejuvenation of the Supercritical
CO2 Consortium with the new members Parkdale and
Cotton Inc. is positive, as is the discovery of a dyeing
process that promises to be applicable to all dyes and substrates. We
have also drafted plans for the new textile partners building
on Centennial Campus tentatively named the Textile Innovation
Center. We are currently negotiating with the anchor tenant.
Faculty and Staff
Dr.
David Hinks was named Outstanding Teacher in the College
of Textiles
for 2001-2002 and was one of four faculty to receive cash
awards from the university
for his teaching accomplishments. Dr. Gary Mock was selected
as the College of Textiles nominee for the Board of Governors
Award for Excellence in Teaching. A paper co-authored by
Ms. Michele Wallace, Dr. Keith Beck and Dr. Brent Smith was
selected as the Paper of the Year in Textile Chemist and
Colorist/American Dyestuff Reporter. Dr. Mansour Mohamed,
Burlington Professor Emeritus, was selected as the 2002 Swartz
Lecturer. Dr. Moon Suh was elected a member of the American
Statistical Association. Dr. Subhash Batra received a Sloan
Foundation grant to support a scholarly leave with the Harvard
University Center for Apparel and Textile Research.
Students
During
the December 2001 and May 2002 graduation ceremonies, we
presented 201
degrees: 163
undergraduate and 38 graduate. We had 56 students enrolled
on our Textile Off-Campus Televised Education (TOTE) program. Four
of these students received Master of Textiles degrees. We
recorded seven additional courses, and twenty-eight courses
were delivered using pre-recorded tapes.
Placement
was surprisingly strong with 89% of students placed by
June 1, 2002. Thirty-two
percent of this year’s graduates are entering graduate
schools. Many of these graduate-school placements were outstanding. For
example, Jacob Hooker (TC) was recipient of a national Phi
Delta Theta Scholarship for his senior year and earned a
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship valued at $21,500/year for
three years to work on his Ph. D. in chemistry at Berkeley. Our
students continued to increase their national and international
activities. Four presented papers at the Textile Institute
annual conference in Cairo. Mr. Guowen Song’s presentation
won First Place at the National Textile Center Forum. Min
Wei, won third place at the Gilbert Symposium. Sara Draper
won second place in the AATCC Herman and Myrtle Goldstein
Student Paper Competition, and Dung-wook Jung won second
place at the Richard D. Gilbert Graduate Student Symposium.
Fund Raising
This
past year we have made excellent progress in organizing
for the university’s development
campaign. Dr. Lennie Barton is now full-time Executive Director
and Director of Development. He will be adding a full-time
administrative assistant in the near future. Mr. David Holt
has become chairman of the college’s development campaign
and Messrs. Alan Dickson and Duke Kimbrell honorary co-chairs. We
have created a large, active development committee from senior
leaders of the North Carolina Textile Foundation and faculty
to support their efforts. The foundation provided over $1.5
million in direct support to the college last year. We have
gotten off to a good start in the new campaign, especially
in gifts-in-kind due to the new Nonwovens Partners Lab. Our
total is now over $7.7 million.
Administration
We
continued to make organizational changes to improve efficiency. These included combining
all computer and information technology positions into a
single organization and reorganizing the Textile Extension
and Applied Research Department. We significantly improved
our Internet and intranet presence. Four faculty have retired
and three EPA professionals and ten SPA staff have left. Eight
positions were eliminated as part of the college’s reductions
in force. Attracting qualified SPA candidates for open positions
continues to be a concern due to lack of flexibility in hiring.
Recommendations and Concerns for the Future
Our
main concern continues to be the uncertainty in state funding.
The rise
in in-state and
out-of-state tuitions will continue to make recruiting top
students difficult. We feel the college is adjusting quickly
to the changes in the textile industry and building a strong
base for the “new world of textiles.” We must
continue to find funding for the new laboratory facilities
and to attract leading researchers in key areas. We have
the opportunity to be the leading college of our kind in
the world with both depth and breadth in the key areas of
the industry. Full participation in the Academic Common
Market would enable us to attract outstanding students from
throughout the region. Our most important challenges are
enrollment, program changes, filling key faculty positions,
and expanding our sources of research funding.
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