Newswise — When Middle Tennessee State University's Austin Cheney returns from Las Vegas next January, he expects to be a million dollars richer. But it won't be because of a lucky slot machine or a run at the blackjack table. It's because movers and shakers in the concrete industry will be betting on MTSU's four-year Concrete Industry Management (CIM) program—the nation's first such program—to retain its status as a partnership model between education and industry.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of MTSU's CIM program, the CIM Patrons and staff, along with the World of Concrete Show Management, "Concrete Producer" and "Concrete Construction" magazines, and Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, will be sponsoring a one-time fund-raising auction at the 2006 World of Concrete show in Las Vegas, which will be held Jan. 17-20, 2006.
"The idea for the auction came from the department's first-ever golf tournament last May that grossed more than $100,000," said Cheney, CIM director at MTSU. "Chris Davenport, CIM Patrons president, Rick Yelton, editor-in-chief for 'Concrete Producer Magazine,' and I decided to do an auction and have all the equipment donated—large equipment, like ready mix trucks, construction equipment, paving machines, and laser screeds."
Cheney has big plans. He wants a building all his own. He would like to see the program one day become a department. Most of all, as other universities—larger schools—develop their own CIM programs, he wants MTSU to remain competitive and stand tall as the flagship in the fleet.
"I want about $3 million to endow professorships and attract high-quality faculty," he said. "I'll need $6 million for the building. So we need about $10 million. This auction will give us money to start the process."
Until about a month ago, MTSU offered the only four-year CIM program, Cheney notes. However, with MTSU's assistance, Arizona State University (ASU) launched a program this fall.
"We're also exploring two other schools—one is Cal State, Chico, and the other is the New Jersey Institute of Technology," he said. MTSU is actually helping these other schools get started, Cheney explained, adding that this kind of institutional mentoring is essential.
"Industry is going to expand this program whether we participate or not," he said. "So we met with the dean and applied for a grant through the National Science Foundation called 'Partnerships for Innovation.' In pursuing this grant, we were looking at three areas: a graduate degree program, distance-learning courses, or expansion of this program to different schools. So we thought, let's embrace the latter idea and be a leader in an expansion process, and that's what we've done."
Cheney said only 7 percent of the proposals received funding, and MTSU's proposal was selected the first time around.
"Part of that was due to the proposal effort through Dr. [Tom] Cheatham and Dr. [Heather] Brown, and our department chair, [Dr.] Walter Boles," he said. "But what really put it over the top was the industry support that we had. We had virtually every major national industry association on board with signed letters of support for the grant. That played a major role in our getting funded."
The three-year grant is in the amount of $600,000, Cheney said. With some of that money, MTSU developed and provided ASU with detailed curriculum plans, laying out a lesson plan for every course. Cheney's been involved in discussions with other schools as well.
"Without local industry support, our program would not be what it is today," he said. "We already have great national support. But each program at each university will have to have strong local and regional industry support. And those will comprise their patrons groups, whose members will help with fund raising."
Cheney praised local industry for its support of MTSU's program.
"We have several producers, contractors, pavers, paving companies—these folks helped make it possible for us to build a parking lot outside our building," he said. "That's the kind of support we want to see in every school so that they can be successful."
Currently there are about 290 students in MTSU's CIM program. Cheney said he would like to see a larger enrollment, but that requires more faculty to teach, recruit and promote the program.
"We pride ourselves on giving individualized attention, and it's hard to do that with increasing demands," he said. "I'd like to see us get to the point where each faculty was advising about 40 students. "¦ The employment opportunities in this field are exceptional."
The auction proceeds will go directly to the CIM Patrons, a 501C3 nonprofit entity similar to a foundation, and the Patrons will contribute the entire amount to start the ball rolling on the MTSU CIM building.
"It helps to have $1 million in your hands when you go out and start asking for more," Cheney said. "The auction in Las Vegas will really be an important showcase for MTSU."
ADDENDUM:
In light of the recent hurricanes, Cheney adds that the problems in New Orleans are having a huge impact on the concrete industry.
"I just spoke with the vice president of a large ready mix company in Florida, and they are having additional problems getting aggregates due to damaged barges and other shipping challenges. In addition, because of the huge demands in China, cement (a significant portion of which is not domestically produced and must be shipped in from other countries) has been difficult to get, leading to a cement shortage in the U.S. This problem is exacerbated by the damaged cement production facilities in the New Orleans region not producing their normal output of cement, as well as transportation problems in the area. A sand and gravel company I spoke to last Tuesday had many barges damaged or destroyed by the storm, and access is of course also a problem." The demands for concrete in the South will be high for many years to come, Cheney notes.
Sidebar
Cheney would be the first to say that when you want to build a university program, it helps to have a president who believes in it and goes out into the field to find the support.
In response to an invitation from Terry Alby, the CEO of Alby Materials Inc. in Waterford Wis., MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee recently spent three days at the plant and got a firsthand view of the company and the industry. The two had met previously at a national industry meeting and become friends.
"I drove a bulldozer, a tractor, and went down where they dig out the gravel," McPhee said. "I met with the executive staff and spoke to them about our program, and we discussed what we could do to better prepare our graduates for the industry. They even presented me with a plaque made out of concrete.
"Most importantly, they committed to providing a $3,000 scholarship every year to a student in the Waterford Schools system to come to MTSU," McPhee continued. "That was absolutely incredible."
McPhee noted that the reputation of MTSU CIM program preceded him to Waterford.
"They had a strong sense of our program, and, in fact, they have had experience with some of our students doing internships at Alby's. They said they would like to have more interns. They were very complimentary of our program and very impressed with our university."
"Graduates of the program will be the people we need in our company," Alby commented.
John Hilbrink, marketing director for Alby Materials, added that MTSU's four-year CIM program was a welcomed sign that people were beginning to pay serious attention to his industry.
Julie Luther, executive director of the Ready Mix Concrete Research Foundation and past president of the MTSU CIM Patrons, echoed the sentiment that the reach of MTSU's program extends across the country and is already well known for turning out qualified CIM graduates. The MTSU curriculum, developed through a strong partnership, requires students to have at least one industry internship to gain hands-on experience, she noted.
"The industry has been able to grow stronger because of MTSU's program through recruitment of capable, knowledgeable and professional individuals to be the future leaders of the industry," Luther said. "MTSU will now serve as the model for all future CIM programs."
That's precisely what McPhee says he wants to preserve.
"The industry has made it very clear—MTSU will be the home base of the concrete program at the university level," he emphasized. "The focus must remain on MTSU. I want to make sure that we don't get pushed down as we're dealing with bigger schools with bigger budgets. This program has put us on the national map because it provides us with one of those niche areas that benefits the entire industry across the board."
Financial support from industry is crucial to academic enterprises because of the lack of funding in the state, McPhee said.
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