FAEIS Newsletter

November 1, 2007

In This Issue

• 2007 FAEIS Surveys Are Open
• Letter from Dr. Jeffrey Gilmore, USDA/CSREES
• See You at NASULGC
• 2007 College Enrollment Survey
• 2005/2006 Student Data Summaries
• New Media from FAEIS

Greetings from the FAEIS team at Virginia Tech. If you are not familiar with this important project from USDA/CSREES, click here to read about FAEIS and why it is important to you.

The 2007 FAEIS Surveys are open for data entry, with the following components:

• Student Enrollments by Discipline - Fall, 2007
• Degrees Awarded - 2006/2007
• Placement of Graduates - 2006/2007
• Annual Faculty Survey
• Board on Human Sciences Benchmarking Survey
• College Enrollment Survey - Fall 2007 (see below)

To access the surveys, go to the FAEIS Home Page and click on "DATA ENTRY LOGIN".

Greetings from Washington:

I wish to extend my thanks to the many members of the agricultural, natural resources, food, and consumer and human sciences communities who have faithfully submitted data to the FAEIS system.

Five years ago, FAEIS transitioned from a paper-based to a web-based system that we hoped would be easier for everyone to use. While the initial learning process was a bit challenging, we listened to users on how to improve the system and made the necessary changes. All of us at USDA hope that you have found FAEIS useful and will continue to provide us with suggestions for future improvements. The FAEIS staff at Virginia Tech has done a tremendous job in making FAEIS work, and they continue to provide program enhancements and increased functionality.

As you are probably aware, the information collected through FAEIS is valuable and unique. It is the most complete source of information on agricultural, natural resources, food, and consumer and human sciences available in electronic format. It provides data on enrollment, degrees awarded, faculty information, and student placement. Through the FAEIS web page, you also can follow links to other sources of higher education information, including USDA programs and summaries of grants by year, teaching awards and workshops, and agriculture careers.

The FAEIS information is valuable to us here in Washington where we frequently are requested by the White House to report on the status of the field, the number of graduates, and the areas of expertise needed in the workforce. We also use these data for reports to other Federal agencies, colleges and universities, Congress, and the general public.

If you do not currently participate, I encourage you to look at the FAEIS web site (http//faeis.usda.gov) and review the many available on-line reports. These reports, as good as they are, still could be improved by the addition of data from your institution. The FAEIS system is only as good as its participants and the information they provide. Won't you please help us and your colleagues across the country?

Thanks to those of you who have continued to provide rich and valuable data. We appreciate your support.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey L. Gilmore, Ph.D.
Director, Higher Education Programs
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Dr. Mary Marchant, Principle Investigator (PI) for the FAEIS project at Virginia Tech, will be at the upcoming NASULGC annual conference this month in New York. Dr. Marchant and Dr. George Cooper, Deputy Admistrator USDA/CSREES will be speaking about FAEIS at the ACOP and APS business meetings.

Dr. Dean Sutphin and Dr. Tim Mack, CO-PIs for FAEIS, will present the FAEIS Survey of International Programs to the Commission on International Programs. Bill Richardson, Project Manager for FAEIS, and Ella Smith, FAEIS Liaison at USDA/CSREES, will be at the BOHS business meeting to discuss benchmarking and other topics of interest.

The FAEIS office is conducting an annual survey by phone and e-mail to obtain the total enrollment for each college at each institution participating in FAEIS. These numbers will encompass all degree programs in your college. Additional information in this survey includes programs added and dropped in 2007 and non-degree programs offered.

If you have been contacted by our office for this survey, please return your response with the total enrollments for your college to FAEIS by November 16, 2007.

Results from the 2006 College Enrollment Survey are posted under FAEIS Reports

Every year the FAEIS office prepares reports that summarize student data collected in the latest survey. Summaries of the Fall 2006 enrollment data, and the 2005/2006 degrees awarded and placement data are organized by Program Area, Institution Type and Degree Level. The data are displayed by Disciplines, Gender and Ethnicity. There are over 200 tables summarizing the data from the 2005/2006 student surveys.

The reports can be viewed online or we can send you a CD with all the reports. To view the reports, look in the Reports section of the FAEIS website under "Student Surveys 2005-06 Summaries".

You can also create custom reports from the student and faculty data using the Custom Report Builder. You'll need a FAEIS ID for this.

To obtain a FAEIS ID, or for help obtaining data and creating reports, contact the FAEIS Help Desk.

Our new FAEIS brochure and handout are available for download from the FAEIS website. Click here to take a look. We'll be glad to send them to you if you want to post them in your office.

The 2005/2006 Student Data Summaries are also available on CD.

To order a Data Summary CD or the FAEIS brochure, contact the Help Desk with your request and mailing address.

Have a question? ASK FAEIS