Meeting & Agendas

The Advisory Board acts as our area industry advisors. We want to teach to the standards of the board, and produce graduates of the quality and knowledge that our area employers would want to hire.

Robert Boswell suggested adding automated pipe welding technologies. He saw the need for knowledge of these processes on a recent job. Orbital welding and other automated welding processes are starting to move out of the clean room and into the field and it would benefit our students to have familiarity. Epic Piping has had a difficult time with their robotic welders, as they have posed maintenance issues. Kyle Naylor says that Athena Manufacturing is using robotics with some success. The technology is useful on repetitive parts. Henry Stone instructs his students in the use of an automated plasma cutting table at the Round Rock Campus. Feedback says that employers would like the students’ instruction to include information for the operator and the programmer. Mary Jo Emrick suggested adding positioners, and training in their use to the program. This technology could be included in the Advanced GTAW class. R. Wilson Hach suggests that McFab could take on some of the research. Christian Klein suggested that field trips to facilities could be used to introduce students to additional technologies without us having to invest in infrastructure, training, etc.

Kyle Naylor suggested sheet metal fabrication as an additional focus of the program. Sheet metal fabrication is rapidly expanding, and the Austin area is active for sheet metal and tubular fabrication. Robb Misso agrees that there is a big opportunity in our area for fabricators. Mary Jo Emrick suggested incorporating some welding processes in addition to SMAW into the pipe welding classes, to give students additional exposure to these processes. The possibility of a fabrication certificate or a fabrication specialization AAS was raised. Robb Misso says that local industry would support this focus, and would likely be willing to donate equipment. Chad Tomlin said that industry is a moving target, and that we need to communicate with industry representatives. The GTAW technique of walking the cup should be taught.

Troy calls for nominations for Chair. Brady Foster volunteers; Mary Jo Emrick seconds his nomination. A vote is called and all approve. Brady Foster is the new Welding Technology Advisory Board Chair. Troy calls for a vote for Vice Chair. Robb Misso volunteers. Kyle Naylor seconds his nomination. A vote is called and all approve. Robb Misso is the new Welding Technology Advisory Board Vice Chair.

In Academic Year (AY) 2015 the Welding Technology Department had 78 certificate earners and 26 AAS earners, for a graduation rate of 21.44%. In AY 2016 the Welding Technology Department had 104 certificate earners and 28 AAS earners, for a graduation rate of 24.86%. These rates are far above the college average of 7%. Austin Community College now sees the Welding Technology Department as valuable. In past years there were times when enrollment was as low as 28 and there was concern for the survival of the department. It has been years since that has been the case. Enrollments and graduations are now strong and the department feels secure and supported by the college.

Enrollment numbers are consistently strong in recent years. Fall 2015 Enrollments: 545 seats offered Art Metals=140 (8 seats open) RVS Technical Welding=201 (3 seats open) RRC Technical Welding=193 ( 0 seats open) Spring 2016 Enrollments: 559 seats offered Art Metals=135 (16 seats open) RVS Technical Welding=176 (15 seats open) RRC Technical=180 (20 seats open) Fall 2016 Enrollments: 566 seats offered Art Metals=134 (16 seats open) RVS Technical Welding=179 (9 seats open) RRC Technical Welding=220 (8 seats open) Spring 2017 Enrollments: 561 seats offered Art Metals=132 (6 seats open) RVS Technical Welding=196 (6 seats open) RRC Technical Welding=190 (9 seats open) TSD=22 (2 seats open)

-TSD Grant: With grant funds we have assisted TSD with acquiring equipment and setting up their welding shop. We are offering dual credit courses at TSD, which ACC professor Graham Howison is teaching. -Professor Graham Howison: Our newest full time professor and former adjunct, Mr. Howison is leading the department’s efforts with TSD and deaf education. Mr. Howison attended a Deaf Tech conference in New York and brought back techniques for educating deaf students. Mr. Howison is now able to assist employers by training them (at their own facility) to work with deaf employees. -Department Chair changes: Troy Defrates is the Welding Technology Department’s Chair. We do not currently have an assistant Department Chair. -Friday/Saturday classes at RRC: Weekend College was added at RRC. The Structural Welding Certificate is being offered as a block time program in a Friday/ Saturday format. -Dr. Warren Donworth receives AWS Excellence in Teaching Award: The American Welding Society recognizes one outstanding professor each year and honors them at the annual conference. In 2016 our own Dr. Donworth was honored for his years of outstanding service and exceptional Welding Inspection program. -Two new full time faculty positions: The Welding Technology Department is currently hiring for two new full time faculty positions, one for Technical Welding and one for Art Metals. -Added Dual Credit sections: In addition to the 15 or 16 dual credit students at TSD, we currently have another 12 dual credit students enrolled (for a total of 28 dual credit students). This is great for the high school students wanting a head start, but it has caused some discontent among traditional college credit students who realize that some seats are reserved for the high school, dual credit students. We are receiving requests from additional schools for dual credit programs. At this time, only Lanier High School is able to get their students to ACC by 8am. We have 12 dual credit students from Lanier.

When new law required that our AAS plans be reduced to 60 hours, we had to eliminate the restricted elective from the Code Welding AAS. This elective was the way in which the Code AAS and the Inspection Certificate could be linked. Since the Inspection certificate courses are now not applicable to an AAS, these courses are not eligible for full financial aid or veteran’s benefits coverage. College Provost Dr. Charles Cook has asked programs with such courses to see if they can be incorporated into an associate’s degree so that they will be eligible for full coverage. To this end, the Welding Technology Department would like to offer an AAS in Welding Inspection. This award plan will be very similar to the current Code Welding AAS, with four upper level courses subbed out for the four inspection courses. Currently, students tend to get the AAS in Code Welding, work in the industry, then return to pursue the Welding Inspection Certificate. With the amended award, it could mean that students could pursue their AAS and their Inspection education at the same time. They could also choose to take a few additional courses and become eligible for two AAS awards (Code and Inspection), which Dr. Donworth says appeals to the students. With a Restricted Elective in the new AAS plan, Art Metals students can choose to apply one of their art metals courses to the Welding Inspection AAS. It has been observed that the Art Metals students tend to make good inspection students, as they are creative and think outside the box. The Welding Inspection Certificate will remain an option as a stand-alone award. Mary Jo Emrick pointed out that employers need to be aware that all of our AAS awards are reduced to 60 hours, so our graduates are coming to them with less training. An enhanced skills certificate was discussed as an avenue to get students an award option including the additional hours that were dropped. This award would not be eligible for full financial aid coverage. The certificate could be a pipe fabrication certificate, or a sheet metal fabrication certificate. If the board requests an additional award and/ or additional fabrication classes, they should ask us for it, and we will develop a proposal.

The Department proposes changing the Art Metals AAS awards (Metal Sculpture and Blacksmithing) by removing local needs course WLDG 2476 Layout and Fabrication: Furniture and replacing it with WECM inventory course WLDG 1417 Introduction to Layout and Fabrication. WLDG 1417 will be offered as a stand-alone course at Riverside and as part of a combination at Round Rock. We will add the prerequisite courses of WLDG 1430 (Introduction to Gas Metal Arc Welding and Flux Cored Arc Welding) and WLDG 1434 (Introduction to Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) so that the course will improve by being able to focus layout and fabrication, rather than needing to teach the students basic welding first. In the Metal Sculpture AAS, we will also remove the restricted elective and replace it with WECM course WLDG 2453 Advanced Layout and Fabrication. This course still needs to be developed. Possible topics are rise and run on a railing; layout of a spiral staircase; measuring job sites. It could be possible to apply new technology to this course. It is noted at times that graduates of welding programs can weld, but still have difficulty with fabrication. The skill sets of measuring and actually producing an item are not ingrained. With the changes listed above, the Metal Sculpture students will get more fabrication instruction. At a minimum, we will ensure that students can fabricate, which is a vital job skill. The heading of the awards is proposed to be changed from “Art Metals” to “Architectural and Ornamental Metals”. This change will give the awards a more fitting workforce-sounding name and better reflect the content of the awards as relevant job training. Tom Gingras and Troy DeFrates both report having the experience as Department Chair at a WECM conference that Art Metals is not taken seriously. There is an established industry related to architectural and ornamental metals, and a long-standing professional organization dedicated to that segment of the work force (National Ornamental and Miscellaneous Metals Association, or NOMMA). It was suggested that the name be “Architectural Metals”, and that the word “ornamental” might be seen as frivolous. Discussion ensued in which board member Brady Foster and professor Haley Woodward explained the relevance of the title “ornamental”. Blacksmithing is largely ornamental in nature. The history and background of this field are ornamental in nature, even though blacksmiths regularly produce functional work. Ornamental gates, railings, and architectural embellishment are common products of modern blacksmiths. Our curriculum is driven by the goal of having graduates work in ornamental metal shops. ACC’s program does not support the title “Architectural Metals”. Our graduates tend to make more of their income from architectural projects, but the ornamental is an important part of the curriculum.

Troy DeFrates explained that each 5 years representatives of workforce programs in Texas meet to clean out the Workforce Education Course Manual. Programs are on a rotating schedule, and the WLDG rubric was reviewed in summer 2016. The goal is to have a clean, efficient course manual which will enable easier transferability of course work. We need to incorporate changes that were made to courses in the review process into our course inventory, so that we remain in accordance with WECM. There were multiple changes to course descriptions and end of course outcomes, and one change to a course title, many of which were initiated by Mr. DeFrates. The effect of the changes is to simplify where possible, and to amend language to best reflect course content and outcomes.

Email voting is proposed for instances when the board’s input is requested or required by the department but a meeting would be impractical. It was discussed that there are tools available to enable email voting. It would also be possible to hold a discussion via email, Webex, or secured PDF or other protected file. A discussion would be left open for comment for a set period, then a vote would be taken. The Department will give the board at least 24 hours’ notice when a vote is requested.