We have also conducted summer youth camps, including a minority summer youth camp and a summer institute for exceptional students. The recently approved BS in Applied Ecology and Environmental Science presents a great opportunity to increase undergraduate enrollment. This degree program fills a niche that is not filled at MTU or elsewhere in our Midwest region. We believe that there is a large pool of well-qualified students, particularly women students and students from across the region, who would be interested in this option. The number of jobs for which this program would prepare students has grown rapidly, especially in the private sector.
Retention is strong and placement is high.
Finally, most of our students who wish to do so are able to work part time on research projects during the school year as well as summers. Our students have been accepted into graduate schools across the nation, including Yale, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Utah State University, and the Universities of New Hampshire, Minnesota, Florida, and Idaho. Improvements in and the new addition to the Forestry Building will assist with recruiting. However, two factors threaten our ability to increase enrollment. There is competition from many forestry programs at other Midwest universities, and interest in forestry as a profession has been low for the last decade, due in part to increased urbanization and confusion by the public in general about management of forest lands.