MEAM's Undergraduate Program saw many changes during the academic year. Associate Professor Michael Thouless accepted the position of undergraduate program chair. MEAM's new 4x4x8 undergraduate course st ructure was put in place. In addition, MEAM created a new peer counselor position, filled by ME graduate student, Scott Partridge (BS ME '96), to help students better understand the curriculum changes and graduation requirement s and serve as an information source as students consider summer internships, career choices, and graduate school programs. The peer counselor is very accessible--students may stop by his office without an appointment.

MEAM's Graduate Program, which continued to be ranked in the top five programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report, nearly completed the restructuring of its new curriculum.

	Academic Services Office (ASO) staff members and faculty now share space in an expanded office in GG Brown.
	photos: U-M MEAM CPO / Shekinah Errington

Enrollment remained strong and steady, with growth in the Master of Automotive Engineering (MEng Auto) program. The Graduate Program continued to intensify its efforts to recruit the very best students in the country. It created a new graduate student recruiter position. For the second year in a row, it held a prosp ective graduate student weekend, successfully recruiting nearly 50 percent of those students who attended.

The new undergraduate peer counselor and graduate student recruiter positions were part of an expansion of the Academic Services Office (ASO) that took place duri ng 1997-98. A major renovation of the space in 2206 G.G. Brown combined all Undergraduate and Graduate Programs' faculty and staff members in one place. The remodeled space not only has a more open feel, including a larger central area for students, it also allows the staffs to work more closely together.