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Posted October 15, 2015
Editor’s note: With the revitalization of the U.S. textile industry, eTC publisher Devin Steele recently sat down with Dr. David Hinks, interim dean of the College of Textiles (COT) at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C., to get his perspective on the College and its service to the U.S. and global textile industry. A search is currently underway for a permanent dean. Hinks is a candidate for that position.
eTC: Dean Hinks, these must be exciting times, with the U.S. textile industry starting to show signs of life. How is this reflected in your enrollment numbers and the quality of students you’re bringing in?
PLENTY TO HOWL ABOUT
Interim N.C. State College of Textiles dean excited about industry's future
Hinks: Very exciting. We have more than 1,000 students enrolled at the undergraduate level, and we have five degrees – all of them healthy. And we have more than 200 graduate students, including more than 100 masters and more than 100 Ph.Ds., our highest number ever.
Last year we had the highest GPA and SAT scores of students coming in, on average. So we’re more in the enrollment management mode for a number of our programs than enrollment growth at the moment, which has not happened for a long time.
eTC: What are the most recent placement numbers for graduates?
Hinks: We are greater than 90 percent within a year of graduation, and that has been very consistent for many years. In the downturn of 2008-09, our placement was lower but we were still much higher than the average college graduate, and we have been for as long as we've been recording it.
eTC: How do you see the College of Textiles as a player in support of the rejuvenated U.S. textile industry, and what stands out in the industry’s comeback?
Hinks: The U.S. textiles industry is becoming increasingly innovative and adaptable and is showing signs of resurgence, with billions of dollars of capital investment in the last two years and more than 4,000 new jobs generated. The College of Textiles at N.C. State is a powerhouse for support of the entire textile enterprise by providing the highest quality students and talent for the textile industry, for North Carolina, the nation and globally.
The resurgent U.S. textiles industry requires innovative polymers, fibers, textile and apparel designs, products and processes to meet the demands of both the civilian textile and fashion markets and the military. The United States is the largest textile, apparel and fashion market in the world, with retail sales between $250 billion and $300 billion. The U.S. textiles manufacturing industry today generates greater than $56 billion in sales, with $18 billion in exports – up 45 percent in the last five years.
eTC: Like many in our industry, the College of Textiles is having to overcome some negative impressions, I’m sure, as you try to attract students. What is your “elevator speech” you and your colleagues have to prospective students?
Hinks: You’re right there. We’re hearing all the time still that the industry is dying or dead. We tell them it’s much smaller than it was in the United States, but it’s increasingly innovative and growing again. We won’t have the same number of employees that we had in the 1960s and 1970s, for example, but we are seeing significant growth, much of which is coming into North Carolina. So that’s all very exciting. It’s really on us to provide career-ready students and innovative curricula and to serve the industry needs while being innovative through discovery, research and service.
eTC: The COT is connected at the hip with the industry, of course, and continues to be a success story. Tell me a little about that.
Hinks: Throughout our 116-year history, the College of Textiles has had a long tradition of partnering with the textile industry. N.C. State is a leading land grant university and was recently identified by Reuters as one of the world’s most innovative universities (ranked 68th). The College of Textiles contributes significantly to that ranking. We consistently punch above our weight for a relatively small College in the largest university in North Carolina. For instance, this past year our 57 faculty – together with our staff and students – filed 25 patent disclosures while educating more than 1,000 undergraduates, more than 100 master’s and more than 100 Ph.D. students.
In fact, we have never been more engaged in helping to advance the textiles industry in the great state of North Carolina, the nation and globally. This past year, we engaged in contracts and grants with more than 160 companies totaling more than $14 million, in partnership with a broad array of companies, from entrepreneurs in Raleigh to multinational companies.
eTC: How is the College developing world-class, well-rounded students capable of meeting the ever-evolving needs of the industry?
Hinks: Our industry is growing and our education, research and professional service programs are enabling further growth and competitiveness. In the last few years, our students have studied or worked in 30 countries spanning six continents. We are preparing our graduates not only in the classroom, laboratory and our model manufacturing extension facilities, but also through enriching global experiences, internships, undergraduate research and development of soft skills critical of future leaders.
"We have never been more engaged in helping to advance the textiles industry in the great state of North Carolina, the nation and globally."
Dr. David Hinks
Interim dean, N.C. State's College of Textiles
Through our undergraduate and graduate education programs, applied research, professional training, and technology transfer, we enable the manufacturing base and the entire textile enterprise – including the fashion industry – to grow and thrive in North Carolina and the nation. We never lose sight of our mission to align with the textile industry in a strategic way that allows the industry to evolve and prosper.
We are a highly adaptable and innovative interdisciplinary College that comprises faculty and staff who are engineers, technologists, chemists, management experts, fashion and textile designers and statisticians with a passion for higher education, professional training, discovery and knowledge dissemination, and engagement with the industry through professional training, new product innovation and technology incubation. And we are increasingly serving key textile-related industries such as the fashion industry.
Companies seek out our career-ready students for hire, but also our world-renowned faculty to conduct research. And they also partner with our world-renowned centers and institutes. For instance, The Nonwovens Institute is the world’s leading industry-academic membership based consortium, with approximately 70 members funding approximately 50 Ph.D. students and with a budget of more than $10 million. The NWI has outgrown its space and will be soon occupying 40,000 square feet in a new building that is under construction called the Center for Technology and Innovation on NC State’s award winning Centennial Campus.
eTC: What are some of the ways the College is engaging students and the industry?
Hinks: We have a longstanding and highly active extension department, the Zeis Textile Extension (ZTE), with model manufacturing laboratories that provide unique professional training opportunities, unique hands-on education for all our students, Lean Six Sigma training and technical and fabrication services. ZTE puts on about 40 workshops a year and attracts industry leaders and academics from throughout the world by hosting top international conferences and symposia. It also provides the industry with online textile education services translated into multiple languages.
Hundreds of industry partners also engage in technical service and research work in the internationally renowned Textile Protection and Comfort Center (T-PACC) with its thermal protection laboratories, climate-controlled comfort laboratories, analytical laboratories and its most recent, Man In Simulant Testing facility (MIST), for highly controlled chemical/biological simulant testing of full garment ensembles.
eTC: As a global university, what is the College’s high-level goal for the worldwide industry?
Hinks: Our main goal is to be the preferred global provider of textile education, discovery and service. We strive to achieve this by being the global leader in textile public-private partnerships, investing in a team of interdisciplinary problem solvers and establishing an environment at the College that makes it an excellent place to learn, work and collaborate.
eTC: And how are you working to achieve that?
Hinks: We are seeing tremendous need and an opportunity for global textile education. There are many people around the world who need textile education but perhaps can’t come to N.C. State. So providing educational materials through global online education is one of our strategies for serving the textile industry globally.
We’ve actually been doing distance education for several decades. We used to have courses, in fact, that were on VHS tapes. This was in the ’80s and ’90s. Of course, it’s much more efficient now and we’re seeing a lot more opportunity than we’ve had in the past, so we’re going to be looking at marketing new offerings in distance education. We have a growing online master’s program, in both departments (Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management/Textile Engineering Chemistry and Science).
But at the same time, while serving those needs are important, our forte is really the hands-on training at the undergraduate and graduate level that all of our students receive who are on campus. And that really serves North Carolina and the nation as career-ready graduates.
eTC: I’m hearing radio commercials about the College of Textiles and the North Carolina Textile Foundation (NCTF), which supports it. That seems like great outreach to the general public about what you’re doing. Tell me more the foundation, please.
Hinks: A key reason for the tremendous success of our College is the remarkable support from the Foundation. The NCTF’s sole mission is to serve the College. It provides more than 90 percent of all scholarships, as well as faculty and infrastructure support. With a record endowment of more than $44 million, the NCTF is providing remarkable support for our students, staff and faculty.
If it weren’t for the foundation, the College wouldn’t be the powerhouse that it is internationally, for a number of reasons. One is, it provides the majority of the scholarships the College offers. And we have very competitive scholarships, including our prestigious Centennial Scholarship, which is offered to about 10 students each year through sponsorship, through individuals or companies.
Thanks to the foundation, we have the most scholarships per person of any college in the university. That raises the quality of students coming into the College and attracts students who maybe wouldn’t have thought about textiles as a major. It also supports the faculty through chaired professorships, and we’re strategically seeking to grow that. And that allows us to hire the best, the highest quality faculty members from around the world. We have faculty from five continents.
And then the last thing is, it provides funds for facilities upgrades and equipment or renovations of space.
eTC: Looks like there’s plenty to howl about, as a Wolfpacker, as you continue to lead the College this year.
Hinks: The future is very bright indeed for both the College and the U.S. textile industry. We are thriving and our College is evolving as the industry adapts. As the dean, I take great pride in our efforts to lead textile education, research and service in the U.S. and globally. I especially enjoy cultivating partnerships with the NCTF, the university and industry that will support, revitalize and innovate textiles in North Carolina and abroad. Their support allows us to educate the next generation of industry leaders.