CIVIL ENGINEERING

Valuable Asset to Unionor

Expendable Resource?

URGENT NEED FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS

For more information go to civil.union.edu

ASCE REPORT ON THE NATION’S INFRASTRUCTURED+$1.3 Trillion over Next Five YearsCheck it out at www.asce.org

THE DECISION TO PHASE-OUT CIVIL ENGINEERING

WAS NOT CAREFULLY THOUGHTOUT,

AND THE CONSEQUENCES WERE NOT CONSIDERED

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NO DUE PROCESS

• STAKEHOLDERS NOT INVOLVED– AAC– Faculty (Division 4 Petition)– Students– Alumni

• ALTERNATIVES NOT SERIOUSLY CONSIDERED

For more information go to civil.union.edu

APPEARS THAT PROCESS WAS SET UP TO VALIDATE

PRECONCEIVED CONCLUSION

• AAC Not Consulted

• CORE Team

• GLEAN Team and Report

• Whose idea was it?

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THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON THE COLLEGE AS A

WHOLE FAR OUTWEIGH ANY POTENTIAL BENEFITS

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Who Supports This Position?• Faculty• Alumni

– Donations

– Alumni Recruiting

• Students (present and prospective)• Parents• Peers at Other Institutions• Employers and Professional Organizations

For more information go to civil.union.edu

How will Division 4 and the College Suffer without Civil?

• Synergisms

• Choices (enrollments)

• Interdisciplinary Courses will significantly decrease

• Community service activities will suffer

• Three-legged stool: others likely to follow

For more information go to civil.union.edu

How will College Suffer without Engineering?

• Reputation• Technical environment for LA students• Diversity (Ability to go from engineering to LA)• Overall student quality will fall

– Engineers usually 7s, 8s, or 9s

• Enrollments in Physics, Chemistry, Geology and Math will drop.

For more information go to civil.union.edu

Why does the Administration want to get rid of Civil

Engineering?

• Make way for “Converging Technologies”

• Resource Driven

• Other

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Make Way for Converging Technologies

• Dean says CE is least compatible with his vision

• Fallacies– CE Profession in the thick of CT– Interactions between CE and LA– MIT Experience

For more information go to civil.union.edu

Reallocation of Resources

• Procedures not followed– None of 20 new faculty lines to Division 4– AAC not involved

• No effort made to– Examine all resources available– Decide how best to use them

• What is best for Union?

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Reallocation of Resources

• Computer Science needs should be met by the College– 10-12 new CS courses for Liberal Arts– CS not an engineering discipline– Loss of two CS lines to liberal arts– CS short ~ four lines– Net +24 liberal arts, -4 engineering

For more information go to civil.union.edu

Reallocation of Resources• Fallacies

– Phase out of Civil will NOT meet CS needs• Phase out period

• Retirements

– Adjunct problem exaggerated– CE not more expensive than other

engineering and science disciplines

• Why weren’t we asked to economize?

• Fundraising to increase resources?For more information go to civil.union.edu

Converging Technologies Oversold to the Board of Trustees

• Undergraduate environment– Parts of courses

– One or two upper-level electives

• Corporate sponsorship going to research universities

• Will not thoroughly integrate LA• Student recruitment and graduate jobs• No market research

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Civil Engineering Plan

• Draft – Done under short deadline from Dean

– Completed and presented to the Dean on time

– Dean said we had done what we had to do & he would present our proposal to the President

– CE not allowed to participate in meeting with President

– Plan not seriously considered

– Dean later said it was “too little - too late”

For more information go to civil.union.edu

Civil Engineering Plan

• Draft• Updating our curriculum

– Leadership in the 21st Century

– Maintaining a sound technical foundation

• Much more thorough integration of LA• Can be accomplished with existing resources• Is more convergent than Dean’s narrow definition• Promoting and publicizing strengths of our

programFor more information go to civil.union.edu

What are We Doing?

• Newsletter and responses (Roger’s comment)• Garnering support

– For Department and Division– From Faculty, Administration, and Board

• Raising funds to balance resource differential• Students• Professional organizations• Division petition

For more information go to civil.union.edu

What Can Faculty in Other Divisions Do?

• Contact Roger

• Contacting faculty Trustees

• Call for study of alternatives (Cost/Benefit)

• Develop petition– Support– Reconsideration of Decision– Rejection on Procedural Grounds

For more information go to civil.union.edu