President Roger Hull has asked a
faculty committee to review the proposed elimination of civil engineering and make recommendations to him by October 1.
Tom Werner, the Florence B. Sherwood professor of physical sciences and chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, said the civil engineering committee was formed to assure that the issue is addressed according to the faculty governance system.
The future direction of engineering has been the subject of intense discussion on campus over the past several months, ever since a committee began examining how the College could sharpen its focus on engineering. The committee – comprising two trustees, two engineering faculty members, the head of the faculty, the dean of
the faculty, and the dean of engineering – worked with a group of consultants. At the same time, the dean of engineering, Robert Balmer, began to examine the allocation of resources within engineering.
The committee quickly determined that retaining engineering was vital, but that the College should develop programs that deal with the problems that emerge from the convergence of computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. Under such an approach, students would graduate
with a strong foundation in the engineering fundamentals but also would have the experience of studying and working on projects that bridge the disciplines. President Hull, in a letter sent to engineering alumni in April, said that the College will focus on these “converging technologies” because “the important innovative work in engineering is happening at the intersections of the science and engineering disciplines.”
The proposed phasing out of civil engineering is an issue tied to financial constraints. Engineering – through higher faculty salaries, greater student financial aid,
and equipment – requires a disproportionate amount of Union's resources, the president said, and the College's use of six to eight adjunct faculty members each year in computer science and engineering “more closely resembles a large state institution than it does an excellent small liberal arts college that emphasizes faculty-student interactions.”
Given limited resources, the desire to improve meant that there would have to be changes in the current academic program.
“Why civil engineering and not another engineering program or a part of the liberal arts curriculum?” the president said. “Because civil engineering is more highly structured and therefore less easily integrated into the rest of the engineering programs, because the remaining parts of the engineering division fit more logically together, and because we are primarily a liberal arts institution (we have 1,700 students in the liberal arts and 300 in engineering).”
Throughout the discussion, the president and other administrators emphasized the College's commitment to a strong engineering program. “Engineering is – and will remain – a distinguishing feature of Union,” President Hull said.
The proposed phase-out of civil engineering, if approved by the Board of Trustees, would occur after students in the program have completed their requirements, and faculty (the civil engineering department has four tenured faculty members) would continue to hold positions at the College, where they would teach a variety of courses.