A faculty panel – the Resource Allocation Sub-Council (RASC) – appointed to review the proposed phasing out of the Civil Engineering department, last Friday issued its report to the College's Academic Affairs Committee (AAC), Faculty Executive Committee (FEC), academic departments, and President Roger Hull.
The report is to be considered at a general faculty meeting on Oct. 3, and by the College's Board of Trustees on Oct. 12.
The proposal to phase out Civil Engineering is an effort to reallocate resources within the engineering division to focus on electrical, mechanical and computer systems engineering as well as computer science. RASC was formed, according to Faculty Executive Committee Chair Tom Werner, to “assure that the issue is addressed according to the faculty governance system.”
The report, according to Byron Nichols, RASC chair, “presents a range of options to be considered as the College weighs this important decision.” The committee did not take a position on any one option, he said. “The report offers a framework for continued discussion of the proposal.”
Other RASC members were Chris Duncan, visual arts; Tom Jewell, civil engineering; David Hayes, chemistry; Avrum Joffe '02; and Kimmo Rosenthal, mathematics, and associate dean of undergraduate education.
Besides analyzing the administration's proposal to phase out civil engineering, RASC identified five options for retaining the department, each of which represent significant trade-offs in other areas of academic affairs, according to the report.
They include:
- Reducing the size of faculty salary increases;
- Increasing the student body by seven students per year;
- Increasing the student body by four students per year and dedicating funds to civil engineering from the possible early retirement of engineering faculty;
- Reallocating new faculty hires to engineering and drawing on the early retirement savings;
- Making a combination of small cuts in different programs in academic affairs (for example, reducing the size of the civil engineering faculty by one, reducing Terms Abroad offerings, reducing support for undergraduate research and athletics, or adding a lab fee to engineering courses.)
“One of Union's defining characteristics – perhaps its most defining characteristic – is the historic existence of engineering within a liberal arts framework,” said President Hull. “We will continue to define the College in this fashion, and I pledge to do all that I can to assure that goal.”
Under the Plan for Union, the engineering division is adopting an organizing theme known as “Converging Technologies” in which students continue to receive degrees in mechanical, computer systems, and electrical engineering. They will also be introduced to concepts such as bioengineering, nanotechnology, mechatronics, and pervasive computing. The division has developed new classes – some offered this fall – including “Introduction To Nanotechnology,” “Digital Systems and Interface Electronics,” and “Fundamentals of Wireless Electronics.”