This response is to defend the College of Engineering against blatant misrepresentation.
The April 21 column, “Liberal arts, conservative budget,” starts by comparing the building conditions for the College of Liberal Arts versus the science and engineering colleges. There is no question that there have been significant improvements and construction projects for science and engineering facilities. However, this is because alumni and federal grants requesting that funds donated to the University go directly to specific colleges, departments and construction projects. Engineering and science are the bedrock of this University, and thus, a substantially large number of alumni are willing to donate to the school that seeded their success. Vision 2020 dedicates money, which has not been earmarked by donors for specific projects, for improvements and renovations.
After comparing buildings, the article attacks the curriculum of those two departments.
“Are Aggies being taught to place more value on knowledge or imagination?”
All new technology has come from creativity and by extension of the imagination. If you believe that engineers are not creative, how could such things as the iPhone, the laptop (to Facebook in class) or the artificial heart have been invented? If only those inventors had been blessed with “priceless skills” including “the ability to create, to analyze and to think holistically.” I cannot imagine the inventions that could have been produced should those science and engineering inventors have been provided with such “priceless skills.” Now you might consider those expectations, but let me point out that every engineering major has a senior design project. Every design class focuses on finding a creative solution to a problem at hand, and using our engineering knowledge to make the solution work. In short engineering and science students are presented with plenty of opportunities to think creatively and turn their imagination into something tangible and beneficial to society.
These ideas could not have come into existence without effective communication. The engineering department strives to meet and exceed national accreditation set by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). I implore readers to research what is required for a college to be certified. For easy reference, it is under Criterion 3 (g) “an ability to communicate effectively.” The University requires every Aggie to take a minimum of two English courses from the English department. To reinforce our communication skills, the mechanical engineering department has established writing intensive courses. While these courses are more technical than creative writing, they allow us to further develop our writing skills specifically for our intended media – journals, thesis and research papers and technical magazines.
Regardless of class size, a student should learn through inspiring professors and a passion for learning. Our apologies that engineers have the appearance of hard working individuals that care to learn, and class size has no bearing on that. I regularly sit in classes of 30 to 40 students. Those are some of our smallest classes. Only when engineers begin to specialize do the classes become smaller.
Some feel that engineers do not diversify enough, beyond the University core curriculum for English. Yet the English department does the same with math and science, and unbelievably one of those two math classes can be substituted with a philosophy class. Before suggesting change for another department, examine and ask what you can do to improve yours.