News & Events

Introduction

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is presenting the first annual Walter LeFevre Award to an academic institution's civil engineering program that exhibits exemplary efforts in promoting licensure, ethics, and professionalism. The University of Idaho Civil Engineering Department strives to advance these principles in all aspects of teaching and learning. The department has multiple courses and promotes various activities that advance licensure, ethics, and professionalism for students and faculty members.

Curricula Devoted to Licensure, Ethics, and Professionalism

While licensure, ethics, and professionalism are promoted in all University of Idaho civil engineering courses, three specific classes focus strongly on these issues: CE 115 - Introduction to Civil Engineering, CE 215 - Civil Engineering Analysis and Design, and CE 491 - Civil Engineering Professional Seminar.

• CE 115 is a required course and is typically the first CE-prefix class taken by civil engineering students at the University of Idaho. The class begins with an introduction to the engineering profession and the different job opportunities available to engineering graduates in both the public and private sector. Students are also informed about licensure and the progression from student to Engineer in Training (EIT) to registered Professional Engineer. CE 115 contains a unit on ethics in which students are given an ethics case study and asked to draft a report detailing how they would handle the given situation. The report requires references from the ASCE Code of Ethics and/or the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
• CE 215 is another required class which incorporates a unit on ethics. Students are given two case studies in individual assignments and required to report on what they would do for the given situation. Students are again referred to the ASCE and NCEES Codes of Ethics to complete their assignments.
• CE 491 is a required senior level course in which practicing professional engineers are invited to speak with students about a wide range of topics, including "ethics, employment practices, licensing, professional organizations, continued competency, and written and oral communications" (CE 491 syllabus, spring 2007). All speakers are very adamant about the importance of taking and passing the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Principles & Practice of Engineering (PE) exams. Generally, the course has at least one speaker per semester present on ethical issues encountered in engineering practice while another speaker talks about membership in and benefits of being involved with a professional society (e.g., ASCE).

Licensure is also emphasized in an elective course offered by the College of Engineering, CE 411 - Engineering Fundamentals. This course is open to all engineering students and reviews the topics on the general section of the FE exam. The class meets once a week and each week a different professor teaches the review material. Professors usually teach subjects in their area of expertise (e.g., an electrical engineering professor generally presents on the Circuits section while a chemical engineering professor reviews the Chemistry section). However, the majority of these lectures are normally presented by civil engineering instructors (5 out of 9 lectures in spring 2007) covering the areas of ethics, engineering economy, statics, dynamics, and mechanics of materials.

Department Activities Intended to Promote Licensure, Ethics, and Professionalism

The UI Civil Engineering Department strongly encourages students to participate in student organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. These organizations provide students the opportunity to develop an improved understanding of professionalism through interactions with other students and by participating in regional and national student competitions such as the ASCE/AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition, ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition, and technical essay competitions. These competitions, along with the regional and national conferences at which they are held, allow students to network with other civil engineering students, professors, and professionals, as well as provide students an opportunity to put their engineering knowledge and skills to the test.

Another, less measurable, effort by the faculty to promote ethics, licensure, and professional is their classroom conduct. All faculty hold high expectations for their students as well as themselves. Faculty members routinely bring real-world examples from their work experiences to the classroom to connect subjects studied in class to engineering practice. Students are also presented situational problems in design courses to help them decide what they would do if they were the engineer stamping the plans for a construction project. Finally, faculty members are not hesitant to confront students when questionable activities arise. However, instead of simply berating students for their conduct, faculty attempt to put the situation in the students' hands and encourage them to rise above and strive for better behavior.

The Civil Engineering Department also promotes professional development for faculty members. Faculty members are encouraged to attend on-campus grant writing seminars and research-related training, both offered by the University of Idaho Office of Sponsored Programs. The department also supports faculty attending conferences at other universities and spending parts of their sabbatical leave time working with university, industry, and research laboratories.

Conclusion

The University of Idaho Civil Engineering Department stresses licensure, ethics, and professionalism at many levels. Specifically, three classes offered by the department (freshmen, sophomore, and senior levels) have a strong focus on these three subjects. All eligible faculty members are registered professional engineers in the United States and they advance ethics and professionalism through their course conduct and expectations of their students and themselves. Based on these facts, the information presented herein, and the included supporting documentation, the University of Idaho Civil Engineering Department is very deserving of the Walter LeFevre Award.

This nomination letter was submitted by Civil Engineering student Chris Horgan, who is the past president of the University of Idaho's (ASCE) student chapter.