Fall 2006 Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

December 13, 2006, 10:00 a.m.

Room C-258 Parkview Campus

Present: Osama Abudayyeh, Sherif Yehia, Jun-Seok Oh, Ahmad Jrade, Dennis Randolp (Calhoun County Road Commission), Rex Bell (Miller Davis Company), Bobbi Welke (Michigan Department of Transportation)

The proposed new criteria by ABET which includes adding fourth area of science; basic concepts in Management, Business, Public Policy, and Leadership were presented. Then the interpretation and implantation process were discussed.

a. Fourth area of science:

i. Suggestions from the board members to consider biology, geology or environmentally based courses. However, after discussion all agreed that geology (GEOS 1300) should be the fourth area of science. This course will be added to the civil and construction engineering curricula and will replace one of the engineering science electives. The implementation of this change will be effective in Fall 07.

b. Management concept:

i. Involves managing personnel or projects, leadership, and management of recourses. These issues are already offered in CCE 4310 and CCE 4360, CCE 4830, and CCE 4850.

c. Business:

i. Involves project delivery, personnel, group behavior, law/legal issues, budgeting. These issues are already covered in CCE 3330.

d. Public Policy:

i. Involves safety rules, OSHA regulations, long term planning, processes, how to organize/plan commissions, coordinate for public's best interests. These issuses already exist in CCE 3300, CCE 3330, and CCE 4830.

e. Leadership:

i. Involves being a beacon to the public vision, forecasting, ethics components, set standards by raising the bar, understanding culture and values and how to demonstrate them, and understanding the structure of an organization. These topics will be added to CCE 4830 and CCE 4850.

Accreditation and Assessment

a. Both Civil and Construction degrees were accredited. The department is preparing for the interim visit which is scheduled for Fall 2007.

b. The group discussed the assessment plan of outcomes and objectives.

i. The program objective 4 states that graduates are professionally recognized by becoming registered engineers. The Assessment means are the Alumni and Employer surveys.

The metric from the Alumni survey is that 75% of respondents are registered engineers (PE) or planning to take the PE exam. The responses from the construction engineering alumni show that only 60% of the respondents are registered or planning to take the PE exam. The metric was discussed in the meeting. Several issues were discussed:
a. Is 75% a high expectation?
b. Should we recognize other certifications?
It was concluded that 50% is a more appropriate metric and goal for the registration question. However, it was decided to keep the measure without change for another cycle and to recognize other certifications.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 a.m. for lunch.

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