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Building Industry Relationships

Abstract

In the fall semester of 2005, the author was asked to prepare a proposal for the creation of a Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Engineering and Management Technology. Up to this point, the program consisted of three Associate degrees (Architectural Engineering Technology, Civil Engineering Technology, and Building Construction Management), which feed into a general Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology.

The initial write-up was not difficult because there were several other programs that could be used for a template. However, the content of many of the classes was still open for debate and took considerable time to complete. It was at this time that the author decided to look to industry leaders for some suggestions. The first source was the Department’s own Advisory Committee. This committee was comprised of designers (both architectural and civil), a County Building Commissioner, a City Engineer, and a Construction Company President. In addition to this, several “Guest Speaker” utilized in various classes by the author were also consulted. These included Construction Project Managers, Estimators, Engineers, and the Secretary of a major trade union. It should be noted that several of the industry personnel consulted graduated from similar programs.

Because of the varied background of all the individuals involved, there was spirited discussion on class content of some of the upper level classes. The final product turned out to be a compilation of more than a dozen people and has, to date, sailed through the approval process. As of today, the proposal has passed the Board of Trustees and has now been sent to the Indiana Commission on Higher Education for state approval. The curriculum has been simultaneously submitted to the Faculty Curriculum Committee and is presently scheduled for formal submission to the Faculty Senate later this year.

Introduction

In December of 2005, the author was asked to write a proposal for the creation of a new Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction to supplement the three Associate of Applied Science degrees that the university currently carried. The journey from that time took many unexpected turns and the old adage “hurry up and wait” seemed to apply (the Board of Trustees approved the program on November 30, 2007). As it would turn out, the approval process by the university was easy in comparison to the organizing of the curriculum.

Because there are an abundance of other construction programs which follow Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), (or ABET, Inc) guidelines, there was no point in “reinventing the wheel” when it came to devising a listing of classes. The interesting portion of the process was determining the

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Dobrowski, T. (2008, June), Building Industry Relationships Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3797