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Faculty Responsibility for Student Safety, Health, and Welfare?

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Technological and Engineering Literacy - Philosophy of Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41334

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41334

Download Count

360

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Paper Authors

biography

Angela Bielefeldt University of Colorado Boulder

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Angela Bielefeldt, Ph.D., P.E., is a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE). She is also the Director for the Engineering Plus program, which is in the process of being renamed to Integrated Design Engineering. Bielefeldt also serves as the co-director for the Engineering Education and AI-Augmented Learning Integrated Research Theme (IRT) at CU. She has been a faculty member at CU since 1996, serving in various roles including Faculty Director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program (2014-2017), Director of the Environmental Engineering program (2006-2010), and ABET Assessment Coordinator for the CEAE Department (2008-2018). Bielefeldt is active in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), serving on the Civil Engineering Program Criteria Task Committee (2019-2022) and the Body of Knowledge 3 Task Committee (2016-2018). She is the Senior Editor for the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering (IJSLE) and a Deputy Editor for the ASCE Journal of Civil Engineering Education. Her research focuses on engineering education, including ethics, social responsibility, sustainable engineering, and community engagement. Bielefeldt is also a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.

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Abstract

Many engineering codes of ethics state that engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. As engineering educators should we extend this responsibility to our students? And if so, how? Each of these three elements are distinct in some ways. Faculty are responsible for student safety in experimental laboratory and hands-on design/build settings, for example. Unique safety concerns may arise during study abroad and community engagement activities. During the COVID pandemic faculty may have experienced dilemmas regarding student health (and the health of the surrounding community) as campus administrators made decisions about in-person versus online instruction. Universities and faculty are also increasingly attending to student mental health. Finally, it is argued that considerations of welfare are the most challenging. Faculty perhaps think of student welfare long-term, as they help students build knowledge and skills that may yield post-graduation benefits in terms of employment. But does this long-term perspective cause us to undervalue in-the-moment student welfare? Our policies and practices may cause stress, and stress has been shown to inhibit learning. But other research and theories of learning indicate a positive role of dissonance and stress to the learning process. Thus, overemphasis on short-term avoidance of discomfort in the pursuit of student welfare may impede learning. Exploring these ideas is congruent with faculty who see their role as teaching people (their students) versus teaching subjects / topics / content. Examining our teaching practices through this lens of our foundational ethical obligation as engineers may cause us to change our approaches.

Bielefeldt, A. (2022, August), Faculty Responsibility for Student Safety, Health, and Welfare? Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41334

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