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Session 3215

THE ROLE OF STUDENT CHAPTERS IN IMPROVING CE PROGRAMS Allen C. Estes, Eric M. Lachance, and Mark D. Evans United States Military Academy, West Point, NY

Introduction 1, 2, ASCE Student Chapters and Clubs add tremendous value to civil engineering (CE) programs 3, 4, 5 . The value added can and should be tied back to program objectives and outcomes as part of a regular, formal program assessment process. This paper will describe the activities of the student chapter at the United States Military Academy (USMA), describe the USMA civil engineering program outcomes, and show how many of the chapter activities support these program outcomes and add value to the Civil Engineering program.

The USMA Student Chapter

Student chapter leaders and members are faced with many unique challenges that affect chapter activities. USMA students have an unusually high level of mandatory requirements outside the classroom that restrict the time available for extracurricular activities. These requirements, which include physical training classes, mandatory meal attendance, military drill and ceremony, and compulsory intramural sports participation, limit the student chapter’s ability to plan long- duration events. Therefore, student leaders focus their efforts on short duration activities, trying to get the biggest benefit for the most valuable student resource: time. With limited and tightly controlled increments of available time, we attempt to tailor our activities to accommodate this constraint. Those USMA chapter activities that add the greatest value to our CE program, are listed below, and described in the sections that follow:

• Community service and outreach through adopt-a-highway clean up, Habitat for Humanity participation, and support of those community service independent study 6 projects in the CE program . • Exposure to professional societies such as ASCE, ASEE, The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), and the Army Engineer Association (AEA). • Knowledge of the profession and exposure to engineering practitioners through lunchtime seminars featuring prominent engineers both in and out of the Army. • Field trips to project sites such as Big Dig in Boston, NYC Port Authority and Woodrow Wilson Bridge/I-495 interchange in D.C. • Lunch and dinner seminars that support the CE curriculum by welcoming CE new majors to the program, present avail opportunities for Advanced Individual Academic Development (AIAD), and advertise the available independent study projects for the year. AIADs are the USMA equivalent of a co-op program where students spend three weeks in an Army lab or Army Corps of Engineers District in the summer. • Competition projects for stimulating underclass interest in civil engineering through: concrete canoe, steel bridge, timber bridge, and big beam competitions.

“Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Evans, M., & Lachance, E., & Estes, A. (2003, June), The Role Of Student Chapters In Improving Ce Programs Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12387