Ryan ChartrandA new major has been proposed as a five-year pilot program. The Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts and engineering studies has yet to be approved, but would be Cal Poly’s first interdisciplinary major, offered jointly by the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Engineering.
“We’ll see how it works. We’re proposing several new aspects that other majors at the university don’t typically have,” said Debra Valencia-Laver, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and one of the proposal’s drafters. “There’s the interdisciplinary aspect – the CLA and CENG working together to offer courses and coordinate the program.”
Initially, the program is for internal transfers only – more specifically, sophomores transferring out of engineering.
An advantage of accepting students in the spring of their sophomore year is that they’ve already cleared the hurdle of most math and engineering courses and have a good probability of graduating, College of Liberal Arts Dean Linda Halisky said.
“The program creates for them the possibility of using more of their engineering units toward their new major,” Valencia-Laver said.
The 180-unit Bachelor of Arts program includes general education courses, an engineering concentration, a liberal arts concentration and study abroad or global perspectives courses.
The proposal also includes four new courses, including a project-based learning course, an online collaborative global partnership course, senior project and a capstone senior seminar in which students refine their senior projects.
Keeping with the program’s interdisciplinary nature, the courses are presumably going to be team taught, Valencia-Laver said.
“(The courses) are there to first of all give students an identity as a major – having them interact,” she said. “The goal of the major is to have a strong project-based aspect, and part of working on projects is working with other people.”
The curriculum is heavy in engineering and math early on, but it needs to be, Halisky said.
“They tried very hard to make it balanced,” said David Hannings, chair of the Academic Senate curriculum committee and professor of horticulture and crop science.
There is a problem of students in engineering who don’t like it and drop out, and this is an opportunity to retain some of them, Provost William Durgin said.
According to a study done by Cal Poly Institutional Planning and Analysis regarding the 1999 freshmen cohort, 143 engineering students transferred out of their college. This is the most recent, complete data, Valencia-Laver said.
Though not sure of how many CENG students transfer to the CLA, the CLA and Orfalea College of Business are the most common destinations for internal transfers, said College of Liberal Arts dean Linda Halisky.
Cal Poly wants to retain its students, but “this is not for people flunking out of engineering,” Hannings said. “It’s for people who are good at math and physics but don’t want to be engineers.”
The application process to transfer includes maintaining a 2.5 grade point average in at least three math classes required in the program, a 2.5 GPA for the GE Area A or equivalent, and a one-page essay describing interest in the program.
“It’s not meant to be a sort of last resort for CENG students,” Valencia-Laver said. “It’s more of, ‘how can I marry my strengths and interests in science, technology, engineering and math with an area in the liberal arts?'”
For many jobs, people need both engineering and communication skills, Hannings said. “They can translate engineering to the general public.”
The use of “engineering” in the title has been a hot topic for all involved. Graduates of this program could misrepresent themselves and companies may misinterpret the degree, states the memo.
It also states that it is not a rigorous enough engineering program to accomplish some of its objectives.
Mechanical engineering professor Jim LoCascio said it’s a difference between “real engineers” and policy writers.
“It’s like going to the hospital and talking to the assistant, not the doctor. The physician’s assistant knows stuff, but you don’t want them to be the ones to talk to you,” he said.
The project-based learning and the global perspectives/study abroad portion of this program emphasizes the melding of communication with engineering-based skills.
Studying abroad is “strongly, strongly, strongly encouraged,” Valencia-Laver said. However, “we’d probably be ecstatic if we even have 75 percent of people (go abroad),” she said.
This is meant to coincide with the online collaborative global partnerships course, during which students develop projects with a global technical or design team.
The program and its four new courses will be housed in the provost’s office and co-chaired by a faculty member from each college. English professor David Gillette and industrial and manufacturing engineering professor Lizabeth Schlemer have already had conversations with their deans regarding their involvement as co-chairs, Valencia-Laver said.
It is “uncommon” for a program to be housed in the provost’s office, Hannings said. This allows for “equal participation from faculty and staff advisers” from both colleges, stated the proposal.
Despite the collaboration of the higher-ups, there is opposition to the proposal, mainly within the CENG.
LoCascio cited the program’s development and the use of “engineering” in the name as cause for concern.
“The new dean of College of Engineering and the provost were its biggest drivers,” he said. Both came from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where such a program was recently implemented.
“I’ve been here since ’81, and this is the first recollection of a program not being developed at the department level,” he said.
The proposal has already gone through the curriculum committees of both colleges and the Academic Senate curriculum committee.
The CENG curriculum committee is like the Senate, LoCascio said: There are distorted votes because tiny programs get the same vote as the large ones. Of the 10-3 vote in favor of the proposal, the minority – mechanical engineering, civil engineering and environmental engineering – comprise 40 percent of engineering.
“I’ve worn a suit on campus four or five times, only when I want to be listened to,” LoCascio said. “I wore a suit to kill this program.”
A memo from the mechanical engineering department to Fred DePiero, associate dean and professor of electrical engineering and co-drafter of the proposal, addressed many concerns with the program. These included the use of “engineering” in the title, budget issues, administration of the program, and the implications on future jobs of students in this major.
According to the proposal, it will not be an ABET-Accredited program and the inclusion of “liberal arts” in the title, combined with the fact that it’s a Bachelor of Arts program, should prevent confusion.
Programs like this are more common in the East Coast; in fact, the closest university that has a similar major is the University of Arizona, which offers a BA in engineering.
“It could be a showcase for Cal Poly,” Halisky said. “It’s the first of this kind of program in the West Coast.”
Previous versions of the proposal never got very far, including an idea for a BA in engineering. The current version was developed by a great deal of people, with some of its biggest supporters including Durgin, Halisky and College of Engineering Dean Mohammad Noori. Valencia-Laver, Gillette and DePiero were the main drafters.
If passed, it would be reviewed every year. Also, if for some reason the program was terminated during its five-year pilot run, all students in the program will be able to complete their degree, Valencia-Laver said.
As for budget, “there are always startup costs,” Valencia-Laver said. The provost and two deans are putting in some money and time, but there shouldn’t be the need for additional faculty or resources, at least initially, she said.
A big job for the co-chairs will be to look for outside support including grants and scholarships, especially to help make studying abroad a possibility for everyone.
“We’re thinking the uniqueness of the program might draw interest and draw support,” Valencia-Laver said.
In Tuesday’s executive committee meeting of the Academic Senate, members voted unanimously to put it on the agenda of the full senate. On May 8, the proposal will have its first reading in the company of all the “big guns,” which includes President Warren Baker, and the two deans, Hannings said. After a second reading, if approved, it will go to Baker for approval. Since it is a pilot program, it does not need approval from CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed.
“We’re hopeful that the Academic Senate will let us try it,” Halisky said. “If it doesn’t work, we don’t go forward with the full proposal in five years.”
Of the controversy over the program and whether or not it may pass, “You never know what happens in the Senate,” Hannings said.
BA LIBERAL ARTS AND ENGINEERING STUDIES
MAJOR COURSES (128 units)
CHEM 124 Gen Chemistry for Engineering
ENGL 149 Technical Writing for Engineers
LAES 301 Project-Based Learning in LAES
LAES 411 Collaborative Global Partnerships in LAES
LAES 461 Senior Project (or other approved SP course)
LAES 462 Capstone Senior Seminar in LAES
MATH 141, 142 Calculus I, II
MATH 143 Calculus III
MATH 241 Calculus IV
MATH 244 Linear Systems or Advisor Approved Elective
PHYS 141 General Physics IA
PHYS 132, 133 General Physics
Engineering concentration
(minimum 8 units at 300-400 level)
Liberal Arts concentration
(minimum 12 units at 300-400 level)
STAT 312/321/350
Study Abroad or Global Perspectives courses (300-400 level)
Advisor approved elective
GENERAL EDUCATION (52 units)
72 units required; 20 units are in Support.
Minimum of 12 units required at the 300-400 level.
Area A Communication (8 units)
A1 Expository Writing
A2 Oral Communication
A3 Reasoning, Argument, and Writing * 4 units in major
Area B Science and Mathematics (4 units)
B1 Mathematics/Statistics * 4 units in Major
B2 Life Science
B3 Physical Science * 4 units in Major
B4 One lab taken with either a B2 or B3 course
B5 (requirement for Liberal Arts students only) * 4 units
in Major
Area C Arts and Humanities (16 units)
C1 Literature
C2 Philosophy
C3 Fine/Performing Arts
C4 Upper-division elective
Area D/E Society and the Individual (20 units)
D1 The American Experience
D2 Political Economy
D3 Comparative Social Institutions
D4 Self Development (CSU Area E)
D5 Upper-division elective
Area F Technology (upper division)
180 TOTAL UNITS