YES: Georgia Tech can’t meet demand; too many engineers leave Georgia.
By Nick Cooper
Georgia needs more opportunities for civil engineering education and training. Nationally, the number of undergraduate students enrolled in civil engineering schools cannot meet the needs of the next 10 years.
South Carolina has two major universities with civil engineering programs. North Carolina has three top engineering schools. But Georgia has only one accredited engineering school. Another great engineering program here will help secure our civil engineering future and meet the complex engineering needs of our state.
Civil engineering is the industry that provides the planning, design and implementation of all the physical infrastructure that affects our lives every day, from the airports and roads that support our economy to the water that we drink and the environment that we enjoy.
The need for civil engineers is exploding. In 2006, Money magazine ranked civil engineering as the 17th-best job in America, with a 10-year potential growth of 13 percent. Only four years later, civil engineering is now ranked sixth and environmental engineering fifth-best jobs in America, with 10-year growth of 24 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Similar growth is projected for transportation and structural engineers.
And yet this profession faces a crisis. The needs in infrastructure development and replacement are becoming more complex and urgent, but the civil engineering resources in the state are being depleted.
A major concern is the aging and retirement of civil engineers who have led the profession during its growth in the past 30 years. Up to 25 percent of the civil engineers in Georgia are older than 50. Young engineers are needed to fill the demand for design talent and future technical managers.
But fewer students are getting into the field. Some of the change is generational, and due to the increased opportunities in electronics and computer-based fields, starting in the 1980s. While the number of students in engineering schools has not decreased, the number of civil engineering students has dropped by more than 50 percent in the past 30 years.
And civil engineering has not been promoted as the exciting and rewarding career that it is. Modern electronics and computer-based technologies offer instant careers, while advancement in civil engineering requires acquisition of skills over several years of applied experience. What is not promoted are the opportunities for talented engineers, the fulfillment in seeing projects developed and completed, and the long-term satisfaction of improving lives and the environment.
Some colleges in Georgia offer programs in engineering technology or construction technology, which does not adequately prepare the student to be a consulting engineer. These technicians are valuable in construction inspection and other field-related roles, but may require 10 or more years to become a professional engineer.
Attracting young engineering graduates to move to Georgia is not difficult, but the learning experience in the Georgia environment is invaluable. The technical issues in this state are different from those in Florida, the Northeast or California. Training in an engineering school in Georgia prepares one better for the issues that we face in Georgia.
It also provides the student an affiliation with this state, which increases the retention of engineers. There is a high correlation between the university where someone gets a degree and career choices. A high percentage of civil engineers in Georgia attended Georgia Tech, and many from out of state have stayed in Georgia.
Adding programs for civil engineering will attract talented students from around the country, and keep more of our best young minds in Georgia.
Nick Cooper is vice president for AECOM Engineering in Atlanta.
NO: New programs dilute resources; let’s protect existing programs.
By Hardie Davis
For Georgia to compete in a global economy, it must sustain its commitment to educating highly trained and educated science, technology, engineering and math students. The University System of Georgia has built world-class engineering schools where aspiring students from around the world can get the tools and resources they require to excel in their chosen field.
The University of Georgia recently petitioned the Board of Regents to create new engineering degrees for its offering of undergraduate majors. At this critical time in Georgia’s economic climate the focus needs to be protecting the current educational programs in the state by building upon their success, not diluting their resources and funding. This move has the potential to severely harm the state’s engineering programs on a financial and competitive level, while failing to address the more critical need to encourage more math and science students at the middle and high school levels.
In a down economy where legislators have wrestled with balancing a budget, this is clearly an imprudent move. Georgia cannot afford to dilute its education resources any further with every state school feeling the adverse effects of the recession. Education remains a top priority, and along with protecting the universities and colleges, there must be an equal commitment to fiscal responsibility with the state’s precious education funds.
Engineering programs are one of the more costly to finance and there simply cannot be a sacrifice in quality at Georgia’s engineering programs for the expensive cost of starting majors from the ground up. Georgia currently provides solid engineering sciences education to students from around the globe at Georgia Tech and its satellite campuses, Georgia Southern, Mercer and Southern Polytechnic Institute. For these schools to maintain their level of success, they must have the ability to build upon their research and maintain their faculty. Investing any available resources into the improvement or expansion of established programs at Georgia Southern or Southern Poly would be the most responsible and cost-effective decision as Georgia continues to face an uncertain economic future.
What Georgia needs now is to address the critical need to graduate more science, technology, engineering and math students. It seems unwise to expand university programs when many students do not have the flexibility in their public schools to pursue a technical education instead of a liberal arts based diploma. Channeling any available resources to expose and attract middle and high school students to engineering, science, math and technological opportunities would pay a much better dividend then watering down the product at the college level. Utilizing established college programs to partner with public schools for science-based mentorships, internships or advanced study classes would be a much more logical use of resources and encourage more students into these much-needed areas of study.
In good and bad economic times, Georgia’s elected or appointed officials must be good stewards of the public trust and resources. UGA beginning a new program runs the risk of impacting every school in the university system, which at the very least calls for a careful and inclusive debate on the merits of moving in such a direction.
The University System of Georgia, the Board of Regents, UGA President Michael Adams and Chancellor Erroll Davis must take a step back and thoroughly study this issue, so the state can do what is best for its long-term viability and meet the needs of a 21st-century, high-tech work force.
State Sen. Hardie Davis represents the 22nd Senate District, which includes Richmond County. He is a graduate of Georgia Tech with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
