ABET PAC MEETING

March 16, 1996

Mr. Emerson Bornman, Mr. Raymond Connin, Mr. Joe Dolan, Mr. Eduardo Fernandez-Falcon, Mr. J. Frederick Friden, Mr. John Fuehrer, Dr. Charles Ghilani, Ms. Wendy Lathrop, Mr. John Lewis, Mr. Fred Mertz, Mr. Robert Miller, and Dr. Paul Schwartz

At 10:00 AM Dr. Ghilani opened the proceedings by handing out RAC and TAC of ABET accreditation requirements for the BS Surveying and Surveying Technology programs. Also presented were Penn State's general education requirements which affect the credits students must take to obtain a PSU degree. This was meant to accompany the course outlines which were mailed to committee members. A discussion followed as to what ABET required of both faculty, campus, and program for a successful visitation. Also discussed was of the Penn State restructuring of CES.

Keypoints in the discussion were:

• What affect a change from the College of Engineering to the Commonwealth College would have on the program's viability in regards to accreditation and what affect this would have on students applying for registration out of Pennsylvania.
• The affect of the local campus's budget being directly connected to student enrollments and thus the hiring of sufficient faculty to satisfy ABET requirements.

Suggested methods of dealing with problems included:

• Develop a recruiting plan which will attempt to boost enrollments in the Surveying program. Dr. Ghilani discussed the fact the due to the smallness of the campus, it could not effectively recruit students outside of the local region in PA, and suggested that each chapter of the PSLS support a single student each year involving their recruitment, partial financing, and job opportunities.
• Send a letter to the Dean of the College of Engineering, the head of SETCE, and the president of Penn State requesting that the Surveying program remain in the College of Engineering.
• Explore possible avenues of endowing a chair.
• Expanding the scholarship funds available to students.

Following lunch, the committee toured the campus visiting each campus building with additional time spent in the:

• The Surveying lab and equipment room.
• Library discussing the resources available to students and the interlibrary loan system.

The next meeting suggested was October 16, 1996 (not firm) at the Wilkes-Barre campus. The committee would like to talk with the students at that time and meet with the other IAC committee on the campus. The meeting adjourned at 2:00 P.M.

Respectfully submitted

Eduardo Fernandez Falcon

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