Surviving ABET Under the New Criteria - From the Eyes of New Chair in a New CE Department

摘要

So you are a new department chair and ABET is coming in the near future, who are you going to call? What are you going to do? This paper will cover the processes, experiences and lessons learned by a new department chair preparing for an ABET visit for the first time in a brand new department under the new 2008 Civil Engineering (CE) program criteria. The goal of this paper is to not only assist new department chairs and chairs of new departments, but also chairs of well established departments that have had a visit with some type of weakness at the exit statement. Throughout this process it is important to remember that we are ABET. This new chair is also an ABET Program evaluator (PEV) and took that insight to heart. It is ASCE committees that establish the CE program criteria that supplement the general program criteria used by CE ABET PEVs. The philosophy of successfully managing the collection of data and presenting the processes and supporting data when the program only has one graduating class will be provided. The preparation for the actual visit, the results of the visit, and the actions taken after the visit will be presented. The analysis of the steps taken, processes initiated, and data collected may provide invaluable insight for an established program trying to prepare to meet old and new accreditation requirements as late as the fifth year of a six-year ABET cycle. The ultimate goal is developing a sustainable assessment process that adequately closes the loop. This paper will also address curricular changes initiated by the program to meet the new CE program criteria and the assessment challenges overcome by a new program.