LETTER: Instead of anayzing causes of apathy, campus should search for remedies

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by Don Johnson

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I read with interest Jenna Christensen's letter relating the "preprofessionalism ... encouraged among Rice engineering majors" to a general student apathy and a dormant intellectual climate at Rice.

I don't believe that one particular segment of the curriculum can be blamed for what Ms. Christensen termed an "anti-intellectual atmosphere."

Assuming her assessment of the out-of-classroom environment is correct, how can less than one-third of the student body weigh so heavily on the entire campus?

I don't equate professionalism of any sort (engineering, law or medicine) with anti-intellectualism. Two hallmarks of a profession exist.

One hallmark is practitioners who directly interact with and personally affect their customers. In this sense, professionals must be humanistic, dealing with ethical issues, developing effective interpersonal communication skills and weighing the consequences of their actions or recommendations.

The other hallmark is lifelong education to keep up with developments within the profession and allied areas.

In the courses they teach, engineering faculty do try to instill such broader views, complementing a thorough understanding of the "tools of the trade:" science, mathematics and design. Admittedly, the engineering student's curriculum is demanding, but the engineer's role in society is similarly demanding and competitive.

A university education has both vocational and educational components. At Rice, students can choose the ratio as they see fit. Engineering students as a group could be considered as being skewed more than most to the vocational, but I don't believe this makes them anti-intellectual or an overwhelming power on campus.

I do believe in the value of a liberal education. Courses in all disciplines contribute to a student's intellectual strength, but cohesion -- focusing and creating interplay among them -- is also important.

For some reason, the American university career is nominally four years of study. No one would argue that learning stops then, or that all that we need to know can be captured in so little time.

Perhaps the primary goals of a university like Rice are to provide students with facts and with critical analytic skills, enabling the student to discern truth through a reasoned composition of facts. No matter what a Rice student's chosen path to exiting the Sallyport might be, the Rice faculty will have failed if they do not provide and instill these fundamental qualities.

I do agree that the B.A. degree in engineering should be a viable alternative for those students not considering long-term involvement in engineering practice.

Recognizing that this degree could serve the entire campus better, the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department is but the first to modify its requirements so that more students can double major in engineering and some other discipline. (The modified degree requirements are not yet in the General Announcements; contact the department for details.)

For those not wanting to major in engineering, the School of Engineering is developing courses for the general student body so that the School, like the academic divisions, contributes to the university's educational mission and intellectual life. Among these are ELEC/ENGI 201 Introduction to Engineering Design (the robots from Legos course), ENGI 301 Team Management, ENGI 310/410 Team Projects (here, students from several engineering disciplines and non-engineering majors confront real-world design problems), and CAAM 210/211 Introduction to Engineering Computation.

All of this said, Ms. Christensen's basic concern of student apathy and lack of intellectual vibrancy has not been addressed.

Unfortunately, I share her general view. As a college student of the '60s, when everything was questioned, current student discussions seem less potent than those in the "good old days." Undergraduates do not attend the President's Lecture Series or the Scientia Colloquium Series. The DeLange Conference Series, which is typically scheduled during the semester but during a break, has not been well-attended by undergraduates.

There is no student-run film series, student-run lecture series. ... Maybe rather than trying to overly analyze the history or the causes of lethargy, we should follow the general tack Ms. Christensen suggests and work together to create a more active intellectual neighborhood.

Don H. Johnson

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,

George R. Brown School of Engineering

Professor,

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Statistics

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the March 31, 1995 issue.

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