Utah State Engineering Students Work Toward Compromise

Welding engineering students who previously vowed to fight the dean of the College of Engineering's proposal to cut their program are now working toward a compromise that would ensure there will be a similar program in the western United States.

Dean Scott Hinton and representatives of the USU student chapter of the American Welding Society have been meeting this week to discuss options for the possible move of the welding engineering program to Weber State University or another western university, like BYU-Idaho, according to Doug Watkins, USU president of the AWS.

Hinton's announcement Feb. 19 that the welding engineering program would be eliminated at USU was severely criticized at the time by students in the program. Three other industrial technology programs, computer-aided drafting, computer electronics and aviation, were cut at the same time.

Hinton says he has been in contact with Warren Hill, dean of Applied Science and Technology at Weber State, to look at the possibility of Weber getting an official welding engineering degree approved by the Board of Regents.

"We're really trying to set up a transition that's as smooth and as quick as possible," he said.

The Board of Regents currently has a moratorium preventing universities from creating new degree programs, Hinton said, but USU will do all it can to support Weber's efforts to add a welding engineering degree.

Hinton said he hopes to have more than just an articulation agreement with Weber State but to actually improve the program. Weber has more technology teachers and courses than USU, he said.

Hinton said he is letting the students take the lead in looking at the curriculum and the resources available to give them a chance to update their degree program.

Watkins said in their meeting Monday with Hinton, the students offered to work to find a solution that would satisfy both sides and enter into a cooperative effort to find another location for the welding program.

Watkins says he's excited about the new spirit of cooperation between the dean and the students.

"Our focus has changed from a fighting posture to a moving-forward posture," he said.

Hinton said, "We're trying to take a situation here and make the best of it we can. Hopefully for them, they'll actually have a better situation than they have here. So far the students that I've been working with have been very helpful."

Watkins said Hinton's focus "is to have this be a student-driven transition. He wants us to be in on making decisions, and I appreciate that from him."

Although their stance has changed, Watkins says, the AWS is not "selling out" the welding engineering program.

"One of the things that we identified when we started this fight is that we wanted this program maintained. Ideally, we wanted it at Utah State. The second option is somewhere else," as long as there is a program in the West, Watkins said.

"As budget cuts come through, things have to be reorganized," he said. "I don't necessarily like this answer, but as student chapter president, my focus has to be on maintaining the program for the students that aren't here yet."

For AWS, another reason to meet with Hinton was to let him know they were not responsible for personal attacks some students made against him, Watkins said.

"We wanted the dean to know that we had no personal vendetta against him. We respect him for the position that he holds here at the university," he said.

Watkins said welding engineering students would be better served and could serve better under a different mission statement than the one USU has adopted.

Hinton said the students will make some transition committees to look at curriculum, and new students coming into the program will be contacted by the committees to let them know about the future of the program.

By Roy Burton; royburton@cc.usu.edu