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For more information about the ASEE Annual Conference, please visit www.asee.org/conferences/annual2001/.
by Eric Iversen A record 126 deans from 41 states attended the February 13–14 EDC Public Policy Colloquium in Washington, D.C. Program highlights included substantial discussion of how engineering colleges might help improve K-12 science and math achievement in the United States.
Attendees heard former senator and astronaut John Glenn warn in his keynote speech that, in K-12 science and math education, “what was good enough for the past won't be good enough for the future.” Representatives Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) both described legislation they have advocated to advance precollege learning and instruction in science and math. NAE President William Wulf stressed the integral role that diversity—both cultural and personal—must play in the future of engineering education.
ASEE/SEFI,
Germany Prospective
presenters are invited to submit an abstract on one of the above
topics. Abstracts should be 200–300 words long and in English.
Abstracts will be accepted either via e-mail or fax on or before
May 15. All abstracts will be peer reviewed by the program planning
committee, and accepted authors will be asked to submit their papers
for publication on the ASEE Web site. All accepted authors will
present their papers in a poster session on Tuesday, September 18,
at Berlin Technical University. Authors should submit their abstracts
to Michael Dingman at m.dingman@asee.org
or fax to (202) 265-8504. For more information on the conference,
see www.asee.org/conferences/international/default.cfm. SEFI 2001,
Denmark To submit items for the International News section, please send information at least 12 weeks prior to desired publication to ASEE Today, e-mail: j.johnson@asee.org; fax (202) 265-8504. International events are also listed on ASEE's Web site at www.asee.org/international. |
At
a Capitol Hill Reception the first night of the event, EDC Chair
Stephen Director presented new House Science Committee Chair Sherwood
Boehlert (R-NY) with an award recognizing his outstanding contributions
to national science and engineering public policy. Several deans
of engineering from New York joined Director in presenting the award
to Chairman Boehlert: William Baeslack, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute;
Edward Bogucz, Syracuse University; Eleanor Baum, The Cooper Union;
Dean L. D. Pye, Alfred University; and Richard Heist, Manhattan
College.
A
panel of engineering and education deans from three schools described
strategies for forming a closer relationship between their two sectors
of the university community. A range of Capitol Hill staffers and
media figures from the science and technology policy arena described
the new, fiscally straitened environment for federal spending, warning
that the increases of the last several years will very likely end
with President Bush's first budget. The Feb. 28 release of
Bush's budget blueprint confirmed this, with only defense,
education, and NIH budgets increasing by more than the rate of inflation.
The deans received status reports on the new National Institute
of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH and on negotiations
between the State Department and the Office of Science and Technology
Policy to work out complications in the recently modified International
Traffic in Arms Regulations. Deans Stephen Director of the University
of Michigan, Bill Schowalter of the University of Illinois, and
David Wormley of Penn State University, drawing on their experiences
visiting Capitol Hill, offered advice on how to build useful, long-lasting
relationships with members of Congress.
