by Jacob Fuhrer |
A small group of environmental engineering students are between a rock and a hard place this year due to the University’s decision to phase out the environmental engineering track. The issue stems from how prepared the seniors are for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, a necessary stepping stone to becoming a professional engineer.
Civil engineering students at UP generally take the civil FE exam, but a select group of seniors who are on the environmental track can opt to take the environmental FE exam. However, some of the roughly six seniors in environmental engineering say they don’t feel adequately prepared to take the exam designed for their environmental focus because it’s up to them to take certain electives, which still wouldn’t include all the information covered on the environmental exam.
“We didn’t fully realize until last year, when we were juniors, that this environmental track wasn’t going to fully prepare us for the environmental exam,” Clayton Stahnke, an environmental engineering student, said. “It’s disappointing we chose this track in the midst of them phasing it out.”
James Dunbar, a senior environmental engineering student, said the problem comes down to how much material was covered in the undergrad program.
“We looked at the topics covered on the environmental FE (exam), it turns out we would only be able to answer about 80 percent of the test,” Dunbar said in an email. “This puts us at a disadvantage because we have fewer questions we can answer to achieve the same passing score as other students from other programs.”
While the seniors have the option of taking the civil FE exam like their peers, this doesn’t solve the problem, as the students also may not have received the same course material as civil engineers to prepare them for that exam either.
Mojie Takallou, an associate professor of civil engineering, oversees the review course that prepares students for the FE exams.
Takallou says it doesn’t matter which exam students take because both will allow them to become professional engineers in the future. However, Takallou recommends that these seniors take the civil engineering exam because it will allow students broader opportunities in the future.
Historically, more UP students pass the FE exam than their peers across the nation. Since 2002, UP has had an average passing rate of 92 percent, well above the nationwide average of around 76 percent.
“We feel very proud of this course and we think we’re preparing our students very well,” Takallou said.
The environmental engineering students remain confident they will pass the exam. Last spring, all the environmental engineering students passed the exam.
“It's not a crisis, but it is certainly very inconvenient and a bit of a letdown that we were strung along for so long,” Dunbar said. “We'll probably have to work harder than the rest of our civil-track class to prepare and catch up, but the problem isn't insurmountable.”
Jacob Fuhrer is a reporter for The Beacon. He can be reached at fuhrer17@up.edu or on Twitter @jacobfuhrer.
