On November 12th I visited visited North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT), my fourth sabbatical trip. Thanks to the efforts of Sameer Hamoush (Dept. Head) I met all faculty currently teaching the design aspects of the AE program and others as well. As on my previous trips everyone was welcoming and helpful, making my visit both productive and enjoyable.
What did I learn?
It has a sixty-plus year history of providing a path for African-American (and other) students to enter the professions, both Architecture and Engineering.
- Until the mid-1990's as many architects as engineers emerged from the program.
- Now, with changes in registration requirements, the program is solely engineering-focused, with the majority of the graduates going to work in construction firms.
- Enrollment has fluctuated with varying university admissions policies. It is currently near or at it's highest - 36 students in the capstone design class this year, versus 15 or so only four years ago.
Teaching is the primary responsbility of the department
- Teaching loads are demanding, with course loads of 9-12 credits/semester being common.
- The growth in enrollment has been coincident with a loss of faculty for various reasons, resulting in increased class sizes and teaching loads.
- As in other institutions the university-level atmosphere is changing. More research expectations are being placed on faculty without a corresponding decrease in teaching load or increase in research resources.
Teaching Methods and Curriculum
- The curriculum makes an effort to include all the ABET-identified building systems.
- There is little construction management included.
- Faculty varied in their identification of teaching methods used in the curriculum.
- Lecture is the predominant teaching mode.
- The two Architectural Design courses (taught by department architectural faculty) use a modified studio method
- The two-semester capstone design sequence uses teamwork extensively, focusing (usually) on the engineering design of building plans taken from a real multistory project. The effort is to take students all the way through schematic, design development and construction document phases.
- Individual instructors make significant efforts to introduce site visits, visiting lecturers and other methods to bring the external world into the classroom.
- At one point the program had a Masters degree in AE, but that was dropped in 1998 when enrollment decreased.
- In 1995 the program changed from a 5-year to a 4-year program, in signficant part as a response to the change in architectural registration requirements.
- There's little discussion of ASCE's possible move to a Bachelor's+30 program. When I raised the issue, there were signficant doubts about its benefits.
- Because the faculty is quite small (5 full-time currently), coordination appears to be quite informal.
- There appears to be some tension in relation to the design classes between those with a practice background and those without because of differring views of what's important.
AE Content Issues
- Sustainability is significant concern with one faculty member as a champion.
- There is a LEED certification course
- Sustainability examples are introduced into at least some of the design courses.
- BIM is not seen as a major issue
- There appears to be little attention paid to it overall
- The Bachelors+30 movement, as noted above, is not given much attention.
- Most faculty attention is on student-related issues, including those of providing good teaching when dealing with the heavy loads experienced.
Students
- As noted above, the school has a proud history of providing opportunity for African Americans.
- AE students are about 3/4 of the department's current senior class of 40 students
- Many arrive not fully prepared in math and sciences, which contributes to a significant attrition rate from freshman to senior year (80 entering with about 30 graduating were current numbers though they should be adjusted to reflect the growing enrollment)
- Many work 20 or more hours a week in non-engineering jobs in order to meet the financial demands, with consequent effects on their academic performance.
- Despite intense efforts on the part of the faculty many do not see the value of preparing for the FE exam, thus producing a performance that disappoints the faculty.
Observations
- The faculty are proud of what their students are able to achieve, while recognizing that many students must live with issues that prevent them from always achieving full potential.
- A number of faculty expressed interest in the results of this study, wanting to see themselve compared to other schools.
- The teaching loads are extremely high, leaving little time in most cases for experimentation or research.
- Some though, are remakably successful at maintaining a research and professional society engagement despite the loads and limited resources.
- I didn't have time to visit student classes, though several faculy were disappointed at not being able to show me what their students were doing. Those students I observed in and around the deparment were friendly, and cheerful.
About my Sabbatical Project
- Again I'm reinforced in my belief that the face-to-face meetings bring to light relationships that I would never understand strictly from the survey results.
