Items

• Publication of Pamphlet: Engineering At Lafayette College

  College printed a pamphet to promote engineering and answering the following questions: Why be an engineer? What is engineering? The place of engineering in the present world. The history of engineering. Engineering as a profession. Fundamentals of engineering. Why a cultural background is necessary to an engineer. Why be a Lafayette engineer? The pamphlet discussed the necessary cultural background; the benefits of Lafayette's location; described the student and the professor at Lafayette; listed engineering societies at Lafayette; listed engineering employment facilities at Lafayette, and listed engineering departments at Lafayette (including curriculum and equipment) and faculty in engineering with short bios.
• 1930 engineering enrollments - 28 percent of the student body

  During the depression of the 1930
• First use of name "Engineering Division"

  In 1927 the first reference to an 'engineering division' was made in the title of a part-time administrative officers, Dr. Prentice, dean and also professor of mechanical engineering and chief of the engineering division. ( Gendebien, p. 27)
• Establishment of Tau Beta Pi chapter
• Requirements for engineering degree

  In 1919, in order to get an engineering degree you needed 3 years practical experience and then a thesis. (From Two Hundred Years of Life in Northampton Country, PA. Easton: Northampton Country Bicentennial Commission, 1976.)
• Modern language requirement dropped from engineering programs

  Modern language requirement was dropped from the engineering programs in 1919 and the opening in the curriculum was filled with technical courses. (Gendebien, p. 108)
• Summer School Shop Work Programs

  'In 1918-19 two Summer School Shop Work Programs were introduced. The first, ME 10a, was held for three weeks in June following the Freshman year and carried two and one-half credit hours. The second, ME 12a, was held at the completion of the Sophomore year, was conducted for the same number of weeks, and carried the same number of credits. The content included exercises in foundry, forging, pattern making, and machine-tool work. Classes were held for eight hours per day, six days per week, in college laboratories and in the shops of several local industries. In 1920-21 the name of ME 10a was changed to 'Summer School of Mechanical Technology.' The second course, ME 12a, became EE 2 - ME 12a and was called 'Summer School of Electrical and Mechanical Technology' These summer workshop programs had been initiated because it had been felt that students needed some work in practical engineering industries before graduation. This was Lafayette
• Technical instruction of soldiers

  During summer and fall 1918 the college converted into a military camp, 'The technical instruction of these soldiers was given by members of the engineering departments, some of the work being done at the Mechanical Engineering Building, some in the Lehigh Valley Shops in South Easton, and some in the field, as work on highways, bridges and trestles.' (Skillman, Vol. 2, p. 244)
• Creation of a branch of the National Research Council

  In 1917, 'The members of the technical Faculty formed themselves into a branch of National Research Council to place the resources of the college at the disposal of the government and
• Faculty reorganization to create Engineering Council

  In 1915, President MacCracken reorganized the faculty, '
• Degrees in Engineering changed to Bachelor of Science

  Reforms of 1915 substituted bachelor of science degrees in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and mining engineering for the 'Engineer' degrees. (Gendebien, p. 84)
• Change in engineering degree title to BS

  Beginning about 1915, 'No longer were the degrees of Civil Engineer, Electrical Engineer, etc., given at the end of four years of study in the college course but the degrees of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, in Electrical Engineering, etc., were awarded at graduation. The degree of _Engineer_ was deemed proper only after post-graduate study or a demonstration of proficiency in practice.' (Skillman, vol. 2, p. 215)
• 1930's engineering enrollments

  During the depression of the 1930's, 'Engineering enrollments were decreasing faster and farther than overall enrollments, the Depression brining to a crisis a chronic illness of the engineering departments. In 1915 engineering students had accounted for 44 percent of the total student community. As the total number of students increased, the number of engineering students did not, so by 1930 they accounted for only 28 percent. Then, when the total number of students decreased during the next five years, the engineering enrollment did also so that the percentage remained the same
• 1915 enginering enrollments

  In 1915 engineering students accounted for 44 percent of the students. (Gendebien, p. 69)
• Concerns that engineering students were not learning to write well

  Around 1903 and as part of the college's preparations for its 75th anniversary, 'Interwoven with the changes in personnel, the Trustees in their program of reconstruction sought changes in the curriculum. Great as was the place of Lafayette in the study of the English Language, a committee on standards and methods of education appointed by the Board reported that the philological phases of English were being emphasized at the expense of the practical phases; that the students were learning more about the history and etymology of words than how to use them; that engineering students in particular were not being trained to express and transmit their technical knowledge, that they could not properly make reports and handle correspondence.' ( Skillman, p. 167-168)
• Increase in Laboratory Practice

  Around 1900, 'Laboratory practice and experimentation as part of instruction in the sciences were greatly increased in accordance with the educational policy of President Warfield. This was done not only in the departments of Chemistry and Biology, which now had new laboratories, but in Physics and Electrical Engineering, where the laboratory work heretofore had been greatly limited. The course in Civil Engineering, where the laboratory work had been more emphasized ever since the advent of Professor Porter, was now augmented by the introduction of field surveying through three weeks of the summer, immediately after Commencement.' (Skillman, p. 154)
• First Engineering Degrees

  At commencement in 1871, the graduating class included 'the first Lafayette men to receive engineering degrees.' Three mining engineer degrees and two civil engineering degrees. (Skillman, p. 337)
• Pardee's Gift of $100,000

  1866 -- By March of 1866, Pardee gave his second gift of $100,000 'for the endowment of a scientific course at Lafayette College.' (Skillman, p. 281) Integrated with traditional studies, 'The newly established Bible courses were built into the scientific curriculum at the expressed desire of Mr. Pardee. He wanted all departments of instruction at Lafayette to be 'in the hands of Christian scholars,' and that in the new Scientific Department, no less than the old, there should be, 'a systematic and thorough study of the Word of God'... Distinct courses were offered in Engineering, Chemistry and Mining. The scheme in respect to these, was that a student having pursued the scientific course for three years, might in his Senior year elect one of these three specialized courses, instead of taking the curriculum provided for the Senior year in the scientific course, and thus graduate as an Engineering. All of these courses led to the same degree
• Establishment of Engineering

  1866: from Skillman's biography of the college, Vol. 1: 'All this was presented in an elaborate report to the Trustees at the special meeting in March, 1866. The report was unanimously adopted, and Lafayette became a school of arts and science and engineering.'(p. 282) 'Provision was made to inaugurate these courses at once, and having enacted this mass of important business the Trustees retired to the United States Hotel
• Faculty Request for Establishment of a Scientific Course

  At a meeting of the board in October 1865 the faculty presented a petition 'suggesting the establishment of a scientific course at Lafayette' (Skillman, p. 280)
• Engineering Courses were offered for seniors

  'The 1841-1842 catalog carries the mysterious addition of a one-semester offering in 'Civil Engineering,' replaced in 1845-1846 by, simply, 'Engineering.' In 1851-1852 the offering disappeared as mysterious as it had appeared a decade earlier.' (Gendebien, p. 135)
• Sloan Foundation grant to broaden engineering education to embrace the social sciences

  The Sloan Foundation was particularly interested in one thrust of this interchange, the broadening of engineering education to embrace the social sciences in a more direct and meaningful way than the mere requirement of a few miscellaneous nontechnical electives. In August 1972, Dr. Bergethon applied to the foundation for a grant to subsidize an experiment in cross-fertilization. Two members of the faculty, a social scientist and an engineer, would spend a year at an appropriate graduate school learning about the other
• Women admitted to Lafayette
• Creation of a single curriculum committee

  'Dr. Bergethon recognized also, and considered it a
• Middle States recommends creation of new positions for a diretor of engineering and a director of arts and sciences

  1956: Middle States recommended the creation of new positions for a director of engineering and a director of arts and sciences. (Gendebien, p. 350)