A Ba Engineering And Liberal Studies Degree At A Polytechnic Institution

The BA in Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies provides an educational vehicle for the person who seeks a career within which a knowledge of engineering and an ability to interact with engineers is critical, but who does not want a traditional engineering career. This degree will produce more technologically literate students who understand the principles of engineering and who will apply them to the profession they choose to pursue as citizens of a deeply technological society, but will not produce more practicing engineers immediately or directly. The significance of engineering lies mainly in its relation to other societal sectors. Clearly engineers must be more aware of this interrelationship, and the leaders of other sectors must become more technologically literate. The BA in Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies graduate works at this critical interface. This paper describes a pilot effort to design and deliver a curriculum that is the fruit of a multi-college collaboration. It details the collegial effort required to distill a functional program from the ideas of an interested, variegated constituency. It treats challenges in implementation in an academic environment which is allegedly steeped in disciplinary parochialism.