President's Monthly Message
October 2007

Time to Take Ownership!

For many ASCE presidents, this closing column has been a place to say good-bye and to boast a bit about the accomplishments of the year. But I want to use it for another purpose. I see this as my final opportunity to tell ASCE members it’s time to show the world we have courage.

Yes, it has been a tremendous pleasure to serve as ASCE president during the past year, but there is so much left to be done and so much that needs to get started now! During the year, I have come to appreciate how highly respected and influential ASCE is as an organization. We ASCE members need to take full advantage of that influence and power, if you will.

I’ve learned so much from students and younger members this year. I’ve reflected frequently on the future awaiting these clever, enthusiastic, and gifted young people. I am confident that this new generation is capable. But as civil engineers, young people are entering the profession at a time of uncertainty and enormous challenge, so there is no time like now to show the world what we’re made of!

The past couple of years have witnessed three catastrophic engineering failures: the breaches of the levees in New Orleans, the ceiling collapse in one of the tunnels of Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project (“Big Dig”), and, most recently, the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis that carried Interstate 35W over the Mississippi. Together, these tragic incidents threaten to undermine the public’s trust in civil engineers. I describe them as engineering failures because in each case—although the circumstances were markedly different and the causes were complex—the warnings and concerns expressed by civil engineers were not enough to prevent the tragedies from occurring.

To earn the public’s trust, civil engineers are going to have to pay attention to detail, focus on the safety and welfare of the public, and take ownership of the public’s infrastructure and environment. Taking ownership is of paramount importance. Clearly, upholding our professional obligation to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public requires more than technical expertise. It requires moral conviction, which means taking responsibility to speak out when we see something that is not safe, even though others may be pressuring us to agree with them that it is “safe enough.” As engineers, we must always err on the side of safety!

It has become increasingly clear to me that as a profession, we must consistently focus on long-term infrastructure improvement. Our profession must find a way to direct the attention of the public and of policy makers to our infrastructure crisis. Our “captains of industry”—those who are leading the major civil engineering enterprises—need to testify frequently before Congress and to speak loudly and clearly about what must change.

What can you do as a member to further our effort to improve infrastructure and promote leadership in our profession? You must get involved as leaders at all levels of society to help ensure that the voice of our profession is heard. Do civil engineers possess the skills needed to practice as professionals in today’s world? Are we prepared to lead the public and help it make the right decisions? Do we understand the consequences of failing to do so? Are we willing to assume the personal and professional risks required to exert our professional judgment? We all must take responsibility to do our part, each one of us, to ensure that the answers to these questions will be a resounding yes.

The public’s attention is readily captured immediately after a tragedy, as seen in August with the Minneapolis bridge collapse. But this window closes quickly, giving us little time to make the case for addressing our disintegrating infrastructure. This must change. America will need to invest $1.6 trillion over the next five years just to maintain its infrastructure at current levels. Resources are tight, but meeting the needs of our growing population will require an even greater investment. If we fail to persuade our nation to focus on this problem and devise means to fund solutions to it, our infrastructure will continue to crumble and will fail to support our thriving economy, which in consequence will no longer thrive.

ASCE has stepped forward to strengthen the caliber of our profession through the development of Policy 465 (“Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice”). And thanks to hard work during recent years, the model law for licensure drawn up by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) has been modified to reflect many of the principles embodied in this policy. The new model law says that by roughly 2015 a candidate will need additional qualifications to sit for the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam. Anyone seeking licensure will need to have an accredited bachelor’s degree in engineering, an additional 30 credits of acceptable upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses, and four year of experience characterized by increasing levels of responsibility. The new requirements may also be satisfied by possessing a master’s degree in engineering and acquiring three years of experience characterized by increasing levels of responsibility.

Without ASCE’s leadership, this change would never have happened, and I am proud of this achievement. Working with the National Academy of Engineering, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the NCEES, we are helping to ensure that after January 2015, professional engineers will be better qualified than ever. We have worked hard, but much more work remains. We are about to release a new edition of the report Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century. We are pressing hard to improve accreditation criteria and processes. We must continue this effort with enthusiasm and passion.

ASCE’s Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering held in June 2006 helped to outline a vision of where we want the civil engineer to be in 2025. Led by our new president, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, this summit brought together the top leaders and thinkers in civil engineering and challenged them to define the role of our profession in a rapidly changing world. I’d like to personally congratulate and thank David for his leadership of this summit and for his continuing commitment and his work to realize this vision. You will hear more from David about Vision 2025 and about ways in which you can play a role during the next year. Please pay attention and please act!

Finally, I ask you, our members, to “take ownership.” By that I mean the following:

• Take ownership of public policy, seek resources to solve our infrastructure problem, and define a national timetable for action.
• Take ownership of public safety, health, and welfare by always making yourself heard when something looks as though it might not be safe, even when the probability of failure is small.

Together we can make a difference if we take ownership of these responsibilities.

I am pleased to welcome David to the office of president. He is indeed well prepared to take over, having served in almost every chair within ASCE in recent years. You are in great hands. So let’s get working now and show the world what we are made of!

Thank you, ASCE.

W.F. Marcuson III, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE