One Man's View of Registration Today

ASCE has been a leader in the development of engineers' registration since 1909, when the Society appointed a committee to develop the first model law. It has a comprehensive written registration policy, summarized in the paper and now believed to be in need of reexamination. Engineers' registration is in trouble and the signs indicate increasing rather than diminishing problems in the future. Root causes are the false concept of the purpose and benefits of registration held by many engineers; the exposure of the registration machinery to political manipulation; and registration's susceptibility to misuse for selfish purposes. The writer proposes a different approach to the licensing process to return control of it to the profession, and suggests that in keeping with its historic role, ASCE take the lead.