The Committee on Minority Programs (COMP) has been charged by the Board of Direction to… “promote section and national activities that will encourage the education and training of disadvantaged minorities in engineering …, foster the employment of such minorities at all levels of skill…, and direct the expertise of engineers to the solution of the special economic and social problems faced by such minorities.” As part of their work in this direction, COMP has defined four goals which should command the attention of ASCE: (1) Education; (2) employment; (3) community service; and (4) ASCE membership.

It becomes increasingly obvious that the number of minorities and women in engineering is far below any reasonable proportion to their percentage in our population, and recent statistical data do not reflect any substantive revision to these proportions. It is also very obvious that the shifting of minority individuals and women from one company to another to fulfill the new company's Affirmative Action Goals is of no real help to anyone and definitely not an acceptable or lasting method of remedying this situation. Recognizing the soundness of the human relation principles involved and because of firm adherence to our belief in the correctness of a policy which endeavors to attain the maximum utilization of the potential of all the people of our country, the (name of company) without reservations or restrictions endorses and adopts the following Affirmative Action Plan.

It is suggested that engineering has been a low priority concern of minority leaders, but that many minority individuals would find engineering a rewarding career. Further, if coming changes in our technology are not to continue past divisions, minority engineers should participate in the changes. ASCE's concern stems from professional responsibilities toward the public as well as pragmatic realization that growing numbers of decision making clients judge our intent through our employment policies. We need minority engineers to improve our product and to expedite execution. Engineering employment is broken down by spheres of employment and types of employment and ideas suggested for ASCE committees. Experiences of some individual sections are cited in paraprofessional and upgrading training in career guidance, student summer jobs, and advancement of minority engineers. COMP and the national ASCE staff are able to help local committees and are working on ways to reduce red tape in federal programs. Civil engineering is a diverse and vital field which can help to solve problems or racial exclusion and poverty.

Because of the increasing importance of technically informed community input into community projects and the definite absence of home grown engineers in minority communities, the Committee on Minority Programs (COMP) proposes formation of an Engineering Advocacy Program. The Program seeks to provide the engineering services easily available to the affluent to inner city neighborhood groups (primarily racial minorities) and others who have been systematically excluded from the use of these services.

Influencing the low entry rates of minorities into engineering is the lack of awareness, contact, or identification with engineers or scientists by minority youth and their parents, along with a lack of understanding of necessary college preparation or inadequate financial means. The discovery by minority youth that technical engineering knowledge is one of the keys to equality is a realization that all ASCE members should welcome and encourage.

The engineering profession generally and others affected by engineering must examine the requirements for licensing and effect needed changes to registration laws. In so doing, particular attention should be given to removing exemptions from licensure, reducing experience requirements, demonstrating current competence, and licensing technicians performing engineering-related services directly to the public.

The making of engineering professionals requires a new dimension in educational programs to produce graduates competent and technically literate enough to practice on the highest level, sensitive to the effects of technology on society, and able to provide leadership in the industrial, societal, and political arenas. Professions, being neither craft guilds nor labor unions, must practice primarily in the spirit of public service, embrace ethical codes, and have a genuine care for society. Such objectives coincide with ASCE's current Goals Study. Two years of preengineering followed by 4-yr programs in professional schools of engineering as independent as those in law and medicine are recommended to make those leaders and pros society will need in the future. Schools should operate on honor systems to emphasize ethics. The programs should be practitioner-oriented curricula culminating in specialization, backed and integrated by the Founder Societies, and broadly based on humanities, all engineering sciences, societal responsibilities, leadership, and cooperative experience.

A thorough discussion is presented concerning the desirability of national metrication and the present status of this important matter. The advantages to be gained by such a move and the role played by engineering standards in the overall conversion process are also included. Metrication alternatives are considered, leading to the conclusion that nothing short of complete and genuine metrication can provide the maximum benefit. A necessary point of beginning for metrication of the construction industry as a whole is the familiarization of large numbers of people with the metric system. It is additionally determined that metrication of the construction industry must necessarily proceed simultaneously within each of its four elements: (1) design; (2) material and equipment production; (3) contractors; and (4) labor. The ramifications of metrication as they apply to each of these four areas are discussed and specific problems are identified.

When in 1959 the ASCE settled the status of surveying and mapping (geometronics) after an extended study by a special task committee, it was hoped that in the next 25 years a new type of surveyor-mapper would emerge, and that the means of ensuring this was well delineated. Now, well on towards 1984, the progress towards this goal is examined and found wanting. With the discovery of a lack of sure steps in the right direction, the writer offers some strong advice about revitalizing the march towards professionalism among surveyors. The case is made for an urgent assessment and some prompt action by the practitioners and the surveying-mapping field to see that entry into the profession will be through college and university education.

Many attempts are now being made to evaluate public transportation. This is brought about by the large public expenditures for mass transit services. The evaluation procedures now employed provide only for a superficial treatment. It is time that clear, concise, quantifiable objectives be defined for public transportation. Unless this quantification can occur, the evaluation process will remain meaningless.