At the last Society of Allied Weight Engineers Board of Directors meeting, Dr. Donna S. Gerren, our VP SAWE Academic Affairs, proposed SAWE establish Faculty Liaisons with university and college professors. The rationale for doing so were:
• We are still very weak in our position to gain a foothold with the college community. The reasons are many but the first and foremost is that our discipline is not recognized at the college level. This must be addressed. We continually touch on it but in reality, have made little progress.
• Creating a Liaison position may be the first step in getting some help from within the colleges to assist in moving forward toward the creation of curriculum that can be introduced as an elective course in Mass Properties.
• We need specific short- and long-term goals laid out to convince a college professor to spend a little more of the precious free time at hand in assisting SAWE. WE need to convince a candidate the endeavor is worth the effort.
Therefore, as approved by the Board of Directors, SAWE will focus this year and beyond on developing and sustaining our relationships with Academia. In order to do so, we need the active participation from you, our local SAWE chapters.
SAWE requests:
Each Chapter provide a name and corresponding email address of a chapter member that would act as a representative of the SAWE to the University Academic Liaison in order to support the interface between Industry and Academia.
Dr. Gerren and SAWE Academic Committee is in the process of contacting and soliciting focal points within Universities to secure Faculty Liaisons. Once these liaisons are established, nearby SAWE chapters will communicate through their respective Faculty Liaison with e-mail announcements, flyers, or any other form of communication events happening within their nearby local SAWE Chapter. The SAWE Academic Committee will be responsible for informing Faculty Liaisons of SAWE activities including SAWE regional and international events, including training opportunities and eventually Mass Properties Certification opportunities.
Please consider becoming a chapter representative of the SAWE with the University Academic Liaison. If interested, please coordinate position availability with your chapter leadership and provide your contact information to Dr. Gerren at Donna.Gerren@colorado.edu.
As Dr. Gerren stated to the Board of Directors, “We must get universities involved”.
Sincerely,
Clint Stephenson
SAWE Executive Vice President
executivevp@sawe.org
1.832.647.5599
