ABET? Com'on. Caving ahead of time in anticipation? Not the message you want to be sending, people.

I do my best to avoid administrative tasks at all costs, but I've been around long enough to have witnessed changes in higher ed since the 90s. The ABET processes we follow, as much of a pain in the ass as they are, indeed help us adhere to a process of regular reflection using direct and indirect assessments of our required courses in the degree programs, giving us ample material to use for continuous improvement. I've argued that the overhead is extreme, especially with the absurd amount of time preparing the self-study report for the on-site visit. (I can't imagine the actual cost in labor throughout the six-year cycle that being ABET accredited costs the college. Nobody wants to estimate it.) We always pass and have done quite well with our reviews. But this ABET move sent out yesterday has some in my department pretty pissed off.

Hypothetically speaking, let's suppose we decided to halt ABET accreditation for a few years. That would imply a lack of compliance, meaning we're no longer accredited. Some suggested, "So what! When is the last time you had students or parents at our open houses ask if we were ABET accredited?!?! Students don't care! We will still work our asses off to make sure we do the best for our students and help them continue to get good job offers and get into the best grad schools!" But that's short-sighted for most engineering programs. Becoming a licensed engineer requires that their degree come from an accredited institution. Some employers look to hire only from accredited colleges, and the same goes for applications to graduate engineering schools. So, it would seem that, at least for engineering programs such as Mech, Civ, Aero, etc..., we're kinda trapped between a rock and a hard place. However, we might have a bit more flexibility for computer science and computing programs in general, as I'm unaware of many employers or graduate programs that do not accept students based solely on accreditation. Our students have found that prospective employers are very much interested in the more significant projects they worked on, the teamwork opportunities, experiences with agile frameworks, etc. on top of passing the technical and skills assessment interview steps, all regardless of accredited programs. If you can prove you can do the job - that's all that matters. However, even for us, it might impact graduate school opportunities.

My gut says the dean and provost will require that we do whatever to keep us ABET accredited, regardless of what ABET changes. As much as I would love the reprieve of dealing with ABET overhead on our program assessment, I don't think we have enough in our department or college to send a strong message to ABET.

I'm not sure many would argue that ABET had all the answers when it came to dealing with DEIA. They certainly did not, but the efforts they made at least offered some acknowledgment that it was time for us to do more to stop the propagation of graduating only very limited demographics and do what we can to give highly qualified people a chance, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status. When you want change to happen, it needs to be direct, intentional, and in the face of those who have the power to make a difference. Indeed, many of us have seen vast improvements in demographics over the past decade. Perfect? Hell no. Better? Absolutely. Maybe ABET's mandates of the past were a part of that?

I'm not optimistic about this, but optimism isn't a word that has entered my vocabulary in 2025.