It seems that COALS is instructing the College of Engineering to no longer consider BAEN as a part of the College of Engineering, with the exception of participation in the ABET accreditation program (for now).

My sense is that this could be the beginning of the end of the BAEN program as its correlation with the College of Engineering is a crucial one. If this decision eventually leads to losing ABET accreditation (which is a real possibility), BAEN graduates will lose the ability to gain professional licensure. I believe that will ultimately lead to a decrease in enrollment and eventual demise of what is consistently one of the top 5 rated agricultural engineering programs in the country.

Please feel free to shoot me an email (address in profile) and I can forward what information I've been given. I would encourage you to reach out to COALS and College of Engineering leadership and implore them to consider the ramifications of this decision.

Thanks and gig 'em, Ag E's!


ETA: Update below. Seems like this has been resolved.

Thanks for the post and info, Todd.

Bunch of Ag engineers find their way into Civil engineering and land development. Losing ABET accreditation eliminates all those job opportunities. Wonder if the problem is that those kids are being "stolen" and not ending up where "they're supposed to."

Don't understand the logic here. Does Ag College want some kind of proverbial feather in their hat? Do they see a lucrative former student donation source they're trying to get in on? Too much engineering, not enough agriculture in the major?

My experience is very limited, but Ag engineers also become the patent lawyers who do pumps.

Sometimes, I think there's a push to make us into the "A&M school of soft-headed socialist business majors"

(It was surprisingly difficult to find a patent lawyer familiar with pumps.)

The Department has always been jointly administered by both Engineering and COALS but officially a department of COALS. Its always been a matter of funding as the majority of departmental budget comes from COALS.

There have been lots of changes over the last year and a half or so, none of which distinctively are complete negative impacts on the Department. Agrilife has been going through a significant restructuring of sorts. A basic example is the transfer of the departments IT away from TAMU IT to centrally based COALS IT group, which can be challenging as we are the last Ag Dept that hasnt moved to west campus. We also still have an interim department head who is not an Ag Engineer, but the college has given the DH Search Committee authorization to proceed with recommending an internal candidate and not seek an outside candidate. Hopefully new/permanent departmental leadership will be established by the first of the year.

Some positive changes is the newly established transfer program with Angelina College that allows their junior college students to fast track transfer into either BAEN or AGSM, which is unique to our department only and not others. Recent News Release on it here: https://today.tamu.edu/2021/08/09/texas-am-signs-new-transfer-agreements-with-three-community-colleges/

A bigger challenge in the department is the aging faculty. A good number are set to retire in the next 2-3 years. I completed my graduate degree in 2007 and there are only 3 faculty i had in class still teaching.

Following because BAEN was my home for a long time. I sure hope they don't lose ABET accreditation. Lots of changes there in the last year.

Wanted to post an update that a few influential former students were able to learn more about the situation.

This was a College of Engineering issue and not a COALS issue...

From the email I just received:

Quote:

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The bottom line is that the BAEN undergraduate degree program, and to some extent the graduate degree programs, are jointly administered by both Colleges, and the undergraduate degree program is fully accredited, and we are in good shape for the next round of accreditation (compliments to Patti on this front). In addition, there has been no discussion on my part, or the COALS leadership to significantly change this arrangement in the future.

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