' Many People Don't feel like Celebrating Engineers' Week '

EDITORIAL

MANY PEOPLE DON'T FEEL LIKE CELEBRATING ENGINEERS' WEEK

Two recent pieces of mail have made a strong impression on me. Both

concern engineering, but their tone and tenor are almost diametrically

opposed. One is a press release about National Engineers Week, to be

held February 14 to 20. It comes from the public relations department

of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the "lead

sponsor" of the event. There are numerous other organizations

involved, and they form a long list of prestigious technical

societies, influential government organizations, and large

corporations. The group represents the closest thing we have to an

engineering establishment.

The other piece of mail is the most recent copy of a newsletter called

American Engineer, published by a nonprofit group called The American

Engineering Association. The guiding lights of this organization are

a small group of engineers, some working and some unemployed, whose

names and affiliations do not exactly place them at the epicenter of

industrial, governmental, or academic power.

The IEEE press release tells how National Engineers Week will

celebrate the contributions engineering makes to American life. "Our

future depends upon the minds and hands of engineers," it proclaims.

The pronouncement then goes on to describe "a series of major events

designed both to highlight the achievements of engineers' minds and

hands, and to enlist them in furthering the education of tomorrow's

technological pioneers."

The message continues in this vein, sounding rather bombastic and out

of touch with the real world, especially the one portrayed by articles

in American Engineer. Reading that publication on a regular basis

suggests that a lot of engineers, rather than "celebrating their

contributions" to national well-being, are more inclined to be

thinking of immediate and less lofty wolf-at-the-door concerns.

The dose of reality in issue after issue of the newsletter makes it

clear that many engineers represent a beleaguered force suffering from

any number of adversities. These include the collapse of formerly

blue-chip corporations, bone-and-muscle cuts in defense spending, all

topped off by what looks like subtle or even blatant age discrimination.

Maybe National Engineers Week is fundamentally a good thing. But

somewhere in the celebration there should be room to talk about

engineering as well as manufacturing jobs being sent offshore. And it

should at least mention what hollow victories automotive transplants

represent because they don't do much to help engineering employment.

Sponsors might even ponder whether or not youngsters should be

encouraged to seek technical careers. Perhaps a shortage of engineers

would be good for the profession overall.

Instead of conducting a Pollyanna-type event, the establishment ought

to consider taking a cold look at what has happened to engineering as

a career in the past 20 years. The sense of travail portrayed in

American Engineer seems to reflect reality more accurately than the

call for celebration from the IEEE public relations department.

Ronald Khol, Editor