North Carolina State University - Agromeck Yearbook (Raleigh, NC)

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Dean Fadum engineering If it is possible to define the role of a university in one sentence, it might be said that its prime purpose is to serve as a repository and dispenser of knowledge and of the techniques of applying know ledge to serve the needs of man. To these ends, it prime functions including teach- ing, research, and extension. First priority must go to teaching. The university serves society collectively by preparing its constituents not only how to better earn a living but equally importantly how to better enjoy living. Those of us who are engaged in engineering education are especially concerned as to how we can best prepare our students to meet the needs of the future, a future in which technology is developing at an ever-accelerating rate. The types of problems that confront us today and loom in the future are complex, multi-dimensional prob- lems, the solution of which require consideration of social and political dimensions as well as physical features. The problems with which the students of our engineering schools of today will be confronted during their practice cannot now even be predicted. The technology for their solution has therefore not yet been developed. There is

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accordingly a very real risk that today ' s engineer will become obsolescent unless he is educated in such a man- ner that he is made to recognize that his learning has only begun at the time that he embarks on his professional career. This June ' s graduate will be practicing to the year 2010. If we examine the developments of the past forty years and project from this what the next forty years holds in store, we see the futility of trying to prepare our stu- dents with the technology that will keep them current for the next forty years. Thus, it seems to me that our major objective should be to seek to teach the student to teach himself. If this objective can be achieved by the time of commencement, the student will be as well prepared to meet the challenges of the future as we can prepare him within the constraints of the classroom. If we accept this objective, we in teaching should be more concerned with how we teach than with what we teach. If we have given our students the background that will enable them to de- cide what is important for them to know and if we have assisted them in acquiring the ability to learn this on their own, I for one would not worry too much about their future. Our future will be in good hands.