The Engineering Student Council (ESC) plans next month to reinstate a long−dormant Tufts branch of the Order of the Engineer, a nationwide organization promoting unity and ethical practice among professionals in the field of engineering.
Qualified students will pledge into the society, which has been inactive at Tufts for over a decade, at a ceremony on May 6, according to ESC Secretary Alyssa Kody, a sophomore.
Upon being accepted into the Order, students will receive a certificate and can order a stainless steel ring to wear on the fifth finger of their writing hand, Kody said in an email to the Daily.
"The ring is worn to remind the engineer to act ethically and make ethical decisions," ESC President Maren Frisell, a junior, said.
Qualified attendees at the ceremony will recite an oath called the Obligation of the Engineer, which sets forth an ethical code for practicing engineers similar to the Hippocratic Oath taken by new doctors.
ESC Treasurer Victoria Sims, a sophomore who proposed the idea of bringing the Order back to Tufts, said that to qualify for induction, individuals must be students enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program accredited by the national Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology or licensed professional engineers.
Seniors, graduate students, faculty and administrators at the School of Engineering have been offered the opportunity to be inducted into the Order, Kody said.
According to Frisell, the Order's emphasis on ethics in professional engineering aligns with the goals of the ESC.
The honorary ceremony will doubly serve as a commemoration to the schools' seniors, Frisell said.
"It's also a way to show appreciation to students as they graduate," she added.
Lewis Edgers (E '66), an associate dean of engineering and a member of the Order, said the society became inactive on campus a decade ago after student interest waned due to its lack of structure.
"Order of the Engineer has no financial commitment or meetings," Edgers said. "The organization sort of fell asleep for 10 years, I'd say."
Board members on the ESC initiated the reactivation of the Order several months ago, according to Edgers, in response to a reawakening of sorts of the moral code that defines the body.
"In the last several years, there has been discussion in the School of Engineering about ethics. … The students have gotten interested in that subject," Edgers said, stressing the weight of morally based decisions in engineering.
"Ethics are really important, especially in areas where public safety is affected," he said.
Edgers chairs the Curriculum Task Force (CTF), which he said serves as a think tank for curriculum development for both faculty and students. CTF has recently been focusing on the role of ethics in the engineering curriculum, he said.
"As a Canadian organization, Order of the Engineer has really only begun to grow in the United States in the last 20 years," Edgers said.
Sims, who is from Toronto, brought up the idea to reinstate Tufts' chapter based on her experience with a similar Canadian version of the society called the The Ritual Calling of an Engineer.
"[Sims] told us about this program," Frisell said, "that's really how it came to the table."
Frisell added that a Tufts chapter of the society would serve to bring a sense of unity among Tufts' engineering students and graduates.
"One of the main points of the council is to empower the students and give them a basic connection," Frisell said.
Within a year, she said, the society had the potential to see a good amount of participation among the engineering student community.
"There are [approximately] 200 engineering students in each grade," Frisell said. "If we get over half next year, I think that would be a great uniting goal."
