The Southern University Board of Supervisors tagged the engineering department as a premier program in the retrenchment plan. As one of the flagship departments of Southern University this department has won many grants, scholarships, and internships.
Students of the engineering program spoke positively of their program, which reflected the premier program label.
New Orleans Junior Electrical Engineering major Mannie Canto said, “The engineering program here have a lot of people that go to a lot of bigger companies.” Canto later mentioned that he attended LSU and how he likes it better here because the teachers are able to better interact with students on a smaller scale.
Other students spoke highly of the engineering department’s premier program selection.
Baton Rouge Senior Mechanical Engineering major Derrick Flowers said, “I feel like I’m apart of greatness and a privilege to be of an HBCU with a great Engineering department. “
Dean of Engineering, Habb P. Mohamadian, discussed his beliefs of why the engineering department is a premier program.
“Engineering is one of the fields that meets our national needs, so engineering programs that we are offering are very much in demand,” said Mohamadian.
Students and administration believe the program stands out from the other programs at Southern University because of faculty and their camaraderie.
“The teachers know a lot of the material, have real world experience, and able to relate it to us a lot better,” said Canto.
“I think everyone here bonds as a family and works as a family, and the environment is real laid back,” said Flowers.
Mohamadaian believes the national needs helps the department be one of the more successful departments.
” It really is a national need, the clientele we serve are really low to the population of African Americans is twelve percent, and high level of under-representation” said Mohamadaian.
While students, and administration agreed on most of the good aspects there ideas on improvement differed.
“The Computer labs staying up to date, its kind of hard to keep all the technology that you need” said Canto.
Other students’ improvement ideas reflected these problems as well.
Mohamadian however had different views on what improvements are needed for the engineering department.
“Improve is always needed, but our main areas is recruitment and retention” said Mohamadian. He also stated how they also focus on doing more than just teaching by mentoring their students as well.
While discussing the improvement areas Mohamadian also brought up how the computer science department is going to be combined with the engineering department.
“Computer Engineering not offered yet, but will be soon be offered because of it being in high demand,” said Mohamadian.
Past grants and donations by IBM, and other computer companies display the students’ hard work in engineering.
“High number of students get hired by fortune 500 companies and industrial partners while many attend graduate school,” said Mohamadian.
The students whom were interviewed earlier mentioned how the faculty was a great, and Dean Mohamadian agreed with the same sentiments.
“Faculty takes ownership of not only teaching, but mentoring as well as spending extra time with students,” said Mohamadian.
As a premier program the students are proud of their college and plan on continuing their hard work.
“I think our program speaks for itself, mainly we may be along with the nursing majors as the most bonded group of students,” said Flowers.
Mohamadian concluded with the positives of the engineering program.
“Engineering is a field in demand, any who has an interest can succeed because it is a matter of will,” said Mohamadian.
Students interested in the engineering program can visit P.B.S. Pinchback Hall for a full view of the building, and students at work.
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Southern Engineering lauded for it’s success
March 14, 2012
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