OSU’s CIVE selected by ASCE to receive the 2023 Walter LeFevre Award

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CIVE) at Oklahoma State University (OSU) has been selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Committee on Education to receive the 2023 Walter LeFevre Award in the large program category for contributions to promoting licensure, ethics and professionalism in an undergraduate civil engineering program.

The Walter LeFevre award, established in 2007 by action of the Society, is named for E. Walter LeFevre who endowed this award.

LeFevre, who received his Ph.D. in CIVE at OSU was widely recognized and highly respected for his extensive contributions to engineering education and practice, to accreditation of engineering programs and leadership of engineering professional organizations.

OSU’s CIVE program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and has been accredited since October 1, 1936.

The School received the LeFevre award for small programs in 2018. Since then, the program has worked to increase both the number of students taking and the number passing the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam.

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 37 students of the graduating class of 48 took the FE, with 26 passing. Thus, the percent taking the exam was 77 % and the percent passing was 70 % for the year. Results for both years were above the national average.

For the fall 2021 exam offering, the ratio score for the Ethics and Professional Practice topic was 1.11, and the scaled score was 0.33. The exact reason for the increase is not known, although it may in part be due to increased emphasis on ethics in the senior course CIVE 4041 Engineering Practice.

The number of students passing the FE increased from 26 to 36. Put differently, the program produced 38 % more Engineer Interns than the previous year.

In 2021, the School took two additional initiatives to support ethics and licensure. The School adopted a new Honor Pledge for the program and was approved by the ASCE Student Chapter and the School Faculty in April 2021.

In addition, the School began providing an online commercial FE prep course to students free of charge, which has now expanded across the college.

The award will be presented to Dr. Norb Delatte, department head of CIVE during the Society’s National Civil Engineering Department Heads Conference in Ames, IA on June 13, 2023.

Read more about the Walter LeFevre Award: Walter LeFevre Award | ASCE