STEPS in the Wrong Direction
By: Brian Parks
In early September, the University announced its plans to construct a new building on what is currently the lawn just South and West of Maginnes. Dubbed the STEPS (Science, Technology, Environment, Policy, and Society) Initiative, this building is intended to augment the facilities currently in use by the College of Arts and Sciences.
As it stands, the College of Arts and Sciences has recently expanded to include two new buildings. The Smith Family Center for Optical Technologies was opened in 2005 and another facility for research in the biosciences was built in 2003. This throws into sharp contrast the facilities enjoyed by the P. C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science. In particular, research in some of the most rapidly changing engineering fields (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering) is located in the one of the oldest academic buildings on campus (Packard Lab).
According to Dork Sahagian, a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Environmental Initiative, “enabling multidisciplinary research and teaching is the main driving force behind [the project].” He claims that, “by housing all the Chemistry, Biology, and Earth and Environmental Sciences teaching labs there, it will bring in students from many disciplines.”
In addition, Dr. Sahagian expects that the $85 million dollar colossus will help students “improve their understanding and awareness of the environment.”
Lehigh is an engineering college and always has been, though the 1995 mascot change from “engineer” to the fictitious bird dubbed the “mountain hawk” might fool the casual observer. As such, the University should be concerned first and foremost with the Engineering College. Without doubt, the biological, chemical, earth, and environmental sciences are an important component of certain engineering disciplines, but it is with their relevance to engineering in mind that we should consider additions to our campus.
Interdisciplinary work is of paramount importance of making engineering advances relevant to the world as a whole; however, the way in which the STEPS initiative intends to do so is, more or less, backwards. President Alice Gast states that “this new program will allow collaborative teams of engineers and natural and social scientists to work easily together across disciplinary boundaries,” providing a framework within which “scientists, engineers, and social scientists can debate and help shape environmental policy in productive and constructive ways.”
Between President Gast and Dr. Sahagian, it seems as if this project intends to infuse the engineering paradigm (that has been the college’s focus since its 1865 founding) with a smattering of the liberal arts. Viewed in the context of the other recent changes around Lehigh in both policy and practice, this is a frightening possibility.
Interdisciplinary efforts are a noble goal; however, the University seems to have ignored the largest potential for such interaction in their plans. The three most rapidly changing fields in the Engineering College, and possibly in the University as a whole, are (in no particular order) Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Mechanical Engineering. The extent to which these departments could benefit from increased interdisciplinary research is mind-boggling. Focusing on certain departments from the Arts and Sciences College seems to be an indication that the Engineering College has, once again, been “left out.”
In addition to the purely political issues with the STEPS Initiative, the building itself poses problems. It will be situated on one of the last flat, treeless fields on campus. This makes it a perfect field for playing Frisbee, provided a building doesn’t cover a large portion of it. The architects intended to ease this problem by putting grass on top of part of the building, but (as those of us familiar with the movie Clerks can attest) the roof of a building is a far-from-optimal location on which to play sports.
The STEPS building will also be the second of two buildings constructed in the same area of South Bethlehem. Currently, the replacement Broughal Middle School is still being framed on the corner of West Morton and Vine Streets. The $48 million, 186,600 square-foot project is set to be completed in August of 2009. Groundbreaking for the STEPS project is set for late spring 2008, with completion expected in June 2010. This means that, for at least a year, construction will be occurring in adjacent sites between Brodhead, Campus Square, and Packard Lab.
This project is a large investment that will change the face of Lehigh’s campus. The University has set forth noble goals, as outlined by President Gast and Dr. Sahagian. However, these initiatives are not as beneficial to the Engineering College, even to the University as a whole, as other investments promise to be. There are several examples where various departments in the P. C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science could do with a little extra funding, especially when this building marks the third in a recent string of new facilities for the traditionally secondary College of Arts and Sciences.
