The reason I came here is that I dreamed of California like everyone else. The second reason was that it was a ground floor opportunity. I felt I could contribute in making [engineering] an interesting, creative and responsive program.

At that time there were plenty of funds for equipment and laboratories, and it was a real challenge to work with truly vigorous and visionary colleagues. At the same time, I had a very tempting offer from Cooper Union in New York City, a prestigious engineering school. I turned it down to go to Cal State Fullerton.

One of the most appealing things to me was, at the time I came, we offered a single engineering degree. We provided a very broad foundation for engineers so that they could move across the spectrum of engineering disciplines. They were not narrowly defined. I thought that was an excellent idea because throughout my professional life, I've had the opportunity to work with many types of engineers.

As our engineering program added more and more faculty members, professors felt they would perform better in the confines of their own disciplines. The collective wisdom was to get designated departments and designated degrees. I did not feel this was a desired trend, but in all fairness, it was easier for our graduates to get job offers.

For most people, it was a productive change.

I now believe it was a move for the best. In the original program, we tried to provide a healthy dose of fundamental engineering knowledge along with the ability to engage in solving problems. As the changes in the field have evolved, the need for cooperation and collaboration has grown. We now have much more inter- action than we had during the initial splitting of the program into individual designated programs.

Some of the projects I have conducted within the capstone design project series involved a marriage of disciplines and produced engineering projects that we proudly share with the Orange County community and beyond.

I believe engineers over the years have been divorced from guiding the community in the directions in which we should go. In other words, they have been good servants of their employers, of their societies in which they worked, but they have not acted as leaders. My experience at Cal State Fullerton has demonstrated that there has been a profound change in the mentality of the engineers. Our original students were engineering students, but were not involved in the community outside of engineering.

As time went on, our students became more practiced, more involved and demonstrated leadership. With the more political activities, came more resources. Engineers realized that by being more involved, they could get more support for their activities. I think we are moving in the right direction. It is my hope that before long, we will see an engineering student as president of Associated Students. Across the nation, more and more engineers are getting involved in public life. We are yet to match the legal profession, but I think we are moving in the right direction.

I believe our engineering programs provide a very healthy balance of sound theory and enough engineering applications that students can immediately upon graduation - or after a very short time - become effective practitioners of the profession. In other words, the transition time is going to be a minimum.

Our programs are state-of-the-art. Our faculty has practical and research experience, and plenty of involvement with engineering activities funded by the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy and others. Faculty members bring contemporary engineering issues into both the under- graduate and graduate programs. More than half of our faculty members are registered professional engineers. They have the seal of approval from the state to practice in the engineering profession. Our equipment is versatile and modern.

We are engaged in various creative programs in which we apply for grants to enrich the laboratory experience for our students. We have an excellent machine shop and we're providing both mechanical engineering and many other engineering students with the ability to build whatever they need with respect to their classes and projects.