1 Report of the Representative Directors to ABET Bruce Eisenstein, Michael Lightner and Moshe Kam IEEE Representative Directors to ABET Educational Activities Board 15 November 2008 Agenda Item 8.1

2 ABET Board Meeting l The ABET Board of Directors met on 1 November 2008 in Louisville, KY l IEEE representation l Part 1: Eisenstein, King, Kam (for S. Kerns) l Skip Fletcher presiding l Part 2: Eisenstein, Lightner, Kam l Joe Sussman presiding

3 Personnel Changes l Dr. George Peterson no longer serves as ABETs Executive Director l Starting January 2009 he will be in charge of international business development l Lance Hoboy (CFO) is Acting Executive Director

4 ABET Officers l President: Joseph L. Sussman, l President-Elect: David K. Holger l Secretary: Phillip E. Borrowman, l Treasurer: Daniel J. Bradley l Past President: L.S. "Skip" Fletcher

5 Information Flow l ABET continues to ignore past promises regarding provision of information, timely compilation and distribution of minutes, and updating financial information l 2009 president promised a change IEEE follow-up needed

6 Major Issues Finances Governance (AP) Expansion of the Board – Society of Fire Protection Engineering International travel COI – consultation to non- US schools International accreditation – exit strategies Definition of assessment (criteria 2/3) PAVE (AP)

7 Finances l Reserves continue to be low ($500K) l 2008 FY surplus was $133K l Definition of reserves was changed l the total unrestricted net assets minus the net investment in the fixed assets l Under new definition reserves are negative l Long-term forecasts depend heavily on success of international accreditation l [Unrealistic in our opinion]

8 5 year forecast Item actual Accreditation revenues 3645K+22.5%+19.8%-9.5%+12.6%+10.3% International accreditation Revenues (Total) 121K508K (+320%) 1320 (+159%) 1607 (21%) 1853 (+15%) 2100 (+13%) Predicts significant growth of the reserves (by any definition) From $734K (-$33K)to $ 3.8M ($3.1M) in 5 years

9 Finances (2) l Attempt to adjust maintenance fees to take into account number of graduates was postponed l so that impact can be assessed better l A series of travel micro-management motions was defeated

10 Travel Policy l The issue is not resolved l ABET asks volunteers to sign a release form, absolving ABET from all responsibility l There is some insurance coverage but extent and applicability are not clear l ABET is using IEEE program evaluators to travel to countries under US S.D. warning l These volunteers are NOT assigned by IEEE IEEE follow-up needed

11 Conflict of Interest Supplying Consultants to programs outside the US l The issue is finally recognized l Several proposals were made on how to keep consultation separate from accreditation activities l Including a proposal to provide consultancy through the ABET Foundation IEEE follow-up needed

12 INTAC report – Peru INTAC reports on activities concerning ICACIT The current direction taken by ICACIT is somewhat surprising The exit strategy calls for a long time involvement of ABET (at least 6 years)

13 Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) l Motion: Approve the application of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) for admission as a Member Society of ABET Society has 4500 members Grand Total of 2 programs (!) SFPE is not at this time proposing program criteria for fire protection engineering and technology programs, but fully intends to do so by the time of ratification as a member society within ABET or shortly thereafter.

14 Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) l IEEE objected to the addition to SFPE as a member of the ABET Board of Directors l We were the sole dissenters l BTW, INCOSE is now on the BoD l We did not ratify

15 Accreditation Council 13.2 Changes to assessment definition l The item is for information only l However this is the first time that direct assessment is explicitly mentioned in the definition

16 Other Issues l PAVE – to be covered by Arnie Peskin l Governance – To be covered by Arnie Peskin l New committee on accreditation of programs that use alternative delivery – Moshe Kam, Chair

17 Final Observations l ABET continues to be led by officials who are elected from single- candidate slates l We will ask that at least several key positions be elected from a two- candidate slates l Including ABET officers IEEE follow-up needed

18 Comments and Questions Discussion