Engineering and Engineering Technology College

Formation of a College of Engineering and Engineering Technology at Northern was first proposed in 1982. The proposal was made in response to steadily increasing student requests for an updated, expanded curriculum of engineering classes. These classes had been taught within the Industry and Technology Department of the College of Professional Studies, but by the 1980's, the demand exceeded what the department was able to supply in terms of faculty and equipment. On January 8, 1985, the IBHE approved the establishment of bachelors and masters degree programs in electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering at Northern after several years of extensive lobbying by the NIU community. The initial engineering school budget became part of the IBHE's request for funding for the 1985-1986 school year. Dr. Thomas Leamon, Chair of the Industry and Technology Department from 1982-1985, was selected as the interim dean of the new College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. His appointment was effective July 1, 1985. Governor James Thompson signed a bill allocating $1,057,600 for the creation and implementation of the engineering school on July 23, 1985. In January of 1985, NIU purchased the former Anaconda-Ericsson building in Sycamore through a five-year lease-purchase agreement. The fledgling college began to move into the new quarters in the fall of 1985. The building offered 30,000 square feet of space and the utilities required for laboratories. Classes first met at the site during the spring semester of 1986. The university provided a shuttle bus to transport the students back and forth from the DeKalb campus. The college worked steadily at recruiting highly qualified engineering faculty throughout 1985 and 1986. The dean and his staff began working with the president of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology in the fall of 1985 to insure that programs being planned would meet ABET standards. Their goal was to have a fully accredited program in place by the time the first class would graduate in 1988. Thomas Leamon left the post of dean in the summer of 1986 and was succeeded by Dr. Romualdas Kasuba. Twelve classes met at the Sycamore site in the fall of 1986. Curriculum emphases in the Technology Department of the college became more focused with divisions of manufacturing, supervision and safety, and vocational education being defined. Enrollment in the College of Engineering exceeded 700 in the fall of 1988. By November of 1988, all engineering programs were evaluated and approved as meeting the requirements of the Illinois Professional Engineering Act. This enabled NIU's engineering graduates to sit for the State's Fundamentals of Engineering examinations starting in May 1989. Only graduates of accredited engineering programs are permitted to test, and passing this exam is a requirement of many professional engineering positions. The college was accredited in August of 1990 by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Engineering Technology (ABET), just five years after the program's inception. On July 21, 1993, ground was broken for the new Engineering Building, 300 feet north of Anderson Hall, on the DeKalb campus. It has 100,000+ square feet with up-to-date instructional, testing, and research facilities including 10 classrooms, 30 laboratories, and a 120 seat auditorium. Although the building opened for classes in the fall of 1995, the official dedication ceremony was not held until September 26, 1996. In 2003 Dean Kasuba retired and Dr. Promod Vohra was selected as acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. Vohra became Dean of the College on June 16, 2005.

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