Vermont Professional Engineers Reject MOE Requirement

Vermont Professional Engineers Reject MOE Requirement Vermont Professional Engineers Reject MOE Requirement Vermont Professional Engineers Reject MOE RequirementEarlier this month, the Vermont Board of Professional Engineering struck down a motion to revise the states statutory requirements to specify a masters degree as the nadir education standard for engineering licensure in Vermont. The decision makes Vermont the third state to forgo adopting the masters degree or equivalent (MOE) as the educational requirement for engineering licensure at the state level, following unsuccessful efforts to introduce the requirement in Nebraska and Montana.During the May 7 meeting, the Vermont Board of Professional Engineering voted by a four-to-one margin to approve the following motion The Vermont Board of Professional Engineering, after receiving testimony and researching the topic, does not support amending Chapter 20 of Title 26 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated to increase the minimum level of education required for licensure as a Professional Engineer to a masters degree or equivalent.The vote followed approximately two years of discussion among members of the Vermont Board, as well as concerted public outreach efforts by the board to gauge the engineering communitys opinion on the subject. After evaluating feedback provided through presentations at board meetings, public comment sessions, and letters from groups and individuals, the board determined that there was not sufficient reason or evidence to support any proposed legislation to increase the minimum education required for licensure to a masters degree or equivalent.ASME has been a vocal opponent of the MOE requirement since its introduction nearly a decade ago. The ASME Board of Governors issued a position statement opposing the MOE proposal in April 2008. Later that year, ASME established the Licensing That Works (LTW) coalition of engineering societies, which endorsed the position statement. Led by ASME, the coalition represents mora than 300,000 engineers from 12 professional engineering societies including the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, ASHRAE, the Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. I applaud the action of the Vermont Board of Professional Engineering not to endorse the proposed legislation, said ASME President J. Robert Sims. We will continue to be vigilant because ASCE has made increasing the education requirements for the licensure of engineers of all disciplines one of its three strategic initiatives. No evidence has ever been presented that MOE will have a positive impact on the publics health, safety and welfare, which is the basis for licensure.Robert Luna, former ASME senior vice president and chair of the Licensing That Works coalition, concurred. Thanks to the unstinting efforts of LTW affiliates in Vermont in presenting our case to the Vermont Board of Professional Engineering, the initiative to get the Vermont Board to adopt Masters or Equivalent as a requirement for registration as a PE has been thwarted, said Luna. This effort by ASCE and NSPE in Vermont to promote MOE likely will be duplicated in other states. We at ASME need to be aware of those efforts and mobilize ASME local resources to achieve the same result as was achieved in Vermont.To learn more about the Licensing That Works coalition, or to learn more about the MOE debate, visit www.licensingthatworks.org.