Work started in July on the new geosciences, physics and engineering building at Fort Lewis College by tearing down an exterior wall of Berndt Hall. The engineering program was recently internationally accredited.
Work started in July on the new geosciences, physics and engineering building at Fort Lewis College by tearing down an exterior wall of Berndt Hall. The engineering program was recently internationally accredited.SHAUN STANLEY/Durango Herald

FLC has offered an undergraduate degree in engineering only since 2010. The college began gathering data for ABET accreditation in 2012. The process involved a campus visit by ABET officials.

The college did have a degree in engineering-physics before 2010, however.

The stamp of approval comes just as the college is breaking ground on a new geosciences, physics and engineering building. A portion of Berndt Hall was demolished to make way for the new 60,000-square-foot building.

In recent years, FLC engineering-physics majors consistently passed the Fundamentals of Engineering, or FE, exam at a higher rate than the national average. Students who pass the exam boast an employment rate that exceeds 90 percent.

It’s more difficult for a student to be eligible to take the FE test and become a licensed engineer without being in an ABET-accredited program.

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