The Accreditation Board for Engineers and Technology, Inc. (ABET) has granted full accreditation to the Padnos School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University.
Based on a summer evaluation of GVSU's programs, ABET granted accreditation through 2005 of both the mechanical and manufacturing emphasis areas of GVSU's Engineering degree.
Rapistan founder James Sebastian is credited with originally pushing for an Engineering program at GVSU because of his beliefs in skills training and internships. Today, GVSU's Padnos School of Engineering is named for Seymour and Esther Padnos, of Holland, in recognition of their support and their focus on engineering design for environmental responsibility, a focus of the school.
Since admitting the first 20 students in 1988, enrollment in the Engineering school has grown to more than 400. Continued growth is projected for the next three to five years to nearly 1,000 bachelor's degree students and 250 master's degree students. A new Master of Science in Engineering program was started in 1998 in recognition of a need for advanced engineers in the local manufacturing industry. Research conducted by GVSU's Padnos School of Engineering revealed that there are between 4,500 and 5,000 professional engineers in Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties. Many engineers expressed in a survey that they have an interest in an advanced degree in manufacturing engineering.
Another hallmark of the school is its excellent faculty. Padnos School of Engineering Director Paul Plotkowski is a regional vice president of the American Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Professor Shirley Fleischmann, named the 1998 Michigan Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, is the state's first engineering professor and the fourth woman from Michigan to be recognized with the award. Just recently Fleischmann accepted the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1999 Faculty Advisor Award for her work with students and community service projects.
