Engineering has long history at Cornell

Last fall Cornell began to offer a new bachelor of science in engineering degree. New in this context refers to the curriculum rather than the degree itself because, according to the 1907 Royal Purple, “Cornell was the first Methodist institution in the country to inaugurate an engineering course.”

In 1872 President William Fletcher King received a letter from the Secretary of War offering a professorship in civil engineering and military tactics. King never missed a golden opportunity, so when the 1873 fall term opened, the college had a Department of Civil Engineering. On June 24, 1875, Edward Capp Shankland received Cornell’s first bachelor of civil engineering degree and went on to a distinguished career that included being chief of works at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and chief engineer in 1916 in the building of Chicago’s Municipal Pier (now known as Navy Pier).

From 1909 the degree was called bachelor of science in civil engineering. The last BSCE was awarded in 1917, making a total of 28 recipients in 42 years.

In 1918 a merger was effected, creating the Department of Mathematics and Engineering, a hollow title that persisted until the engineering reference was eliminated in 1970.

In 1973 Cornell and Washington University in St. Louis developed a combined-degrees program. Cornell students spent three years on the Hilltop and two at the university and received both a Cornell degree and a bachelor of science in engineering from the university. The program was dropped in 2008 for lack of enrollees.

In the fall of 2015 Cornell began offering a bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences. Now the program also offers a bachelor of science in engineering. Among Cornell’s Class of 2021, engineering was tied with psychology as the No. 1 academic interest.