Faculty Attitudes about Progress of Metrication

Abstract

The long-promised conversion to the International System of Units (SI) from the United States Customary System (USCS) has not yet occurred. To determine faculty attitudes about the anticipated conversion, a questionnaire was sent to civil engineering faculty throughout the United States. Numerous reasons for not teaching civil engineering courses in SI are cited; the main reason is that SI is not used in practice (cited almost three times as often as the next most important reason). Strong differences are noted among the several subdisciplines of civil engineering; almost 100% of the courses in steel, transportation, and concrete use less than 50% SI. Very few civil engineering departments or engineering colleges have policies about metrication. Attitudes about the relative value of the two systems, personal abilities with them, and appropriate time for conversion in the colleges and in practice are explored. A definite age bias is noted. A significant minority of civil engineering faculty do not like SI, or are opposed to a conversion to SI. Several possible causes for the general failure of a conversion to SI are discussed.