The Respectability of Collegiate Aviation as an Academic Discipline: Have We Arrived Yet?

Abstract

With a growing popularity of new programs since the latter part of the 20th century, collegiate aviation has made significant gains in US colleges and universities particularly through University Aviation Association (UAA) membership and program accreditation from the Council on Aviation Accreditation (CAA). However, with these gains there appears to be significant lingering problems and a formidable question must be asked: Has collegiate aviation really made any significant strides in combating a negative public perception and misunderstanding in the last 30 years? Undoubtedly, collegiate aviation has made significant gains in program quality in less than 100 years, but seemingly has not arrived unscathed in the public relations arena. How can collegiate aviation's public relations problem be described? Quite possibly, collegiate aviation's perception could be classified as a two-fold problem ranging from uninformed to limited.