From the Archives:
'We are the engineers'

November 13, 2009

By Patrick Hayes, U of S Archives

“We are! We are! We are the engineers!”, the cheer often shouted when engineering students gather in groups, is nearly as old as the college itself.

Pictured here is a group of students with survey equipment. The image is dated November 20, 1914 and is taken in front of the original Engineering Building.

The College of Engineering began with a small Department of Agricultural Engineering within the College of Agriculture in 1910. Civil Engineering classes were taught within the College of Arts and Science in 1912 and a School of Engineering was established within the College one year later.

The school “closed for the duration” in 1916 when the only professor and all six students enlisted for war service. The school reopened in 1920 and obtained college status the following year. The Department of Agricultural Engineering became part of the college in 1924.