Program Chair Welcome

Greetings!  It is a great honor to be the new interim Program Chairman for the Del E. Webb School of Construction (DEWSC).  It is an exciting time to be a student in DEWSC despite the recent economic challenges.  Our undergraduate program has held steady at around 350 students for the past three years and we are graduating about 100 students per year with the B.S.C. degree.

Given the population demographics, aging construction management professional workforce and the sheer size of physical infrastructure needs in the Southwest, there has never been a better time to choose construction as a career.

 We have five undergraduate concentrations, residential construction, general building construction, heavy construction, concrete industry management, and specialty construction leading to the degree.  We are working on a sixth concentration, facility management, which we hope to have in place for next year.  Each student takes a core construction curriculum with the addition of five courses specific to their concentration.

We have a very experienced and active faculty, with eleven tenured or tenure-track faculty members, three lecturers and fourteen faculty associates handling teaching duties.  With this wide experience base, we teach courses in current areas such as sustainable design and construction, building information modeling, trenchless construction methods, concrete production, heavy construction and mechanical/electrical estimating, facility management, and so on.

The construction industry and alumni continue to support student achievement. This year we awarded forty-four students $144,500 for their outstanding academic performance. 

We continue to pursue a diverse student body.  We successfully launched the Advancing Women in Construction (AWIC) mentorship program in 2008 and this fall the American Minority Contractors Association (AMCA) mentorship program begins with eight Latino first time freshmen.  In addition, the Construction in Indian Country (CIIC) endowment continues to be a successful model to encourage American Indian students to pursue our construction management degree. 

Our students are very active in the Associated Schools of Construction Regional Competition in Reno, NV, last fall, taking home first place finishes in several events, and moving forward to the national competition.

The construction management undergraduate program is accredited by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) and is scheduled for an ACCE campus visit in spring 2011.

If you are looking for a great career, I look forward to seeing you as a member of the DEWSC family in the future.  If you are an alumnus, please drop by and say hello.

Avi Wiezel, Ph.D., P.E.
Interim Chairman, Del E. Webb School of Construction Programs
Rm.128, Urban Systems Engineering (USE) Building
Office: 480-965-4121
E-mail: Avi.Wiezel@asu.edu