By: Brian Ruehle

Society today has entered a new technological age. Space travel is getting easier and easier. The
internet has become a wealth of knowledge accessible with just the click of a button. Cell phones that
also act as miniature computers can be seen in households across the world. e are moving forward
faster than we ever have before. This boom in the need for technology re!uires a boom in technological
education. e need more engineers" physicists" and the like to power our need for more innovation" but
at what cost# $long with this technological era comes a decrease in both practical and leisurely reading
and writing. hy grab a book when you could play the newest video game# hy care about how you
spell a word when your automatic spellchecker just fi%es it for you# e as a society have become
dependent upon our technology when we read and write. &nterest in reading and writing education is
also becoming dwarfed by the need to educate students in the ST'( )Science" Technology"
'ngineering" and (athematics* fields. e are slowly losing our abilities and want to read and write and
placing them into the hands of our inventions. hat we need to do is use our reading and writing skills
in the pursuit of our technological dreams+ to use the strengths of each to help balance the weaknesses
of the other.
To find out how our reading and writing education is effecting
current ST'( studies & sat down with ,on-aga (echanical
'ngineering .rofessor" /r. .atrick 0erro: a face most every engineering
student at ,on-aga knows on sight. 1e is one of the most connected
professors when it comes to his students. 1e makes sure to remember
everyone2s name for every class he teaches or has ever taught. /r. 0erro
has been teaching at ,on-aga for nearly 34 years and has both
educational and professional e%perience in the field. &f & was to find out
how the engineering program at ,on-aga was effected by reading and
writing education" /r. 0erro was the one to ask. 1ere5s how our meeting
went:
Brian Ruehle: So tell us a little about yourself. What are some
hobbies you enjoy?
/r. 0erro: ell & have a family: 6 kids at home" 33 and 37" my wife is a physical therapist and we are
living a great life right now. $nd well one of my hobbies is running. 8ou know" running several times a
week and then occasionally &5ll go run a marathon maybe once a year. $nother thing that may fall into
the realm of hobby in a way is working on my house. (y wife and & spend a lot of time painting" fi%ing
up the yard" and sometimes small little projects at home. So usually if &5m not here working &5m with
my family" running" or working on my house.
Do you like to read?
& love reading" and & normally read many times a day. 9sually at the end of the day &5ll just settle down
with a good book. So right now &5m reading a good book about the Comanche &ndian tribe.
What do you typically read? Is it mostly books?
8eah mostly books" &5m pretty old school that way. & tend to read a ton of cool books that & either see in
an airport bookstore... a surprisingly good place to find titles for books. 8ou always wonder :what
books are they featuring;" so & always tend to look at those. But & tend to usually read non<fiction
books" like the book &5m reading right now about the Comanche &ndian tribe. $nd & got that at the South
1ill =ibrary+ it was featured as one of the =ibrarian picks or something like that. & like books about
&ndians" & like books about history" presidents and stuff like that. Though & did just recently finish the
1obbit concurrently with my son.
Is there anything specific about reading that you really enjoy?
ell sometimes & like to relate it to my day to day activities or to my travels. 0or e%ample & was
reading a book that a student gave me here actually. &t5s a book about the history of manufacturing..
kind of e%plaining how the $merican manufacturing comple% !uickly built up in response to getting
ready for &&. $nd & was reading about 1enry >eiser" who founded the >eiser aluminum company"
and its interesting because & talk about that stuff in the classes & teach here at ,on-aga. But what5s
really interesting about it is & found out that he lived on ,rand avenue" on the South 1ill in Spokane
during part of his lifetime? So now & want to know where e%actly is that house he lived in... it really
makes the reading come alive for me.
Well thats really cool! "o#ing on
to$ards a more educational topic% in
terms of the classes you teach here at
&on'aga% is there a fa#orite that you
currently ha#e?
9mmm... well my historically favorite
class has always been (aterials
engineering. & love teaching it? &5ve taught
it many times" both here at ,on-aga and at
other schools. & feel like & could teach it
without notes since & talk about stuff like that all the time. & just love teaching that class.
What about teaching here specifically at &on'aga do you enjoy the most?
& guess & enjoy the fact that every single student is engaged. There5s no low end of the class.
Sometimes" &5ve taught other places where there2s probably a cadre of people that sit in the back" or @
who don5t come for one reason or another. They just haven2t bought into.... or understood & guess" the
idea of going to and learning about something. $nd &5m cool with that if that5s how they are" & don5t try
to judge" but & love the fact that at ,on-aga & don5t see that popping up. 'veryone5s there and into it?
They care about the grade" they care about the class" they care about what they2re supposed to do. That
aspect of ,on-aga is pretty cool. 'very person is vested into learning as much as they can.
(eah that is something you definitely see here at &on'aga% e#en as a student. Specifically ho$ do
you feel about the liberal arts education offered here at &on'aga compared to a more speciali'ed
format some$here else?
1mm good !uestion. ell before & was teaching here & was teaching at an 'ngineering only institution.
$ very highly regarded one at that. $nd it was a different environment" it was a great place and & loved
it. But then this opportunity came up and & obviously chose this gladly. &5m glad & did? Ane of the things
that drew me here was the fact that there was this big liberal arts component to the environment that
wasn5t there at that technical institution & was at. & love the idea that sometimes when &5m in a room or
in a meeting &5ll be the only engineer. (aybe even the only scientist. & love that idea that its this diverse
mi%ture of people" and & love all the liberal arts people here. & think that it5s really important.
Do you belie#e that $hat students are learning in other areas such as )nglish and philosophy is
helping in the understanding of the classes you teach?
1mmm well & can5t give you an e%act e%ample of :yes of course" look here.; & guess & can5t answer it in
a yes or no format. hat & can say is that & think it5s important that you take those courses as part of
your education. &n fact" &5m ok with increasing the amount of courses that you have to have as part of
your engineering education. & do think that you wouldn5t have a good education unless you had a lot of
'nglish" a lot of religion" and a lot of philosophy and ethics. & think you need that stuff. Cus
engineering stuff you5ll get no matter what" we5ll make sure of it and you5ll also be getting it the rest of
your life. Religion" ethics" sociology" things like that... now is the time when you5ll get the formal
education of that so you need to do it now. & think it5s important.
"aybe another $ay to ask is ho$ do you feel your o$n education $ith classes such as )nglish has
effected your education in )ngineering.
$s & reflect back onto my career up to this point the biggest !uantum leaps forward... the biggest
successes or single day achievements in that career have always been related to something & said.
Things like a speaking opportunity" maybe a presentation & gave for a company" or some sort of talk &
had to give. Those things rose from my ability to speak and to synthesi-e the 'nglish language more so
than any technical content. So those !uantum leaps occurred because of something & said or something
& had written. So my ability to write & believe was instrumental in my ability to be successful as an
engineer. & can usually think back to those days when & gave that one talk and & know that it had a big
positive effect. $nd you5re not gonna get those skills in an engieering class. 8ou5re gonna get them in
the liberal arts class that you took.
*hats a really nice take on the impact of the liberal arts. So no$ $ere gonna transition to a
more abstract look at this topic in regards to &on'aga. Do you think &on'aga is follo$ing the
national trend of increased science and mathematics type education?
/r. 0erro: 8ou mean overall# Bot currently" no. & don5t !uite see it here at ,on-aga" at least in terms of
focusing more on the technical subjects. $nd &5m not saying that we need to either. But & can say that
the number of people going to the ,on-aga school of 'ngineering is going up faster than the rest of
,on-aga. So maybe there are more resources being directed at this building or the school overall. But &
don5t see a push to make everyone get into a math or science field.
So you feel that the current general education that &on'aga pro#ides is good?
Ah yes it5s very good. & don5t see it changing anytime soon" at least for ,on-aga. Though & do hear a lot
of discussion about the core recently" in regards to what and how many core classes each student has to
take" engineers included. $nd like & said earlier" & think it5s ok if the engineering students have to
increase the number of core courses they have to take. & think that5s $<A<>.
+o$ do you personally incorporate reading and $riting into your mainly engineering focused
classes?
& give assignments where there is some writing e%ercise that has to take place" especially in my senior
tech electives. The way.. or style of writing that & try to coach and am looking for" is the type of report
suitable to be handed into a company. $s an engineer you have to ask :what is the acceptable... no...
what is the normal form of communication on paper#; So that5s the way & kind of give the assignment.
&5m not looking for perfect 'nglish.. &5m not looking for fluffy blank white spaces. &5m looking for" &f &
was an engineer at this company how would & have written the memo# That5s the assignment & give to
my seniors. &n my other classes not so much though. The lower level materials courses & don5t give a lot
of writing. But as a senior taking my class you5ll definitely get that.
,or a lot of classes at &on'aga $e as students need to read no matter $hat since $e are assigned
source material books such as a te-tbook. +o$ do you go about choosing this source materiel for
your students?
& try to ummm... look at the books that & like. The book that & like is the book that & try to get everyone
else to buy. But &5m pretty easygoing on that re!uirement. 9sually when someone asks" :/o & need to
get that book#"; &5ll say :Bah" you don5t have to.; &f you have an older edition or even just any te%tbook
related to the subject &5m teaching then come talk to me and &5ll tell you what you need to read. & don5t
think it5s that critical that you have the latest edition" or T1$T particular author. $ny author is usually
pretty good as long the book is on the subject at hand. But & usually pick up a certain book or author for
the course.
Do you feel that the current
material is good at its job at
con#eying the information in a
$ay that is easily understood?
.nd if it isnt is there any $ay
you think they can impro#e upon
it?
& think it5s good+ it5s doing it5s job.
$nd now &5m going back to when &
was an undergraduate. & had a hard time reading those books.. they5re hard to read? They5re easier for
me to read now" but that might be because &5ve had all these years of e%perience. So now all these
concepts make some sense to me when & read those books. But & try to put myself in your guy5s shoes
and & think" :this is probably pretty hard to read;...if you don5t understand every other sentence then it
gets boring in a hurry. So &2m patient in that sort of way. But what can the author do to fi% that
problem# & don2t think they can cure it" if it5s even their fault. & think the audience just doesn2t have
enough e%perience. So then you might ask :well should the book be easier#; ell yeah & guess it can
but then it loses value since it doesn5t contain as much information. So & try to tell my students to be
patient with themselves and to do their best.
So you $ere talking about $hen reading source material% sometimes a lot of the problem could be
the student not understanding either the concept or e#en the #ocabulary. I#e been doing some
research and some people say that reading and $riting education% in addition to helping people
understand the )nglish language $orks% it also helps increase their #ocabulary $hich can help
people understand difficult technical concepts. Do you think that such education could help in
that regard?
& do believe that that can help students understand these technical ideas we present in our classes. & feel
that is how we all learn new material. e learn the words and how to read them" then how to say them
and what they mean. Then once we have all these pieces we can apply them to bigger concepts.
If you could% $hat $ould you change about the $ay $e teach engineering here at &on'aga?
& do think that we need to stand things on it5s head fairly regularly and we probably need to break down
the adherence to departments. To recogni-e that we have programs of study for students involved to
demonstrate competence in certain areas. 1owever that gets achieved" we need to move away from
:this person is only a professor of this one gigantic discipline and that they only teach these specific
courses;. & like to look at it as these specific courses all include a bunch of these concepts that are
important" where people show that they have demonstrated some type of competency. Those are the
most important components" those competencies. e could put those competencies in different courses
and just throw the idea of courses out the window. e don5t need to be wedded to the idea that this
course and it5s content needs to stay the same for the ne%t C4 years just because its been the same for
the last C4 years. $s long as they demonstrated those competencies taught by any professor" they can be
said to have graduated and earn their diploma.
/astly% if you could teach .0( class on .0( subject you $anted% $hat $ould it be?
ell... a class that & love teaching at ,on-aga that & rarely teach here is (echanics of (aterials. & may
just start teaching that ne%t year but who knows.
.nything outside of engineering?
ell... & don5t know. & feel like &5m already teaching all the classes & love. But & think itd be fun if
someone were to say :hey could you teach a new 'ngineering 'thics course#; or :could you teach
1ow to Be an 'ngineering Consultant#; & love when something new like that emerges. & would
definitely accept it. Dust the challenge of taking on something new is fun for me. But & can5t think of
any cool titles for you haha.
Well thank you for the inter#ie$ Dr. ,erro% it $as absolutely great!
Bo thank you? & had a lot of fun.
&t seems that even liberal arts institutions such as ,on-aga are still seeing the influence of an
increased desire for people in the technological field. But with its strong commitment to the liberal arts
it looks as if ,on-aga is keeping the tradition of reading and writing education alive" though even /r.
0erro says more such education can only be a good thing. e can see that from his e%perience it was
not the technical learning he had that helped him the most during his career but in fact it was his
reading and writing education. $lso with regards to the te%tbooks many ST'( courses utili-e" if they
were to incorporate better methods in helping the reader understand the terminology and vocabulary
then maybe we could see an improvement in the courses education. e can5t let ourselves take such
education for granted. &t looks as if /r. 0erro will keep the hope and dream of reading and writing
education alive alongside the growing tide of ST'( influence.