Engineering: The Difference Between Pride and Arrogance

I have realized over the last few years that a lot of people around campus think engineering students are arrogant. I see this all the time on blogs and forums (like OMGUW), as well as in conversations with non-engineering students on campus or around the city. Of course, I will always defend my beloved faculty. I would tell people that we aren’t arrogant, but instead we were proud to be in such a program as engineering. Over time, though, I have begun to realize that those in other faculties do have some grounds to believe engineering students are arrogant, even if it doesn’t apply to everyone.
I would consider myself to be proud to be an engineering student. I will sing the hymn any time someone asks “Who Are We?” I will proudly tell people how many days until I get my Iron Ring (136 days as of publication). But I would never go as far as to say that engineering is better than any other faculty or program at this university. I would never belittle the work and success of other faculties.
This is where I would draw the line between pride in your faculty and arrogance. I have had the opportunity to take upper year courses from non-engineering programs, and I can appreciate the depth that those programs go into. Like GENE 123 is a terrible representation for what electrical engineering students do, it still gives the appreciation for how complex their program can get. Similarly, even though taking an introductory biology course wasn’t much of a workload, I could appreciate how much of the details the professor had skipped over, which would be work heavy (and very important) to understanding minute details.
Now you might be saying “I would never make fun of other faculties” and to that, I would say “Probably not”. At the same time, though, you probably don’t discourage it. When you meet an English Major at Bomber, you still probably believe that they are in an easier program, and you are going to be more successful and useful to society. And that is where the problem lies. While most people I know wouldn’t say it to their face, they still have that mentality of superiority. And then there are those who would just say it to their face.
I have had the opportunity to work with many non-engineering students/graduates on my co-ops. I have benefited from having an English Major supervisor at the production plant I worked at helping me with writing quick reports. I have benefited from having a Kinesiology co-worker who could give me all the key tips I need to work ergonomically without having to look it up and understand it myself. And there was the Biology graduate in my research lab who, while not having a very strong mathematical background, was  extremely useful in helping me understand the details of what was happening in a way that made sense to someone with no biology background.
So I leave all engineering students who read this article a challenge. Try to make friends who are not in engineering. If you are in residence, perfect. Otherwise, out and around the university, or in elective classes, get to know people. Learn what their programs really do, and what skills they have to offer. You would be surprised as to how much they accomplish. If anything, one day when you have graduated, you might realize how important it will be to have a Kinesiology Major or English Major on your team, especially when you know what they have learned and what they can offer.
The second challenge to engineering students is to improve our image to those who are not in engineering. At the beginning I brought up the point that many students not in engineering believe us to be arrogant instead of prideful or our program. I challenge all of you to change that. The first way to be cautious of what you say around non-engineers. While you may think it is funny bashing an arts degree, even when you don’t mean it, it doesn’t come off that way. The second way is to call someone out when they are bashing, intentionally or not, a non-engineering degree. Being cautious of it makes other people cautious, which in turn reduces the incidences of people having reason to hate engineers.
I hope you took something away from this article, and that in the future you will keep in mind that our non-engineering friends around campus are awesome. While we are known for being proud of our program, we also need to remember that we share this school, and some people may see this pride as arrogance. I hope we can all work together to bringing our school together.