I live in a state (no – not the State of Confusion) that requires applicants to be “a graduate of a land-surveying curriculum of 4 years or more that is approved by the Board.” That is straight out of statute No. 625.270(3). This state, and the organization of Professional Land Surveyors I belong to fought hard for many years to get a bachelor’s degree established within the bounds of our fair state. There are two universities and neither was interested in such a no-profit, low-enrollment program and so they both declined, on multiple occasions. Finally, we found a community college that wanted to up its game and offer Baccalaureate degrees as a way to distinguish itself. We were the second such degree, with nursing being the first. Fast forward 20 years and our school has weathered the low enrollment years, the not-big-enough-to-warrant-a-second-professor years, and the departure of both the professor who established the program, and the one that inherited it when the first professor left for a tenured position at another school. But now, with over 20 students enrolled in the Associate’s program and over 40 enrolled in the bachelor’s program, we find ourselves at a crossroads.
The baby-boomer death-spiral is upon us, (it’s okay for me to say this – I’m a not quite end-stage boomer), and the younger generations are not producing an equivalent number of replacements, so our licensing numbers are in decline. I think this is a nationwide trend and has as much to do with unfortunate demographics as with any pros and cons of our profession.
Our state borders 5 other states and 4 of the 5 now offer an experience-only track to licensure – something we do not. I find myself supporting that alternative path and would support legislation to make it happen. Not because I do not see the value in a 4-year degree, but because I don’t see the logic in letting any more non-surveyors calve off parts of my profession because there aren’t enough of us to get the work done. I don’t want to be the last lamplighter, lighting the last lamp on the last street is still lit with gas.
One of our neighbors revised their requirements just last month, offering the following : 4-year degree plus 4 years of experience or 2-year degree plus 6 years of experience or 8 total years of experience. Given the chance to push something like that forward here, I might suggest that the experience-only track be 10 years rather than 8. And that would be to encourage some small number of possible future surveyors to see that school plus experience gets them to licensure in less time than by experience only.
Others in my organization are discussing this in low tones and nothing concrete has come forward yet, but I am confident that it will. And some of you may see a similar movement in your state, once the generation that can remember watching black and white television has left our ranks for good.