UW’s Land Surveying Program Receives $10K NCEES Award

The University of Wyoming’s Land Surveying Program was one of seven nationally to receive a National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) Surveying Education Award. UW received a $10,000 award.

The awards, ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, recognize programs that have a broad and robust curriculum and best reflect NCEES’s mission to advance licensure in engineering and land surveying fields to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of the public. The awards are intended to encourage programs to engage their students with other professionals, introduce them to new technology and promote licensure. Northwestern Michigan College won the $25,000 grand prize.

“This award is about the culture, faculty and quality of land surveying curriculum and instruction,” says Shelley Macy, director of the UW Land Surveying Program and an assistant lecturer in the UW Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management. “The award will be used to bolster the program by offering more boundary and legal classes to students and deepen community college relationships with more collaborative efforts to benefit students.”

Macy stresses that credit for the award goes to the remote instructors. They are Spencer Cherry, a surveying intern; Kelsey Fleener, an attorney; Dave Hammond, a professional land surveyor; Duncan Hotchkiss, a professional land surveyor and engineering intern; and Karen Meckel, Dennis Mouland and Danny Swain, all professional land surveyors and certified federal surveyors.

“Our instructors are all professionals and many quite achieved. They are why we won the award,” Macy says. “Dennis Mouland has been with UW for 30 years, and many others have worked for us for over a decade.”

UW’s Land Surveying Program is 100 percent online, serves a national market and has about 100 students, who fill approximately 450 seats in land surveying classes per academic year.

“The students bring with them an array of educational backgrounds, and they become Cowboys to complete the education requirements of their jurisdiction in order to apply for professional licensure,” says Macy, who is past chair of the Wyoming Board of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors.

On-campus students can pursue the Cadastral Survey Certificate, which prepares them for a licensure pathway in land surveying and/or add a minor in land surveying to their baccalaureate studies. 

The bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership, offered out of UW-Casper, allows for the 30 credit hours of land surveying into the 100 percent online degree. Sheridan College offers an associate degree in surveying technology, which also incorporates 30 credit hours of the land surveying courses from UW into its design.  Talks have begun with Casper College and Northwest College for inclusion of UW’s land surveying courses into similar surveying technology degree options.

“We highly value and are working to further develop our relationship and support with our other community colleges in the state to develop more clear pathways and options for students to enhance their land surveying education,” Macy says.

About the University of Wyoming Land Surveying Program

The UW Cadastral and Land Surveying Program is a distance learning program that offers a 30-hour Cadastral Survey Certificate or an 18-hour minor in surveying. The program also serves professional licensed land surveyors, or people who want to pursue licensure, in Wyoming or any other jurisdiction and need to take additional classes to meet application requirements.

Offered entirely online through various platforms, the land surveying program is designed for working professionals and allows them to maintain their current jobs while earning the certificate on their schedules. There are several additional advanced land surveying courses offered at nonregular intervals for students seeking to deepen their understanding, including remote sensing, least squares adjustment, geographic information systems and water boundaries.