5/1/2017 Annie Goetz
ISE student societies went through a transition this year by merging from four groups into two.
Written by Annie Goetz
In July 2016, the ISE department changed the name of general engineering to systems engineering and design. With that name change came many changes for systems engineers in the department.
The ISE student societies went through a transition year this year by merging from four groups into two.
The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and Illinois Society of General Engineers (ISGE) merged to become IISE, one social, service, and professional society. Alpha Pi Mu and Gamma Epsilon, the IE and GE honor societies, respectively, merged to become Alpha Pi Mu. The two former GE societies were absorbed by the IE societies because the IE societies are local chapters of national organizations.
The national organization of IISE changed its name in May 2016 from Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) to Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), which perfectly coincided with the GE name change.
Alumni and corporate relations manager Lee Zerrusen says: “With the name change from general engineering to systems engineering and design, ISE took the opportunity to merge IISE and ISGE, as well as Alpha Pi Mu and Gamma Epsilon, to create two groups: an all-encompassing ISE student group and an ISE honor society. Because IISE and Alpha Pi Mu include systems engineering in their national organizations, it made for an easy fit for our local chapters of the groups. With the great leadership of our student society exec boards, these mergers happened seamlessly and successfully.”
Throughout the 2016-2017 school year, each pair of executive boards worked together to join the groups into a singular group. Merging the groups gave students a new opportunity to interact with ISE students outside of their major.
Lara Flasch, a senior in industrial engineering and the president of IISE, says: “Working more closely and eventually merging with ISGE this year has been a great experience. With IEs and SEDs coming together, there is now a bigger and better club with more membership, more corporate connections, and more opportunities. I have enjoyed becoming friends with more SED majors and holding our events all together.”
Alpha Pi Mu and Gamma Epsilon merged at the beginning of the year and moved forward with one executive board for the school year and all events under both clubs. Because the honor societies were smaller groups than IISE and ISGE, the executive boards had more ease joining the two societies.
IISE and ISGE started working together in the fall semester to integrate both clubs’ events, and by the spring semester, all events were jointly held by IISE and ISGE.
The final merge will occur at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, and ISGE and Gamma Epsilon will dissolve. Starting in August 2017, ISE will have one service, social, and professional RSO, IISE, and one honor society, Alpha Pi Mu.
Heidi Craddock, associate head of undergraduate programs, says: “While it was something that we knew could be a challenging task, Lee Zerrusen and I felt the two student leaders and their executive boards were the perfect groups to work on this merger. Every year our students show how amazing they are through their professionalism and outreach and this year was no different. At the end of this academic year, we have a united social and professional outreach organization, which has brought our student body together and created a stronger community for the students within ISE.”