Page 14 - 2022- 49.4

Cons of multiple paths to licensure:

There are also cons to offering multiple paths to surveying. The biggest issue is that our profession is not providing a clear message to
those coming into the profession, because we’re giving them those alternate paths. Sometimes if a path is too unclear or complicated,
people will avoid it altogether.

Many of today’s licensed surveyors came from different paths. But that was then, and this is now. In today’s world, multiple paths can
be a hindrance.

Our requirements are inconsistent between states. Our surveying schools are few and far between. When presenting the profession to
a 15-year-old high school student, that type of inconsistency can be challenging for a young person trying to make an informed career
choice.

In order to provide a more consistent message and a unified front to our profession, it would behoove us to pick one clear path to
licensure and advertise it. Otherwise, we will continue to get surveyors who come into the profession and then sit on the sidelines as
they wait for the degree requirements to get reversed.

If we pursue additional changes like expanding the experience-only route, it could just be a short-term solution that gets us further away
from that single message that will help us see long-term success. It may also send the wrong message as to profession vs. occupation

Surveying needs a unified voice

Whether we pursue one path or continue to offer multiple paths, what’s clear is that surveying needs a unified voice. NCEES developed
the model law, how many states have adopted it? The statistics can show us what’s happening, but only by coming together as a
profession can we decide what we want to do and work towards greater clarity.

We need to collectively decide if education is valuable or not, and in what forms. Then, we need to take steps to make it happen.

Up until this point, individual states have undertaken grassroots efforts to help the profession by implementing or modifying licensure.

Fresno State, Great Basin, and New Mexico are all trying to work on academic programs in order to get the profession more well known
and create a different, modern narrative as to what it is. The issue is that everybody’s doing it all on their own. We have to have the
support of our associations and Board of Registration to say: this is what we want. We want it to be better. Let’s support it. Let’s do it.

With declining numbers, we have to do whatever we can to bring everybody in. We may never get all 50 states to have the same
licensing requirements, and we will have to accept that. But we need to be more consistent with the messaging that we’re sharing with
new surveyors.

Is an advanced degree necessary?
Pros of advanced education requirements:

The benefits of higher education aren’t just an increase in surveying knowledge.
The real benefit lies in learning how to think critically and solve problems. Education
provides discipline, researching skills, and the ability to ask the right questions. When
surveyors have gone to school, they are often more proactive when problems arise,
quickly picking up the phone to seek out solutions.
Keep in mind that degrees don’t need to be in surveying to be valuable. They could be a
degree in construction management, GIS, business, or some other application.

Degrees come in especially handy in more complex environments, such as urban
areas. In dense city blocks, surveyors aren’t going out looking for corners, they
are doing construction surveying. More complex environments and new complex
technology are both good reasons to formally educate and train our workforce.

Topics like properties of light and wavelengths can prepare surveyors to do remote sensing. Technology is pushing our profession to be
better, but we’re not always smart about it. Many of today’s surveyors need to be more than technicians. Technicians are critical, but we
need an element of the workforce that goes beyond button-pushing.

In short, education helps you learn how to learn.

12 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.4, 2022