The Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering has a proud heritage of firsts at the University of Kansas.
Engineering courses have been offered at KU since 1869, and Civil Engineering courses started in 1871. One of the first four degrees earned at the university was conferred to Murray Harris in 1873. He earned a bachelor's degree in Civil and Topographical Engineering. As engineering degree programs were not created earlier elsewhere in the State, this also was the first engineering degree awarded in Kansas.
The KU School of Engineering was formed in 1891, and soon after Frank O. Marvin, chair of the Department of Civil Engineering, became the school's first dean in 1893.
Women have long been on the scene in the School of Engineering. The first woman to graduate from the school was Julia Carman, who earned a bachelor's degree in architectural engineering in 1920.
The department has always been one to embrace change. In 1967, the Engineering Mechanics program was incorporated into the Department of Civil Engineering. In 1992, the department changed its name to the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering to help recognize its long-time environmental engineering teaching, research, and service programs. In 2001, the Architectural Engineering Department, which had been jointly administered through the School of Engineering and the School of Architecture and Urban Design, merged completely into the School of Engineering to form the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department. The CEAE Department is now one of the school's largest with about 400 students, 24 faculty members, and 13 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
The department's main office is in Learned Hall on the Lawrence Campus. The department also offers courses at KU's Edwards Campus in the Kansas City region, as well as occasionally at the Capitol Center/KNEA facility in Topeka. A popular Continuing Education Professional Development Series is also offered annually in the Kansas City area.
The most recent expansion of the department came in the form of the Veatch-Robinson Office Complex, dedicated in May 2004. The addition was made possible through generous contributions from the Veatch and Robinson family members and friends.
Much of this information appears in James O. Maloney's 1989 book "A History of the School of Engineering at the University of Kansas 1868-1988"
