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Diversity Fail? All-Women Engineering Team Blamed for Collapse of Miami Pedestrian Bridge
SandraRose.com ^ | March 18, 2018 | Sandra Rose

Posted on 03/18/2018 6:12:54 PM PDT by reaganaut1

The all-women engineering team that designed the ill-fated pedestrian foot bridge at Miami’s Florida International University were highly touted for their advances in a field that is typically dominated by men.

But critics are pointing the finger of blame at the female engineers for design flaws that may have brought the bridge down.

Investigators are still on the scene of last week’s bridge collapse that killed 6 people and injured 9 on the FIU campus in Southwest Miami.

The investigation is focusing on the work done by a team of all-women engineers who were employed by one of the construction firms that designed and built the bridge.

Munilla Construction Management (MCM), the South Miami-based firm that designed the FIU foot bridge, has been sued multiple times for unsafe practices in the past.

In early March MCM was sued by a construction worker who was severely injured when MCM’s “makeshift bridge” at Miami’s International Airport collapsed.

MCM is a Cuban-American, family-owned Miami company founded in 1983 that employs more than 1,000 people in several states. The company is a federal military contractor for the U.S. Army and Navy.

MCM was awarded the $14.2 million minority contract to design and build the cable-stayed bridge. The company is well-connected in Miami politics and it promotes inclusion and diversity in the workforce.

(Excerpt) Read more at sandrarose.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: bridgecollapse; designflaw; diversity; fiu; fiubridge; miami; quotas; women
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To: reaganaut1

My Father was a member of a combat engineer battalion in WWII. I have a copy of the official army history of the battalion.

Fairly early in the war, the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Scott, stopped all operations for a week long lesson for his officers on how to properly construct bridges.

I got the idea that someone had screwed one up.


21 posted on 03/18/2018 6:27:37 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: reaganaut1

Hiring employees for their gender and not for their capabilities. What could go wrong 0bama?


22 posted on 03/18/2018 6:27:56 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: reaganaut1
Purdue University has hired Donna Riley as its new head of its School of Engineering Education. Below is taken from her biographical page at Smith College where she taught for 13 years:

<My scholarship currently focuses on applying liberative pedagogies in engineering education, leveraging best practices from women’s studies and ethnic studies to engage students in creating a democratic classroom that encourages all voices. In 2005 I received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to support this work, which includes developing, implementing, and assessing curricular and pedagogical innovations based on liberative pedagogies and student input at Smith, and understanding how students at Smith conceptualize their identities as engineers. I seek as an engineering educator to be part of a paradigm shift that these pedagogies demand, repositioning concerns about diversity in science and engineering from superficial measures of equity as headcounts, to addressing justice and the genuine engagement of all students as core educational challenges.

I seek to revise engineering curricula to be relevant to a fuller range of student experiences and career destinations, integrating concerns related to public policy, professional ethics and social responsibility; de-centering Western civilization; and uncovering contributions of women and other underrepresented groups.

She will come to Purdue from Virginia Tech. This is an excerpt from her faculty page there:

Riley’s research interests include engineering and social justice; engineering ethics; social inequality in engineering education; and the liberal education of engineers. In 2005 she received a National Science Foundation CAREER award on implementing and assessing critical and feminist pedagogies in engineering classrooms. Students in Riley’s research group are pursuing interests including culturally inclusive pedagogies; understanding faculty motivations and approaches to teaching engineering ethics; connections between critical thinking and engineering ethics pedagogies; engineering education policy; and public participation in engineering projects impacting communities.

Let me simplify all this gobbledygook for you: EXPECT MORE BRIDGES TO FALL DOWN.

23 posted on 03/18/2018 6:28:04 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: reaganaut1

“Obama Diversified, People Died”


24 posted on 03/18/2018 6:29:05 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot (Pravda + Useful Idiots = USSR; Journ0List + Useful Idiots = DopeyChangey)
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To: reaganaut1

“... build the cable-stayed bridge.”

And without the cables - it didn’t stay. Seems pretty obvious the bridge needed its cables. It’s right there in the name!


25 posted on 03/18/2018 6:29:05 PM PDT by 21twelve
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To: JPJones

Those evil husbands, fathers and sons told them to learn Statics and Strength of Materials. But they were more interested in Critical Feminist Pedagogies.


26 posted on 03/18/2018 6:29:29 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: HangnJudge

Yeah, well I heard that she was a Rambling Wreck. Still she is a heck of an Engineer.


27 posted on 03/18/2018 6:30:06 PM PDT by yarddog
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To: reaganaut1

I figured from the outset that some ‘minority’ preference was involved.

Looks like I was pretty much right...


28 posted on 03/18/2018 6:30:52 PM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's...I just don't tell anyone)
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To: dowcaet
...the media spin on this disaster!

It's already in -- Trump's fault for pushing his wall and draining needed resources from rebuilding critical crumbling infrastructure.

Except this bridge crumbled after it was four days old.

29 posted on 03/18/2018 6:31:41 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: dowcaet

Well we certainly will not be hearing this news on the msm.


30 posted on 03/18/2018 6:32:03 PM PDT by Husker24
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To: HangnJudge; reaganaut1
Hey, quit snarking women engineers

You got that from the article? Dude...

31 posted on 03/18/2018 6:32:57 PM PDT by gogeo (excellent!)
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To: HangnJudge

But all you had to offer her was a tiny piccolo?


32 posted on 03/18/2018 6:33:05 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: reaganaut1

The center tower was left out because it was deemed to be a nonessential and phallic reminder of patriarchal suppression. /s


33 posted on 03/18/2018 6:36:13 PM PDT by ameribbean expat
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To: BobL

PC culture has been killing a lot of people lately. Why not just hire the best people to design the bridges or protect the schools?


34 posted on 03/18/2018 6:36:55 PM PDT by salmon76 (Russia, Russia, Russia => Clinton, Clinton, Clinton)
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To: dsrtsage

As long as they felt that everything was all right.


35 posted on 03/18/2018 6:38:07 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: reaganaut1
The all-women engineering team that designed the ill-fated pedestrian foot bridge at Miami’s Florida International University were highly touted for their advances in a field that is typically dominated by men.

Wait a friggin' minute. I thought the bridge was designed by FIGG, who has experience in a number of large projects. Are they saying this was a student project?

Tell me it ain't so!

36 posted on 03/18/2018 6:38:12 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine ("Married with children.")
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To: JPJones

Hillary says so!


37 posted on 03/18/2018 6:38:18 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Screw The NFL!!!!!! My family fought for the flag!)
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To: Moonmad27

Or “inclusion”! After all, it matters not if a bridge collapses as long as everyone feels good about themselves! /s


38 posted on 03/18/2018 6:38:57 PM PDT by DennisR
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To: reaganaut1

“The all-women engineering team...”

And this story drops off the MSM radar in 4, 3, 2, 1...


39 posted on 03/18/2018 6:41:34 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest)
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To: salmon76

“PC culture has been killing a lot of people lately. Why not just hire the best people to design the bridges or protect the schools?”

Simple, of course - we no longer elect people in big enough numbers willing to do what you say. Even when Republicans run Congress, they won’t even consider the idea of merit-based hiring for federally funded programs. It’s not only dangerous, it is DAMN EXPENSIVE...basically a tax on all federal spending, and much, if not most, private spending.


40 posted on 03/18/2018 6:42:53 PM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's...I just don't tell anyone)
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