Purpose

ASME has established the Committee on Ethical Standards and Review (CESR) to:

• Encourage a high standard of ethical practice in engineering;
• Strive to raise the standards upon which the legal right to practice engineering is based;
• Improve the status of the engineering profession, and
• Cooperate with other technical and professional societies in support of these purposes.

Authority 

The CESR is an entity operating in concert with the Center for Professional Development, Practice and Ethics in the Centers Sector.

Responsibilities 

As delineated in By-Law B5.3.2.4, the Center is responsible for the activities of the Society that relate to the ethical practice of engineering.  This responsibility is vested in this Committee.

History

When ASME was founded in 1880, the mission (as stated in the ASME Certificate of Incorporation, or Charter) was as follows:
 
"To promote the arts and sciences connected with engineering and mechanical construction for scientific purposes, and to that end to meet and associate together to read and discuss professional papers, and to circulate by means of publication among its members the information thus obtained, and for the purpose of maintaining a library."

Although professional practice and ethics were not specifically mentioned in the Charter, the mission does relate to the practice of engineering at that time. The "rules" adopted by ASME in 1880 were primarily concerned with organizational matters, such as membership, officers, meetings, and presentation of papers. However, in 1885, Article 42 under the Rules was expanded to read as follows:
 
"The policy of the Society in this matter shall be to give papers read before it the widest circulation possible, with the view of making the work of the Society known, encouraging mechanical progress, and extending the professional reputation of its members. "

In 1904 when the initial ASME Constitution was issued, the importance of ethical conduct was introduced in Article C25, as follows:
 
"The Council may refuse to receive the dues of any member of any grade, who shall have been adjudged by the Council to have violated the Constitution or By-Laws of the Society, or who, in the opinion of the Council by a two-thirds vote, shall have been guilty of conduct rendering him unfit to continue in its membership; and the Council may expel such person and remove his name from the list of members. "

Work on a Code of Ethics was begun in 1911 with the appointment by the ASME Council of a Committee on a Code of Ethics. A draft Code was presented to the Council in 1912 and was submitted for a vote by the membership in 1913. At the Council meeting in December 1913, it was announced that the Code had been approved, and the Council appointed a Committee on the Interpretation of the Code.

During the years following 1915, the Society became more actively involved in the area of professional practice and ethics. From 1915 through 1965, successive committees were established, reporting to the ASME Council, as follows:

• Standing Committee on Professional Conduct
• Board of Education and Professional Status
• Professional Practice Committee

In 1966, the Society was restructured to provide for several Policy Boards, reporting to the ASME Council, and headed by Vice Presidents. The Professional Practice Committee was placed under the Policy Board, Professional Affairs. In 1975, the latter was renamed the Policy Board, Professional and Public Affairs, and the committee was renamed the Professional Affairs and Ethics Committee. In 1981 there was a major Society restructuring, with the ASME Council being replaced by a Board of Governors, and with five Councils reporting to it. A Board on Professional Practice and Ethics (BPPE), headed by the Vice President for Professional Practice, was placed under the Council on Member Affairs.

In 2005 another restructuring took place and the Committee on Ethical Standards and Review was formed as part of the Center for Professional Development, Practice and Ethics.