(Sacramento State/Steve McKay)

Construction Management (CM) is a relatively small department at Sacramento State, with just 200 students, but it is a competitive powerhouse with a national reputation for excellence. The students benefit from a dedicated team of mentors and coaches: their professors, plus a group of the region’s leading building-industry professionals, many of whom earned their CM degree at Sac State.

The relationship with industry pays off for students in the long run, as well. The department has boasted 100 percent job placement of its graduates since 2011. Those alumni went from studying at Sacramento State to managing job sites around Northern California and beyond.

Among Construction Management’s other points of pride:

• Sac State is one of just 20 universities worldwide chosen to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon 2015. CM landed the honor and is “ground zero” for a multidiscipline, cross-campus student effort to design and build a winning solar-powered house that is affordable, energy-efficient and appealing to buyers. Team Solar NEST’s modular Reflect Home, built on campus by CM students during the summer of 2015, will be dismantled and trucked to Southern California for the October 2015 competition. It will come back to campus and be used as a teaching laboratory.
• CM students are proven winners. Among their achievements on the regional and national stage:
  • In 2015, Sac State dominated the Concrete Solutions contest at the Associated Schools of Construction’s (ASC) annual student competition, finishing first for the third consecutive year.
  • The Electrical Problem team won first place at the 2014 ASC competition.
  • Sac State earned an honorable mention in a tie for a national third-place finish at the 2014 Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) competition, besting 26 schools to reach the finals.
  • CM won the Design-Build Institute of America’s 2013 national championship. Only three of 40 schools qualified for the final round, in which Sac State dominated over Auburn University and Colorado State University with its RFQ, RFP, and oral presentation.
  • Sac State won the Associated Schools of Construction’s 2013 Healthcare Preconstruction championship, scoring 95 of a possible 100 points and handily defeating its nearest competitors, Purdue University (86.8 points) and Auburn University (86.4 points).
• CM faculty have outstanding credentials. For example, two professors are licensed professional engineers, two are licensed general contractors, two have earned LEED certification, one is certified by the Design Build Institute of America, and one works during summer break for local general contractors.
• Students intern with local contractors while attending Sac State.
• Ten percent of CM students are women.
• CM alumni have worked on numerous high-profile construction projects, including Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport, Sutter Health’s Anderson Lucchetti Women’s and Children’s Center in Sacramento – and the new entertainment and sports arena under construction in downtown Sacramento.
• Alumni came “home” to work on 14 of the last 15 projects at Sac State, including The WELL, the Hornet Bookstore, the Broad Fieldhouse, the American River Courtyard residence hall and two parking structures. CM graduates also will be involved in the construction of Student Housing II, the residence hall to be built alongside the American River on the north end of campus.
• The Sacramento Construction Management Education Foundation (SCMEF) is a nonprofit advisory board made up of area leaders in the building, heavy highway, civil and specialty contractor industries. SCMEF raises money for scholarships and students’ travel expenses to competitions. SCMEF celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2014.
• CM has support from many prestigious companies in the region, including Swinerton Builders, Brown Construction Inc., Lionakis, Associated General Contractors Delta-Sierra District, Gallina LLP, Western Engineering, C.C. Myers Inc., Unger Construction Co., J.R. Roberts Corp., Elliott Homes, ACCO Engineered Systems, Teichert Construction, Granite Construction, S.D. Deacon, Boldt Co., Turner Construction, SMUD, Global Construction Consulting and Schetter Electric.
• Sac State is home to one of California’s oldest Construction Management programs.
• In recognition of Construction Management’s first 40 years of achievement, Sac State in 2012 elevated the program to a full-fledged academic department within the College of Engineering and Computer Science. – Dixie Reid