Interesting stories about and for our students.
The Graduate School is pleased to announce new theses are now available in the J.R. van Pelt and Opie Library from the following programs:
Postdoctoral Associate Jaclyn Johnson (APSRC/MEEM) recently received the 2013 SAE Excellence in Oral Presentation award for “Investigation of Key Mechanism for Liquid Length Fluctuations in Transient Vaporizing Diesel Sprays Using Experimental Results and CFD Modeling,” which she presented at the SAE World Congress in April 2013.
Published in Tech Today.
MyMichiganTech is a personalized website that will allow students to quickly and easily see their current student status. You will also be able to get direct access to Gmail, Canvas, banweb and more from MyMichiganTech – think of this as the first place to go every morning! The Graduate School is pleased to introduce it to you and looks forward to receiving your feedback on how we can improve it in the future.
Navigate to MyMichiganTech.mtu.edu and log in with your Username and ISO Password (just like Canvas, e-mail, or any other campus service)
The homepage has news, events, and weather. Click on the “Current Students” tab (outlined in a red box below) to show information about your current status. Depending on the services you use at the University, such as financial aid, or campus housing, different options will appear.
As part of the annual Responsible Relationships Awareness days, two events are happening on campus this week.
Anti-violence/anti-assault t-shirts will be displayed on clotheslines around campus all next week as part of the Clothesline Project. The Clothesline Project provides a way for campus and community members to speak out against sexual violence and sexual assault. Full details are available at Clothesline Project.
Also, there will be a “Forget Stranger Danger” event next Thursday, Sept. 26, from 7 to 8 p.m. in MUB Ballroom B. This event is intended to help educate students about the dangers of acquaintance/date rape among college students. Please encourage students to attend. The event poster is available at Forget Stranger Danger.
The Clothesline Project and Forget Stranger Danger Event are part of the 2013 Responsible Relationship Awareness Days, an annual week of events hosted by the Title IX Committee to raise awareness about issues such as sexual violence, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, stalking, harassment, and hazing. For more information about Title IX resources and reporting channels, see Title IX.
Published in Tech Today.
The Carnegie Museum, in downtown Houghton, will host its third annual “Night at the Museum” fundraiser this Saturday, Sept. 21, from 4 to 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 each and include a guided Red Jacket Trolley Tour, gourmet refreshments, music performed by local Suzuki students, and a silent auction.
This year’s guided Red Jacket Trolley tour will be of the ruins of Houghton’s Isle Royale Mine. Led by Erika Vye, geology PhD student and Wil Shapton of the Red Jacket Trolley company, the tour reflects our current exhibit theme “Gone But Not Forgotten: Preserving Memories of the Copper Country.” The tour will illuminate how mining influenced our city’s landscape and how the remnants of the mining days live on amongst us.
Tickets are available at the museum (open Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday noon to 4 p.m.) Trolley seating is limited so be sure to choose your tour time, (4, 5, or 6 p.m.) when purchasing your ticket. Tickets sold at the door are not guaranteed a trolley tour. All proceeds from the event will support building restoration and improvements, website development, exhibits and programs.
For more information, email history@cityofhoughton.com or call 482-7140.
Published in Tech Today
Two humanities students at Michigan Tech have launched a newspaper called Beyond the Glass Ceiling. They hope it will become an outlet for writers who want to explore gender issues and gender inequality on campus.
“We had a lot of people interested, but most of them wanted to write anonymously. They thought it was too much of a risk.”
Megan Walsh, one of the student editors of Beyond the Glass Ceiling, talks about attempts to establish a base of writers last year as the publication was being launched. If you wonder why we need a feminist publication on campus, for Walsh, the request for anonymity answers it.
“That alone tells me we need to do this.”
Beyond the Glass Ceiling is the successor to the former TechnoBabe Times, a publication largely housed in the humanities department a decade ago. Graduate student Katie Snyder wanted to revive the tradition, with encouragement from faculty, leading to the new publication.
For the full story about the new publication, see online
Published in Tech Today by Kevin Hodur, creative writer
Jackie Huntoon, associate provost and dean of the Graduate School, has received the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science Inc. (GEM) Executive Committee Member of the Year Award.
The award recognizes her generous commitment of time, support, and inspiration to the GEM Mission, which is to: “enhance the value of the nation’s human capital by increasing the participation of underrepresented groups (African Americans, American Indians and Hispanic Americans) at the master’s and doctoral levels in engineering and science.”
“For as long as I’ve known Jackie, she has been passionate in her efforts to advance grad studies in STEM that truly reflect the diverse people of America as well as the world,” said President Glenn Mroz. “I’m delighted for her that her colleagues have recognized her energy and effort with this award.”
Published in Tech Today
Michigan Tech, like other public universities in the state, submitted its official fall enrollment numbers to Lansing this week. The news was very good.
Michigan Tech has 1,252 first-year students, the largest freshman class since 2008. The average ACT score and high school GPA of those students are at an all-time high, at 26.7 and 3.66.
Graduate student numbers also rose for the fifth straight year, to 1,359.
“I want to thank everyone all across campus for the work they do to attract the highest quality students,” said President Glenn Mroz. “The results of their efforts speak for themselves.”
Total undergraduate enrollment this fall is 5,617, making the University’s total enrollment for the fall semester 6,976, up from 6,945. There are 1,180 female students, the second highest ever. Female enrollment in the College of Engineering is now 906, up from 612 in 2005 and 835 last year. This is an all-time high. And the Graduate School has 392 female graduate students, the most ever.
The number of domestic ethnic minorities has risen to just shy of 7 percent of the undergraduate student body. This is a 10-year high and an all-time record.
“The academic caliber of this incoming class of undergraduates is one of the highest in recent history at Michigan Tech,” said John Lehman, associate vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications at Michigan Tech. “It’s a diverse class with a relatively high proportion of women entering the STEM fields. We’re very excited to have this group of talented, future leaders studying with us at Tech.”
The Graduate School saw the number of first-time master’s degree students rise 22.2 percent, to 314. There are 97 first-time doctoral students, a 1 percent drop from fall 2012. Tech’s Graduate School processed more than 4,100 applications for the fall 2013 semester.
“This is the fifth consecutive year of record graduate enrollment at Michigan Tech,” said Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of the Graduate School. “We are making clear progress toward our goal of 3,000 graduate students by 2035. Also, last year was the fourth consecutive year of record graduation numbers for master’s and PhD students. We want to thank everyone who helped get new graduate students to Tech and who worked closely with the students who are here.”
The enrollment report lists numbers of students in each of Michigan Tech’s Colleges and Schools.
* College of Engineering: 4,329
* College of Sciences and Arts: 1,657
* School of Business and Economics: 365
* School of Technology: 276
* School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science: 242
* No School or College designated: 107
Published in Tech Today by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
To the people of Peña Blanca, Panama, Chet Hopp must seem like a godsend. He’s helping them get cleaner water, improve sanitation and understand their local volcanic hazards.
“I’m an environmental health extensionist, which means that my main responsibilities to my community of Peña Blanca deal with sanitation,” says Hopp, a Peace Corps Master’s International student in geology at Michigan Tech. “Specifically, we work to improve access to potable water through development and construction of gravity-fed aqueducts, as well as improving sanitation practices through education and access to various types of latrines.”
From the beginning, Hopp says, the priority has been latrines, although the water system does concern many in the community. He gives talks on sanitation practices, as well as how to properly construct and maintain the latrines they are building.
And, there’s buy-in, literally, from the locals.
“Each participating family is required to make a $5 deposit, to be returned upon successful completion, and they must pay for half the cost of corrugated metal roofing,” Hopp says. “There are other roofing options, though, so they can opt out of this.”
Read the full story.
Published in Tech Today by Dennis Walikainen, senior editor
Michigan Tech has been named a school that delivers the Best Bang for the Buck in ratings released by Washington Monthly magazine. Michigan Tech ranks 29th among national universities in the category, according to the publication.
Washington Monthly created the Best Bang for the Buck category, to address the now-prevalent question of whether or not a college education is worth it. According to their website, they ask, “What colleges will charge people like me the least and give me the highest chance of graduating with a degree that means something in the marketplace?”
“This rating, combined with our Business Insider ranking with underrated universities, shows how Michigan Tech is getting good reviews in the right kinds of profiles,” said John Lehman, associate vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communications. In the Business Insider ranking, Michigan Tech was also praised for the high salaries their graduates earn.
To be included among Washington Monthly’s Best Bang for the Buck rankings, schools are rated in four categories: percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, graduation rate, default rate and net price.
Of the 1,572 schools in their overall rankings, only 349 made the list in the Best Bang for the Buck category.
Other Michigan schools rated in the Best Bang category include Michigan State University (23rd) and Western Michigan University (46th). Michigan Tech is rated just behind Iowa State University and just above Rutgers University.
Michigan Tech was also ranked number 64 in the overall national university rankings, in which the Washington Monthly rates schools “based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).”
Published in Tech Today