Greetings from the College of Sciences and Arts at Michigan Tech!
Spring semester ended on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon when we hosted an outdoor graduation parade of sorts. Graduates from the past two years and their families and friends walked to various stations around campus while we faculty lined the way in our academic regalia and the Husky Pep Band provided musical entertainment. In the Rozsa lobby was a replica graduation stage for photo ops while Pomp and Circumstance played in the background. It was wonderful to see colleagues face to face for a change. Some, including my boss the Provost, I had not seen outside of Zoom in more than a year! More than one of my colleagues suggested we continue this tradition in future years in lieu of the lengthy formal ceremony.
Our incredible faculty finished the year strong with some really notable honors. Biological Sciences Professor Thomas Werner was awarded “Distinguished Professor of the Year” from the Michigan Association of State Universities. Thomas brings this award back to Tech after an eight-year hiatus. His outstanding work in the classroom and laboratory, and especially mentoring undergraduate researchers, made this a well-deserved honor.
Over in the Physics department, Professor Robert Nemiroff was named a “University Professor,” the highest honor we bestow on faculty. There are currently four University Professors at Tech, and three are from the College of Sciences and Arts! I highly recommend checking out his site Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Finally, in Social Sciences, Dr. Nancy Langston received the Distinguished Scholar award from the American Society for Environmental History. This is the highest honor in her field, and recognizes a lifetime of scholarly achievement.
At the recent Board of Trustees meeting, nine of our faculty received tenure and two others were promoted to Full Professor. Congratulations to them all!
As the May 1 deadline passed, we got the exciting news that university-wide, our deposits for new students are up 22% over last year and are the highest in 10 years. CSA outperformed even this number, with our deposits up 30%! We are looking forward to bringing in a record-breaking incoming class in the Fall!
President Koubek has announced our intention to return to normal conditions and normal classroom capacities in the Fall, and planning is underway to do that. About 50% of the Western UP has already been vaccinated, and I was grateful to receive my second shot a few weeks ago.
Critical to everything we do are our alumni and friend donors. All your donations to our departments, scholarships, and the general fund are vitally important to our success. They will play an even bigger role over the next year with decreased state support expected. Thank you so much for supporting Michigan Tech! Our site has more about CSA giving opportunities. https://www.mtu.edu/sciences-arts/giving/
