Vandal Engineering News

October 2011

Greetings alumni and friends!
As another school year has begun I am delighted to send you this Dean's E-Letter as the Interim Dean of the College of Engineering. With this issue we are trying a different format that I hope you will find more succinct and informative.   I am keeping my comments shorter than in past E-Letters and we are highlighting a variety of items from which you can click to find more detailed information.  So take a look and let us know what you think.  We will seek to make modifications based on your feedback until we get it right.

We have begun the fall 2011 semester with 1266 undergraduate and 457 graduate students for a total of 1681 primary majors. We serve these students through 9 undergraduate and 14 graduate degree programs. At this time we also have nearly 100 faculty and 50 staff. I'm sure you will agree with me that these numbers demonstrate that the College of Engineering is an important and viable organization.

I'd like to announce that Robert Marvin '51 BSCE and Dolores A. Griffith have committed to an anchor gift of $125,000 to the College of Engineering's Endowed Chair for Civil Engineering Campaign. This endowed chair will contribute to the University not only by providing the College of Engineering the ability to recruit and retain outstanding faculty, but will benefit students who will be able to work with and learn from world-class researchers, educators, and academic leaders.

In concert with our strategic plan we are putting a greater emphasis in our students' success and developing a legacy of leading. A key example is the implementation of the John C. Wahl Think Tank, one of the College's top priorities which will transform how we support our students. We are grateful to the Frances and John Wahl Foundation for their leadership-level gift, as well as our advisory board members, alumni, and many friends for their generosity that has allowed this new student services center to be built.

Throughout the summer and fall we have been renovating the Janssen Engineering Building to include a state-of-the-art physical space with flexible meeting space for our students. More than a meeting place, The John C. Wahl Think Tank will provide services to aid in recruitment, retention, tutoring, internships, and so forth - it is all about student success. I invite you to join alumni, faculty, friends, and donors on October 28 at 3:30 as we dedicate this facility.

Again, I hope you like this new format and if you have any suggestions on how we can improve it, send them to our web coordinator, Becky Gibson, at beckyg@uidaho.edu. Thank you for your interest in our college and I'll be writing to you again next month.

Sincerely,


Larry Stauffer