Hello again.
Although this is only my second message as CoSM Dean, it comes at a time of rapid change at Wright State University. The university is celebrating its 50th anniversary while simultaneously embarking on a presidential search. While exciting, these events come at a time when the financial climate in higher education presents us with a few challenges as we move forward as a college.
In November, I presented my vision for the college to the faculty and staff. I recently sent the following strategic bullet points to the college personnel, both as a reminder of that discussion and as an outline of our game plan for growth within the college. I focused on several important areas:
- Student growth. We must grow our student populations and continue to work on recruitment, retention and student success initiatives. This is where all faculty and staff play a critical and irreplaceable role as we work as a team to prioritize our students’ needs and redouble our efforts to foster student success.
- College branding. We must distinguish ourselves as a college. I truly believe that guaranteeing experiential learning opportunities, whether through undergraduate research, internships, professional shadowing, service learning or entrepreneurial training, is an important step in that direction.
- Research dissemination. We must do a better job of explaining why the research we do is so critical to the university, to the students that come to our college, and to the region as a whole. Research opportunities are as integral to the education of math and science graduates as access to musical instruments is to music majors – you cannot separate one from the other and expect excellence. We must continue to support the work that is changing the world and impacting the lives of our students (see below).
- Workforce development. We must position ourselves as an integral part of the solution to the STEM workforce needs of the region. Each of the above initiatives can contribute to this goal, but we must also be open to the development of degree programs that target unmet regional needs in the technology sectors, data analytics, health and medical fields and, of course, STEM education at all levels. Once again, experiential opportunities are the key to success, and these growth areas will provide career opportunities wherever our graduates choose to roam (although we would love to have them stay here!).
I truly feel that we are on track to make progress in all of these critical areas. Although I saw a draft of this newsletter only after I had put most of my thoughts in writing, I feel as though the profiles of the CoSM faculty, staff, students and alumni included in this edition do a wonderful job of proving my points.
Tom Reed, this year’s outstanding CoSM alumnus, epitomizes the impact that strong fundamental research training and entrepreneurship can have on the ability of graduates to affect the world in a significant way. Two other alumni, Megan Leasher and Katlin Bowman, are making names for themselves in important areas of science. Andy Voss’ work in the college is influencing our understanding of important human disease processes, while the work of the profiled undergraduate and graduate students shows how CoSM is influencing the next generation of scientists. Equally critical, however, is the impact on student success that people like Diana Gonzalez, Meredith Rodgers, Jason Deibel, Chris Wyatt and others across the college are making on a daily basis. It is easy to see why I am so optimistic about the future of this college and institution.
Stay tuned for more great news in future communications.
