As we rapidly approach the start of the new academic year, we find ourselves once again gearing up to welcome the next class of future Wright State graduates to campus. This year will be particularly special as we celebrate Wright State’s 50th anniversary and welcome our new President, Dr. Cheryl Schrader, to Dayton. These are truly reasons to celebrate and renew our focus on our core missions.
To be sure, this has been a challenging period in Wright State’s history. We have been tasked with a number of difficult decisions over the past year as we’ve worked to realign the university’s budget with the realities of declining state support and altered student demographics. CoSM has not been immune to these cuts, which have necessitated a number of position eliminations and reductions in other forms of faculty, staff and student services. Although unfortunate, we are now at a point where we can begin to move forward as a college to rebuild and, hopefully, begin to replace some of what has been lost.
Against this backdrop, one truth remains - I want to see the college grow. To this end, we have put forth a set of ambitious strategic plans for the coming year that will hopefully allow us to begin the growth process even as we navigate the final stages of budgetary realignment. We are working to identify ways to refocus our energies on student success (including recruitment and retention), faculty success (at all levels) and improved business practices so that we can reinvest our limited resources in important things like experiential opportunities for CoSM students. I hope that you also value these goals and will join me in identifying new and better ways to serve our students and prepare them for the workforce needs of the region.
Our specific goals for the 2017/2018 academic year will include the unveiling of strategic initiatives to enhance experiential learning. The first of these is a renewed focus on undergraduate research, which will be supported by the appointment of a new Director of Undergraduate Research in the college who will collaborate with our Applying Scientific Knowledge (ASK) director and honors directors to ensure that all CoSM students with an interest in research will have the training and opportunity to get involved with our research-intensive faculty and work on “real” projects in the lab. We will also release information soon on a series of innovation/entrepreneurship-focused events that will change the way we expose students to the process of addressing real-world problems through intensive, collaborative approaches to problem solving and application of scientific principles. I am excited about this, and hope that it will lead to enhanced placement of students into regional internship/co-op positions as we recognize the important role of hands-on learning as the cornerstone of what we do as a college. We also have a host of new programs coming online this fall (including undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Neuroscience and Public Health) that will support areas of growth and high demand. Long story short – we have a lot going on and it is all very exciting.
A new era in Wright State’s history began on July 1 with the arrival of President Schrader, and we are now poised to plot the course for Wright State’s next 50 years. I anticipate many exciting changes in the years ahead and remain convinced that CoSM will play a prominent role in the university’s new vision. Please stay tuned as we navigate this future together.
