MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
 ello from Madison! The spring semester was very
busy. Among our activities: hiring a new staff member (Abby
Dawes in the student services area), holding our CEE Visiting
Committee meeting, interviewing nine possible faculty candidates, preparing
for our ABET visit in 2006, preparing for and then dominating the ASCE
Regional Steel Bridge and Concrete Canoe Competitions, promoting Associate
Professor Daniel Noguera and Associate
Professor Hussian Bahia to full professor and elevating David
Armstrong to emeritus status after more than 38 years of service
to the university, holding a department-wide seminar series on research
issues for PhD students, establishing our first professorship (the
C.K. Wang Professorship in Structural Engineering), and holding
the Construction Club banquet where we honored William Mielke, Jerry
McGinnis, Alan Ruud and posthumously, Dale Michels.
We had a bumper crop of students graduate (60 BS,
24 MS and 15 PhD). The job market is robust and our students are in
high demand. Employers recognize the quality of our students and the
education they receive at UW-Madison. The department admitted more than
50 students; enrollments at all levels are up.
We had an engaging strategic-planning session in
mid-January about our strategic initiatives: effective governance, improved
undergraduate curriculum, financial stability, increased diversity,
strengthened reputation, organizational research plan, and efficient
administrative processes. We are working on developing more efficient
decision-making processes. Professors
Alan Vonderohe and Hussian
Bahia, Associate
Professor Jamie Schauer and engineering
Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs Sarah Pfatteicher are preparing
recommendations on how to improve our undergraduate program.
|
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! |
The
next CEE Golf Outing
Monday, Sept. 12, 2005
at the
Bridges Golf Course
2702 Shopko Dr., Madison |
ENGINEERS' DAY 2005
Friday, Oct. 21, 2005
on campus and at
Monona Terrace Convention Center
One John Nolan Drive |
A committee of Milwaukee industry leaders is helping
us plan to increase the diversity of our student body, resulting in
a close relationship with Rufus King High School, Milwaukee. We met
some of these students, supported their trip to Engineering EXPO, and
talked with them about opportunities in engineering.
We are receiving fewer resources from the state
and the department is working toward using its administrative and support
resources more efficiently.
The CEE Visiting Committee is off to a great start.
We are grateful for its members’ willingness to participate in
the department. Specifically, they are focusing on helping the department
with three strategic initiatives:fiscal stability, strengthened reputation,
and organizational research plan. As you will read in committee chair
Frank Sherkow’s letter, things are moving! We are embarking on
a grand challenge to raise more than $15 million in the department’s
$25 million capital campaign. We have received leadership gifts of $100,000
from Strand Associates, and J.F. Ahern Co., and a $125,000 bequest from
alumnus Larry Soltis (BS ’63, MS ’64). We are out visiting
other companies and alumni looking for additional investors in our future.
Connecting with our alumni and industry partners,
we held successful alumni-industry receptions in the fall, and receptions
in Minneapolis and Appleton this spring. We are planning an event in
Denver, Colorado, this summer as well as exploring opportunities in
Florida, Texas, Washington and California. We hope to hold such events
in Madison, Janesville, Milwaukee, Appleton and Minneapolis every year.
The department is grateful to Professor
Emeritus Peter Monkmeyer, who helped support all the receptions
and is en-couraging our alumni to help us where they can.
These are exciting times around the department. We
are creating our future. We hope that you will stop and see us if you
are in the area. You will see that the campus has changed quite a bit.
On Wisconsin!
Respectfully Yours,
Jeffrey
S. Russell, PhD, P.E., F., ASCE
2205 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: 608/262-7244
Fax: 608/262-5199
E-mail:
russell@engr.wisc.edu
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