LETTER FROM DEAN MOLLY GRIBB
LETTER FROM DEAN MOLLY GRIBB
December 23, 2016
Greetings from the College of EMS!
As we approach the holiday season and the end of the year, it’ s appropriate to reflect on our accomplishments of the past year and look forward to the year ahead.
One of our proudest moments this year was the recognition of the College’ s Women in Engineering, Math, and Science( WEMS) program with the prestigious Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity by ABET. This award honors institutions that have achieved extraordinary success in fostering diversity within the technology sector.
UW-Platteville’ s WEMS program grew from humble beginnings over twenty years ago, with a single part-time director, Rachel Mahun, who, incidentally, was the first woman faculty member at UW-Platteville to earn tenure. The WEMS program now includes the Center for Projects, Opportunities, Instruction, Networking and Teamwork( CenterPOINT), pre-college outreach, living / learning communities, and much, much more. WEMS, which has been instrumental in growing the number of women enrolled in the College of EMS by 72 percent since 2010, is supported almost entirely by grants and donations, such as the wonderfully generous $ 20,000 donation from Dr. Jane McLamarrah, who is featured in this issue’ s Donor Spotlight.
In other exciting news, the UW System Board of Regents included in its 2017-19 capital project request a new engineering building for UW-Platteville, in addition to a funding request to enable the completion of the Boebel Hall remodel. The new engineering building is the only new construction on the UW System-wide list.
Investment in UWP engineering infrastructure is an investment in the future success of Wisconsin companies, communities, and families like yours. Last year, UWP graduated 23 % of the total number engineering degrees in the UW System, and the second highest number of engineering grads in the state. We also know that over 76 % of our graduates stay in Wisconsin, and work at Wisconsin companies and contribute to the economic development of their communities.
But, our new engineering building for UW-Platteveille is far from a done deal – the state legislature and governor will have to weigh in, and we won’ t know the outcome until next spring. Please take a moment to