a message
from the Interim Dean
Charles E. Savrda
COSAM: Twenty-five Years and Counting… on YOU
As the College of Sciences and Mathematics moves beyond its 25th year as a distinct
college, we have much to celebrate and to be grateful for – an outstanding student body, a
dedicated faculty and staff, and you, our loyal alumni and friends.
The number of COSAM students reached an all-time high this year, with
undergraduate majors increasing in all academic units of the college. With the help of
COSAM scholarships, overall growth was paralleled by a rise in student quality. This is
manifested by ACT scores and high school GPAs of incoming freshmen, dominance of
COSAM students in the Honors College, common engagement by undergraduates in
faculty-directed research, and success of our students in the graduate and professional
programs or careers they pursue upon graduation. Moreover, COSAM academic units
continue to engage highly qualified graduate students whose efforts are essential to our
instructional, research, and outreach missions and who later move on to fill leadership
positions in industry, academics, and government.
The COSAM faculty remains passionately dedicated to the missions of the college.
In fall 2011, faculty generated a record number of credit hours, providing outstanding
and contemporary instruction not only to the growing population of COSAM majors
but to all Auburn students in core and service courses. They are engaged in nationally
and internationally acclaimed basic and applied research and are the driving force in the
planning and development of new facilities – such as the Biodiversity Learning Center and
a state-of-the-art physics laboratory – that will assist our efforts to generate, convey, and
apply new knowledge. Faculty are joined by a first-rate staff who advise students, encourage
diversity, guide, or support research, instructional, and outreach efforts, and in other ways
promote the college.
To a significant degree, the success enjoyed by our students, faculty, and staff can be
attributed to COSAM alumni and friends like you who have faithfully supported the
college and its programs. Your past gifts have provided scholarships, fellowships, and
professorships essential in the recruitment and retention of stellar students and faculty,
enabled the creation or modernization of instructional and research facilities, and helped
sustain college programs aimed at enhancing diversity and transmitting an appreciation of
the sciences and mathematics to the broader community, particularly in the K-12 arena.
In the face of lean economies and diminishing state appropriations, such support from
COSAM alumni and friends will be of increasing importance as the college strives to grow
and excel through the next quarter century. On behalf of COSAM, I thank you for all you
have done in the past and for all you are able to do this year and thereafter to establish and
sustain our outstanding college. We really do count on you.
With Gratitude and Best Wishes,
Charles E. (Chuck) Savrda
Interim Dean and Professor
College of Sciences and Mathematics
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