| Many changes coming to MST |
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| Written by Shishir Jai | |
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Chancellor Carney started the State of the University address by discussing the enrollment at Missouri S&T. He said that we are expecting 1020 new students, nine percent which are females and 875 freshmen. The University will have 6550 total students by the year 2011, the target for 2007 was 6000 while the actual figure is 6167. Carney also mentioned the retention problem being faced by the University with students leaving in the second year. New staff will be put in place specifically for this issue. Next, Carney discussed the Saudi Arabia trip undertaken by Daughton, Dow, Wiebe and himself. He elaborated that many partnerships were established with institutions like King Saud University, Ministry of Higher Education and Prince Sultan University. This year, William A. Wulf is the speaker and honorary degree recipient at the commencement ceremony. He is the president of The National Academy of Engineering and professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at University of Virginia. The ceremony is being broken up again due to the high number of students graduating this year. The Capital Campaign is going well with 141.1 million dollars being raised in 57 months. The target is 200 million dollars with 26 months still remaining. The University is actively seeking other revenue sources. The Proud Miner Campaign is a new venture and focuses on staff, employees and faculty to contribute towards the University. Sponsored research activities are going great with an excellent showing in the fiscal year 2007, 33 percent of proposed projects were accepted and funded. The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Complex a.k.a Toomey Hall is four weeks from completion of the first phase. The old space will be renovated in about a year and costing $13 million. The Miner Rec building was cited as the ugliest building in Rolla by Chancellor Carney. He said that three trustees have committed to raise about $2.2 million to renovate this building. When finished, this building is going be a design center and also house a Starbucks. Among other points, he mentioned the curators and trustees met on the third and fourth of April terming it a success. He also mentioned the 31 legislators who visited the campus this January saying that this was great political exposure for Rolla. The UM system legislative priorities were also listed by the chancellor, which are, a 4.2 percent in core budget, 38M for the Preparing to Care initiative which is aimed at improving health care facilities in rural Missouri, $3.5 million to upgrade faculty salaries and $2.6 million budget increase request for UMSL. Some of the key faculty hires are Margaret Cline as CIO IT, Thulasi Kumar as Director of Institutional Research and A. Shenethia Manuel as the new HR Director. In terms of sports achievements, our swim team set nine school records during the national meet in Mizzou, won 40 All-American awards and was second overall in the nation. Coach Doug Grooms was named National Coach of the Year for 2007. Our women’s basketball team also made it to the sweet sixteen for the first time. There was also talk about a Technological Park in Rolla. It will be a business and technology accelerator and have huge economic advantages. A technological development center is also proposed to be completed by 2009 with a budget of $3.5 million. The clients include MO Enterprise and Defense Contractors Missouri S&T was also the one selected out of 393 applicants as the location for a GE Aviation University Development Center. The operation will begin in May. It will employ approximately 100 people. Paul Robinette and Ryanne Dolan, owners of Rolla Engineering LLC were named as Student Entrepreneurs of the year. Regarding environmental issues, Carney talked about the E Square Campus development plan which includes a MO hydrogen highway between Rolla and Ft. Leonard Wood, showcasing energy and environmental research currently in progress, a test bed near the west side of campus, hydrogen fueling station and turbine, solar home, reducing solid waste and increase recyclables. |
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