Welcome back! We missed you.

Tue, August 23, 2016

Welcome back! We missed you.

Games of bubble soccer are picking up on campus. There has been an abundance of moving trucks on city streets. And, business was steady this weekend at Alex’s. The students are back, and I’m so glad to see them!

Although it has been a productive summer here at Missouri S&T, from our active summer session to finishing up building projects like University Commons, campus just isn’t the same without the hustle and bustle of the fall and spring sessions. I’m very appreciative to our faculty and staff who have been working to make the new semester run smoothly!

As classes begin this week, we have steady enrollment (we expect to be slightly above yet very close to last year’s figure), and one of the most dynamic, diverse and academically talented first-year classes in our history: 84 percent are from Missouri; 79 percent report that Missouri S&T was their No. 1 choice for college; and their ACT average puts them in the upper 10 percent of the nation. Perhaps most impressive, a full 21 percent of our newest students are first-generation college students. These students, like Mikayla Bridgewater from Kansas City, are changing the trajectories of their families and I’m certain there isn’t a better place to do so! If you meet Mikayla or one of our 1,487 other first-year students, please join me in welcoming them.

New faces among faculty

Students aren’t the only ones learning the ropes on a new campus. This fall we also welcome 26 new faculty. From social psychology to civil engineering, these new faculty represent some of the top talent across the globe. Many of them are part of our strategic hiring initiative to fill 100 additional faculty lines by 2020. We now have a total of 42 of these additional faculty lines filled. Learn more about these rising stars here.

Faculty notes

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Dr. John McManus’s book, “Deadly Sky: The American Combat Airman in World War II,” you can do so now in paperback! In the book, Dr. McManus, a military historian at S&T, takes an in-depth look at the dog fights that took place in the clouds above the European and the Pacific theaters of World War II. The book shares many personal accounts of American combat airmen between 1941 and 1945.

I also want congratulate Dr. Mariesa Crow, vice provost for research and the Fred W. Finley Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, for being honored as outstanding power engineering educator by IEEE's Power and Energy Society.

Leading the celebration

Joe and Tessie Ballard are serving as grand marshals of this year's Celebration of Nations parade on Saturday, Sept. 24. Retired Lt. Gen. Ballard has a master’s in engineering management from S&T as well as both a professional and honorary degree from the university. He is CEO of The Ravens Group Inc. and is the former chief engineer and commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Did you know?

Missouri S&T had two athletes competing in this summer’s Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Tyrone Smith, a former All-America long jumper at Missouri S&T and a 2007 history graduate, finished 16th in the qualifying round of the long jump at the Olympic Games. Civil engineering student Shawn Wallace, representing the island nation of Palau, swam in the men’s 50m freestyle.

Congratulations to all our stars throughout Miner Nation, and best wishes on a wonderful fall semester.

Warmest regards,

Cheryl B. Schrader, Ph.D.
Chancellor

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