Looking Ahead With Hope

Mary Rezac standing in the lobby of the WSU PACCAR Environmental Technology Building.

Dear colleagues and friends,

As our semester gets underway in earnest, I am incredibly thankful for the strength, perseverance, and resilience of our students, faculty, and staff during this past difficult year.

Through it all, our students continued to advance their studies through coursework and projects, our faculty found innovative ways to engage students across the internet, providing hands-on experiences even in a socially-distanced format, and, you, our partners, remained engaged using new platforms like Zoom and Teams.

I’m really proud that we have not only survived but, in some regards, thrived.

I want to particularly recognize and thank our Engineering and Technology Management faculty members who, with their understanding of distance degree pedagogy, led the way in the providing guidance and support to their faculty peers. Our online graduate engineering degree programs were recently ranked among the top 25 programs in the U.S., according to U.S. News and World Report. I couldn’t be more proud – these programs play an essential role in helping us to fulfill our land-grant mission, providing access to education to our students around the state and beyond.

In our February 2021 Voiland College magazine, you’ll find stories of our collective success relating to advancing solutions to the problems of adaptive technologies for the mobility impaired and the production and distribution of vaccines. The stories will provide insight into the students and faculty members who are advancing these technologies.

While we likely have a few more months of hardship ahead, we are excited for a brighter future on the horizon. Like you, I am eagerly looking forward to the days ahead when we can once again see each other in person and work side-by-side in our labs, classrooms, clubs, and communities. Until then, let’s stay connected through these electronic means.

Thank you, again, for your continued support through these challenging days. And, as always, Go Cougs!

Dean Mary Rezac's signature.

Mary Rezac
Dean, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99163
mary.rezac@wsu.edu
509-335-5593