Season’s Greetings 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Season’s Greetings! As our fall semester wraps up, I want to wish everyone ‘Happy Holidays,’ and hope each of you can experience all the comfort and joy our winter break provides.

And what a semester this fall has been. Since returning to campus, we all seem to have been running ‘Full Speed Ahead’ as if to make up for the lost time of 2020.

Led by our new USDA-NIFA Institute for Agricultural AI for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support, or AgAID Institute, our researchers have already reached more than $12M in research awards since July. In the past five months alone, Voiland College researchers have received nearly 80 awards to tackle the biggest health, infrastructure, energy, and societal challenges our world is facing today.

As we look ahead to 2022, I am encouraged by WSU’s 2022 supplemental budget request, which seeks additional compensation to help recruit and retain world-class faculty, staff, and graduate students, as well as funding for a new academic program to educate the next generation of Washington’s cybersecurity workforce. It is still early in the approval process, but I am optimistic that these and other initiatives in the coming months will help Voiland College be competitive with our peers and remain an attractive place to work and learn for the best and brightest.

Our new Building Success Campaign continues to move forward at warp speed as well. With 16 individual donation pledges of $100,000 or more received so far, fundraising for our new Student Success Building is happening at a faster pace than any other campaign in the college’s history.

Although much more progress remains to be made, excitement continues to grow amongst our students, faculty, alumni, and donors about this important project. As one donor recently said to me, “I think this is the chance of a lifetime for WSU’s engineering and architecture students.”

This past semester has really shown the need for additional support resources for our students. I’ve heard from many of you about how last year’s distance learning has impacted students’ engagement and mental health this semester. I believe these issues will continue to be felt into 2022 and beyond, requiring us to be thoughtful about how to create a healthy and successful learning environment for our students.

And our students are not the only ones who are feeling pressure right now. For many of you, the transition back to back to campus has been difficult. COVID-19 continues to impact our staffing, hiring, and our physical and mental health. I appreciate all of your hard work, understanding, and patience during the past year, and I encourage each of you to find some time to relax, refresh, and rejuvenate over the holiday break. You deserve it!

I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Go Cougs!

Mary Rezac's signature.

Mary Rezac
Dean, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
Washington State University
Email: mary.rezac@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-5593