Dear Colleagues,
The leaves around campus have turned to glorious shades of red, orange and yellow and are falling all around us – which can mean only one thing – autumn weather is here!
I want to thank everyone who braved cool, rainy weather and came out to the groundbreaking celebration of Schweitzer Engineering Hall.
It was so wonderful to see our students, staff, and faculty gather with our donors and community leaders to celebrate this tremendous milestone together.
The groundbreaking is just the latest in a flurry of activity that is going on in preparation for the opening of our student success building in 2026. Here are a few highlights:
- I am happy to announce that more than 70 donors and corporations have now contributed to the new building, and we are now more than 95% of the way to reaching our fundraising goal.
- After receiving input from students, faculty, and staff earlier this spring, our planning committees spent the summer working with our design-build firm, Lease Crutcher Lewis | ZGF to incorporate that feedback into a final list of spaces and programming Schweitzer Engineering Hall will support. Included amongst the priorities are:
- Space for students to collaborate.
- Student support space for tutoring and advising.
- Space for student clubs to meet.
- Space to accommodate multiple classroom sizes.
- Food and gathering space to encourage togetherness.
We will continue to work with Lease Crutcher Lewis | ZGF over the coming months to finalize building designs that fit within our budget and match up with our priorities, with the goal of starting construction on the building after classes get out next spring. If you have questions or are interested in participating in this planning effort, please reach out to one of our planning committee chairs.
Schweitzer Engineering Hall is just one of several initiatives that our department and college leadership are busy working on. In the coming weeks, I will be visiting each of our schools and departments to share more updates and discuss the matters that are most important to you. Please mark your calendars and look for invitations from your department to attend. And of course, as always, if you have questions or concerns about anything going on in the college or university, don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly.
Go Cougs!
Mary Rezac
Dean, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
Washington State University
Email: mary.rezac@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-5593