Dean's Message
Dear Friends of Gonzaga Engineering,
As we near the end of our first year in the beautiful PACCAR Center for Applied Science, it is hard to imagine life without all the new facilities that this building added to our School. The classrooms, labs, and offices brought much-needed expansion room for our faculty, students, and programs, and we are thankful for the University and donor support that helped make dreams of this facility come true.
Significant Changes
Despite the end of construction for now, other significant changes continue to occur. With the departure or phased retirement of several faculty members, the recent untimely passing of long-time Electrical Engineering Professor, Dr. Juan Bala, and the need to increase the over-all size of our faculty to deal with larger enrollments, we will see the arrival of five new faculty members this summer, with another position still open. This help is certainly needed as we anticipate an incoming freshman engineering class that, by some estimates, may be as much as 30% larger than last year's, most likely yielding another record total enrollment for the School for 2009-2010.
Engineering in Florence
In these brief comments, I want to highlight two items that are also mentioned on other pages in this report. The first one, which will not be fully realized until next spring, is the successful planning and development of a new, one-semester "Engineering in Florence" program that will meet the curricular needs of a majority of our sophomore students. Eligible students can spend the spring semester of 2010 at our Florence campus, getting not only their core classes in philosophy and religious studies, but also the mathematics and engineering courses they need to complete their degrees on schedule. This is a major addition to Gonzaga engineering and to Florence, and I offer my thanks to the Dean of Gonzaga-in-Florence, Dr. Patrick Burke, for working with me to make this happen.
75th Anniversary of Gonzaga Engineering
The second event acknowledges the fact that our Gonzaga engineering programs are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year. From the small program first approved by the Trustees in 1934, we have grown to a nationally-recognized and ranked School. In the fall of this year, there will be an "Engineering Gala" to celebrate our history and our vision for the future. More information will be forthcoming, as we continue the planning for this special event.
Once again, I want to offer my thanks to all of you who have helped make this School so great andmy tasks so much lighter. It is indeed an honor to serve as dean of this exciting academic unit of Gonzaga University in its 75th year!
