Greetings from the Director

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the WISE Residence Program year-end banquet. As always, it was a terrific event, with wonderful company, delicious food, and lots of stories and recognition of a year well spent. It scarcely seems possible that the academic year is winding down.

While end-of-year events are often bittersweet, it is wonderful to see the numbers and incredible diversity of the young women who come through our WISE programs. From aerospace to zoology majors, from Ishpeming to Detroit and New York to India, our women represent the incredible range of backgrounds and potential that science, engineering, mathematics, and technology fields offer. And when you think of all of the other women’s organizations on campus such as SWE, gEECS, SWIP, AWIS, and MUSES*, it is clear that UM women are claiming their spot in the STEM educational and career pipeline. Only 30 years ago, the UM College of Engineering had 5 women graduating at the Bachelor’s level. Last year, we led the nation with 323 women obtaining their engineering Bachelor’s degree. And the numbers are even better in fields like biology and chemistry. That’s pretty impressive, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

As the WISE Program celebrates out 25th anniversary, the science office will be moving into temporary space in the Chemistry building. While we will miss our offices and wonderful neighbors in the unique old Frieze Building, we look forward to being close to the Science Learning Center and all those LSA and engineering women taking introductory chemistry courses. Isn’t that just about everyone? The WISE Residence Program will be moving into temporary space in East Quad for two years while Mosher-Jordan Residence Hall is extensively renovated. Big changes as we start our next 25 years!

I wish all of our students a successful end to the year, good luck on finals, and a productive but restful summer.

See you in September!

*Society of Women Engineerings (SWE), Girls in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (gEECS), Society of Women in Physics (SWiP), Association for Women in Science (AWIS), and Movement of Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and Science (MUSES).

April 2006 eNews

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