Letter from Dean Pam Jansma
Happy March and a few more weeks until spring break when everyone can hopefully recharge a bit as we head toward graduation in May.
Wow, what an exciting afternoon we had a couple of weeks ago as we celebrated CLAS research and creative activities on February 15. The Terrace Room was packed with people, posters, books, and energy. Some tasty food contributed to the buzz, but the stars were our faculty. The interdisciplinarity and range of what we do is extraordinary. As noted in the new “CLAS Research and Creative Currents 2024” edited by Lisa Keranen, our own Chair of Communication, we published more than 740 articles in the last two years, produced more than 30 books and 75 creative works since 2021, and generated an average $7 million in annual funded research over the past 5 years. Many of our faculty have received prestigious awards for their scholarship. We are on track to keep if not exceed this pace for the foreseeable future. We sometimes don’t take enough time to celebrate ourselves and our achievements. From poetry, to fire behavior, housing insecurity, genomics, solutions for addiction, ancient footprints, participation of women in the labor force, forest ecology, deconstructing colonialism, computational chemistry, immigration, and climate change (to name just some of what we do), CLAS has significant impact on the world around us and the society in which we live. This is who we are and will continue to be.
Many thanks to Lisa Keranan, Julien Langou, Elly Lewis, Karen Fennell, Kristen Salsbury, Laura Argys, Tracy Kohm, and Carol Auchziger for putting together the event.
Here is to all of you who continue to make this happen and let’s celebrate again next year.
