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I hope you ll now pay it forward by helping us support a new generation of inspirational teachers who will sustain, far into the future, our mission of graduating in-demand, Day One-ready professionals. If you think back, I bet that you can identify a faculty mentor who was key to your own success. I m calling on you our loyal alumni, donors and friends to help us fund faculty and their needs. We need faculty endowments in support of our strategic initiatives that address vital and emerging market areas, such as cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, applications in autonomous flight, Big Data and more. To retain our edge, Cal Poly and the College of Engineering must find non-state revenue to invest in faculty. We are also one of the most efficient universities in completing this task, ranking third in the nation for producing more bachelor's degrees per faculty member. Unfortunately, we cannot fund these needs under our current fiscal model, even as we continue to graduate the top engineers in the nation. In addition to investing in current professors, we need to recruit new teachers hot off the front lines of technological advances. We also have to provide the facilities, equipment and technology needed by faculty for applied research. They need release from teaching in order to delve into the expanding edges of their fields. How do we keep up with 20,000 years of progress? The fact is we don t, unless we enable current faculty members to use their interests and expertise to develop new curriculum. Ray Kurzweil, futurist and director of engineering at Google, writes about the rate of accelerating intelligence: An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential we won t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century it will be more like 20,000 years of progress. The acquisition of new knowledge is a monumental task. Faculty are the lynchpin to learning because they create the conditions for student success, and they serve as education s front line in the acquisition and dissemination of new knowledge. This is true whether learning takes place in the classroom or in co-curricular settings, such as clubs and team projects. From my perspective, faculty are central and essential to education.
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Online education and statewide fiscal compression have, however, challenged the traditional role of faculty. We all know that faculty make up one part of the education triad along with students, and administration and staff. said, I ve been inspired every single day by our awesome faculty members who challenge me in and outside of the classroom. Another student, Shannon O Keefe, n Rakesh Goel, associate dean for student success and undergraduate programs, College of Engineering Dean Debra Larson, and Jim Meagher, chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, are meeting new challenges at Cal Poly Engineering. Peter Loddengaard said that Industrial Engineering Professor Tao Yang demands so much of students because he believes in us. Junior Joanna Woo said, that with Environmental Engineering Professor Rebekah Oulton s encouragement, she hopes to follow in Oulton s footsteps in the engineering field and give back to her community. 2 Message from Debra Larson Dean, College of Engineering THIS PAST JUNE, STUDENTS ACROSS THE UNIVERSITY posted video messages thanking their favorite professors.