UMass Amherst: NRE Year in Review

Dean's letter – A Year in Review

Alumni and friends of the college:

It has been a year of great progress and accomplishment for students, faculty, and staff in the College of Natural Resources and the Environment. NRE folks have won national and international awards of great distinction, and our programs continue to grow in stature. Among the many highlights of the year are:

an integrated department of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, which promises so much
a newly formed Dean’s Advisory Council that will advise, advocate, and help us raise the endowments that are vital to achieving our lofty aspirations
new faculty of the very highest caliber, including the college’s first two endowed chairs

We’re also excited to announce that our friends in the turf industry have raised nearly three-quarters of a million dollars to construct a building at the Joseph Troll Turf Research Center, and that construction is under way.

Another first this year was the introduction of a college graduation celebration. We’ve heard from students, their families, and the faculty how meaningful it is to have a forum for more personal celebration. In response, we created our own ceremony for NRE graduates, which adds an intimate gathering to the large-scale excitement of the campus stadium commencement.

We gathered in the Curry Hicks Cage on the afternoon before the campus-wide event. All of us stood beaming while the graduates processed down the aisle. As I greeted the students, it occurred to me that many of these deserving graduates were on that dais, families bursting with pride and cameras flashing, precisely because of the financial support provided by the generosity of alumni who came before. If you are one of the many who made these scholarships possible, I hope you too will take pride in having made a difference in the lives of these students and their families.

With best regards,

Cleve Willis, Dean
College of Natural Resources and the Environment
www.umass.edu/nre