HOUGHTON - Administration, faculty and staff have made a lot of headway during the last year at Michigan Technological University and those efforts were honored at the Board of Control meeting Friday morning.
"Many of our staff, faculty and students have been doing great things, which is no surprise to us," said Chair Marty Richardson.
Among the notable accomplishments over the year was the designation as the No. 1 Peace Corps Masters International Program in the nation for the seventh consecutive year. The senate recognized Dean Johnson for being selected as the Michigan Professor of the Year.
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Daily Mining Gazette/Stacey Kukkonen
The Michigan Technological University Board of Control praised administration, faculty, students and staff at its regular meeting Friday morning at the Memorial Union on Michigan Tech’s campus.
"Michigan Tech is recognizing two faculty members with the 2012," Richardson said. "Professors Robert Nemiroff and Andrew Storer."
Nemiroff works with half of the team to contribute NASA's astronomy picture of the day, garnering more than 500,000 hits daily. Storer works with ash borer projects locally, in Michigan and surrounding states. Hal Holmes, a third-year student in biomedical and electrical engineering, has won a Goldwater Scholarship, established by congress.
Also at the meeting, board members watched a film highlighting numerous other achievements at the university.
The university approved several promotions and appointments within the university. Simon Carn, Aleksey Smirnov, Reza Shahbazian Yasser, Shari Stockero, Ali Ebenasir, Robert Pastel, Marika Seigel, Melissa Keranen, Samuel Sweitz, Rodney Chimner, Oliver Gailing and Audrey Mayer were promoted from assistant professor without tenure to associate professor with tenure.
Paul Ward was appointment from associate professor without tenure to associate professor with tenure.
Andrew Burton was promoted from associate professor without tenure to professor with tenure. Saeid Nooshabadi was appointed from professor without tenure to professor with tenure.
Promotion from associate professor with tenure to professor with tenure include Sean Kirkpatrick, Faith Morrison, Judith Perlinger, David Watkings, Jaroslaw Drelich, Yun Hang Hu, Christopher Webster and the aforementioned Johnson.
"Congratulations to all," Richardson said.
Also at the meeting, the board:
tabled the budget to be approved at a special meeting in June. An email will be sent to students concerning the issue.
adopted a revised strategic plan which replaces the plan approved in July 2009.
said the university is in the process of trying to purchase a video scoreboard for the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena.
elected Steve Hicks as chair and Julie Fream as vice chair for the coming year.
heard 854 undergraduates will be receiving bachelor's degrees and 199 students will receive master's degrees and Ph.D.'s at commencement today.
approved an increase in the student activity fee of $10 per semester for undergraduates and $5.70 for graduates.
approved the purchase of a new campus ID system to not exceed $1 million for safety reasons.
appointed Samuel W. Coates a professor of emeritus.
heard an update concerning the Generations of Discovery Campaign.
received several gifts from donors, including $3 million from Richard and Liz Henes, $107,000 from General Motors and $112,000 from David Brule, among many others.