Dear SDC Community,
Happy New Year! Welcome to the winter 2024 newsletter where we proudly showcase noteworthy activities and applaud accomplishments the last six months…there is much to celebrate!
We continue to facilitate the participation of students in various conferences, competitions, and international study programs—locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. These experiences are poised to significantly enhance not only their current learning at WSU but also their future endeavors. Although classroom learning is undeniably crucial, these experiences possess the potential to reshape perspectives and trajectories in exceptionally positive and enriching ways.
We understand students learn differently than they did 10 years, even 2 years ago. We understand they obtain information differently and we must adapt to this new landscape and environment. We must continue to be innovative, thoughtful, and productive in our approaches. With that, we invested significant resources to meet the needs of our incoming demographics by producing promotional and recruiting videos for the SDC, architecture, construction management, interior design, and landscape architecture. We are quite proud of them, and we encourage you to check them out, share them with your networks, and any prospective students or partners.
This year we welcomed a handful of new faculty members into the SDC. We are excited to announce Marcus Owens joined landscape architecture as a new tenure-track faculty, and we also added several amazing adjunct faculty who bring experience and expertise to the classroom. This year also included the addition of Jess Cross, advisor, which bolsters our efforts in advising and recruiting and allows for a greater focus on the first-year student experience in the SDC. Lastly, we are searching for four new faculty hires – architecture (tenure track), architecture (open rank), construction management, and one as part of the WSU cluster hire program that focuses on social justice around food and the built environment. We are excited to see what the future will bring in these new hires!
Thank you for your continued support of the School of Design and Construction. Our alumni, industry partners, and friends of the school are instrumental to our success…thank you! Your engagement helps us to sustain our efforts toward providing an excellent education to our students. The generous donations you provide to the school enable us to allocate resources for student, faculty, and staff success.
As we all know, a new year brings new opportunities and challenges. As we get ready for the start of the new semester, I am launching the SDC director’s challenge to encourage alumni, industry partners, and friends of the school to help us garner more philanthropic support for our students, faculty, and staff. I am personally committing to match donations (between now and June 30th) up to $3,000. A gentleman once told me to “put my money where my mouth is” as I was discussing a potential donation. With that as motivation, I believe in the SDC and continue to be impressed with the work our faculty, staff, and students produce on a regular basis…so much so, that I’m willing to contribute to achieving this goal. To learn more about this challenge, please go to: https://sdc.wsu.edu/give/
GO COUGS!
Jason B. Peschel
Associate Professor | Director
School of Design + Construction