From the Dean

By Susan Fandel

Friends,

As we near the end of another very successful spring semester and prepare to graduate yet another large graduating class, I am excited to share with you some of our recent activities, honors and upcoming events. I am proud of our Think and Do staff and faculty and the many ways each day they support our number one strategic goal: student success. As you likely know, we are in the middle of Think and Do the Extraordinary, the Campaign for NC State. With a goal to raise $1.6 billion for scholarships, research, programs and facilities, this is the boldest effort of its kind in NC State’s history.

The Wilson College of Textiles is making major progress towards our goal, and I thank everyone who has supported – and continues to support – the campaign. As Chancellor Woodson states, with state support we are great university, with private support we can be an extraordinary university.

In this newsletter, you’ll read about many activities and honors that would not be possible without substantial private support. This includes endowed professorships like the Ciba Professor of Textile Chemistry; Dr. Renzo Shamey was just named the second individual to hold this position.

Also, our graduate students are increasingly benefiting from philanthropy. Through the generous gift from the Osborne Foundation, we have been able to provide graduate assistantship support for a number of our talented graduate students. Our highly successful Summer Textile Exploration Program that attracts so many high-quality students into our College and NC State recently received generous support from our industry partner, VF Corporation through their philanthropic foundation. Also sponsored by VF is this year’s Research Open House, organized by our Textile Association of Graduate Students leadership. We are grateful to VF, the North Carolina Textile Foundation and all of our industry partners. Together we are helping advance the textiles, apparel and related industries in North Carolina and the nation.

I hope you enjoy reading our news and look forward to sharing more of our accomplishments in the coming months.

David Hinks, Ph.D.
Dean, Wilson College of Textiles