To the editor

Posted by
On December 5, 2019

As usual, I enjoyed reading the Spring magazine, particularly the article on Dr. Stephen Roberts’ CASB programs designed to “prepare students for sustainable careers in a rapidly changing world.”

That article emphasized the importance of “soft skills” like critical thinking, effectively communicating, enthusiasm, commitment, problem solving and motivation. All of these are being taught, and taught well, in our outstanding Greek community.

With the recent spate of hand-wringing over enrollment drop, it would seem that we should recognize the soft skill set as no longer ancillary but an important component of the educational experience at S&T. If you buy that premise, then the bit of including the outstanding Greek experiences available at S&T as part of the promotional efforts of the university should follow. Yet, in that same publication (other than in the obits) there was but one mention of the fraternity experience, and that was not from the editorial staff.

There are opportunities here and, if you agree, then we can do better together.

Michael Kearney, EE’60
Kirkwood, Mo.


I wanted to thank the department behind Missouri S&T Magazine for the inspirational work communicated in the recent Battle for the Brain articles.

Thanks to my Rolla learning, I spent 20 years as a successful chemical engineer earning patents for designing new bottles for Gatorade and testing new packaging at Mallinckrodt, but brain trauma, sadly, suddenly became part of my life in 2018. During a vacation, I fell 30 feet down from a hiking trail at Shenandoah National Park on May 24 and suffered horrible brain, skull and bone injuries, so I am still unable to resume working due to many medical issues.

I still can read the magazine, however, and though I have never doubted great work is done at Rolla, until reading the newest magazine, I had never once realized ongoing meaningful work to prevent and protect human brains from brain trauma issues happened there. Thanks so much for the great work to those researchers and to those who assembled the interesting magazine articles.

Jeremy M. White, ChE’97
Clinton, Mo.

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On December 5, 2019. Posted in 2019, Fall/Winter 2019, In Your Words, Letters