Four years of progress
A few years ago, you—Mines alumni—provided input leading to the creation of our MINES@150 strategic plan. At the time, you said we needed to come together to move Mines to the next level—on par with the world’s top universities but still distinctly different. You also said we needed to act with urgency or risk Mines becoming irrelevant in this rapidly changing and increasingly technology-complex world. As a result, we targeted 2024, the year of Mines’ 150th anniversary, as the due date for this assignment.
That date is now just four years in the future. Four years seems long when you are a new Oredigger entering Mines but very short when reflecting back on your time since crossing Mines’ graduation stage.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly added an extra degree of difficulty. But we’re Orediggers, and we thrive on challenge. We know this is important to the future of the university we all love and have high aspirations for. We’ve made great progress, and I’m particularly excited to see how everyone is coming together and how our efforts are coalescing on initiatives that will ensure that Mines continues to attract top students and produce distinctive and highly valued graduates while remaining at the forefront of discovery and innovations in engineering, science and education.
We’ve just launched the Campaign for MINES@150 to support those efforts, and it’s on a great trajectory. But we can’t accomplish the MINES@150 vision without philanthropic support. State support funds less than 10 percent of our operations today, and students and their families already carry a heavy burden due to that declining support. Recognizing this, members of our Oredigger family have already stepped up to support the priorities we’ve set for the next four years. I encourage you to learn more about these priorities and find a way to be part of this important effort at campaign.mines.edu.
Four years will pass quickly, and we won’t procrastinate. In 2024, we will celebrate all we have accomplished together to position Mines for success in its next 150 years. Let’s get to work.
I hope all of you are well. Go Orediggers!
Paul C. Johnson
President and Professor
P.S. One other thing—I know many of you want to know how Mines is doing in the COVID-19-era. We periodically hold virtual town halls to provide updates, so be on the lookout for more of those. I’ll just say here that I’m incredibly proud of how everyone has stepped up—students, faculty and staff, and also our alumni and donors who have found new finding ways to be involved, support Mines and our student emergency fund.