UWSP Provost & Vice Chancelor for Academic Affairs Letter

Mark Nook

Forty years ago the College of Natural Resources first opened its doors. Imagine what UWSP would be if a group of people hadn’t had the foresight to dream, to plan, and to build the College of Natural Resources. For anyone associated with UWSP in the last 40 years, it has to be impossible to image UWSP without the CNR. While the impact on the university has been great, it has also had an incredible impact on the State of Wisconsin and far beyond. The Paper Science & Engineering Program is now a part of that proud legacy.

What will we do today that will be remembered forty years from now? I offer that as a challenge to Paper Science and Engineering and to the UWSP Paper Science Foundation. It is also a question that I believe has an answer – WIST. The Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology is a major effort by the university to develop interdisciplinary research, education, and laboratory services related to a broad range of sustainable technologies. That is an exciting possibility for all of us.

As we welcome Dr. Bernie Patterson as our Chancellor, the university is also asking a similar question, what is our future? It has been more than a decade since UWSP completed a campus-wide strategic plan. This plan will provide us with an opportunity to look at who we are and where we want to go as a university. A big part of who we are and where we want to go involves the greater Central Wisconsin region in particular, but stretches far beyond. UWSP has vital roles to play in economic development and the improvement of the quality of life in Central Wisconsin. This includes one of our key industries, the Paper Industry. We need to work with business, industry, cultural, and governmental organizations to make sure that the economy of and quality of life in Central Wisconsin are as robust as they can be. Our strategic plan will help us identify those roles and how we can move our university forward. The UWSP Paper Science Foundation has been a great partner in helping us see our role in the economy of Central Wisconsin and the global paper industry.

This is an exciting time at UWSP. Thank you for your contributions to UWSP and the Paper Science Foundation; they have helped us reach this exciting point in our history. We all look forward to continuing to work together to build the future for our students.

Mark Nook,
Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs