About the Initiative
The year 2011 marked a special time in Saint Martin's
distinguished history. With the launch of Saint Martin's Engineering
Initiative, we are laying a new cornerstone for the entire
University.
The School of Engineering is in the process of getting a
retrofit: two new buildings, a new dean, and a new place in the
wider community.
The Old Cebula Hall was home to the School of Engineering for many
decades, but its useful life had unfortunately come to a close. It
served the school well, though, and now the new building will allow
Saint Martin's to continue Father Cebula's legacy of high-quality
teaching, informed by Benedictine values.
The Engineering Initiative features a "green" building,
targeted for Platinum LEED certification, ready to train the next
generation of engineers. The new facility for the School of
Engineering will mean more students, more lab space for those
students, and the completion of the Saint Martin's academic "quad,"
improving the campus experience for all students. Now that the new
Cebula Hall has been complete, the next step is to build a adjacent
and complementary industrial lab building, the "Lab in the Woods,"
that will house labs for robotics, fluids, soils, fabrication, wind
tunnel, a project work area, classroom and senior project display
space.
Despite our small size, Saint Martin's has had an international
impact on the profession of engineering. More than 1,300 graduates
have gone on to work all over the world in engineering firms, and
state and local government. These graduates have the traits of great
engineers — the ability to problem-solve, adapt and innovate — and
because they come from Saint Martin's, they are also great thinkers.
Our newly invigorated School of Engineering will build on the
successes of those alumni. It will expand our services to the local
community, the engineering profession, and the campus experience for
students and faculty. It is the first of many steps in our plans for
the future and will help secure Saint Martin's rightful place among
the best small Catholic universities in the country.
Terry Monaghan '62 and Waite Dalrymple '65
co-chairs, Saint Martin's University Engineering Initiative