Dear Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends:

The future is here! 

We are heralding its arrival over the spring and summer with a series of events celebrating our great university and a number of achievements that will transform Kettering and transform learning across our campus.

Throughout our history, we have remained true to our unique and special educational heritage and vision — one built on not just learning but also mastery built on a model that places equal emphasis on the acquisition and the application of knowledge. During our Centennial year, we called this “the Future of Education Built a Century Ago.” Now, we are realizing our vision for the future of our university, leveraging two transformative achievements covered extensively in this issue: the successful completion of the Boldly Forward Capital Campaign and the opening of the extraordinary Learning Commons.

• The Boldly Forward Capital Campaign exceeded its $150 million goal, becoming by far the most successful fundraising effort in our history. Using gifts made during the campaign, we have already funded new scholarships, programs, capital improvements, facilities, and addressed a variety of critical needs. The success of the campaign and the opportunities it creates for our students and our university stand in tribute to the generosity and support of our alumni and other donors, to whom Kettering is deeply grateful.
• The Learning Commons represents a new model for a university building, and it is already garnering national attention. Essentially a 105,000-square-foot, fluid, collaborative and social space with no offices or classrooms, this amazing structure is the physical embodiment of our unique academic model and vision repurposed for the future. When it opens, the Learning Commons will transform the learning experience of students and the teaching experience of faculty as well as create for everyone in the University community new opportunities for socializing and collaborating in open, brightly lit, inspiring, technology-infused spaces.

The impact of these two achievements on our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the Flint community has already been far-reaching and profoundly transformative.  

In celebrating the arrival of the future, this special edition recognizes the wisdom and work of the entire Kettering community, which has brought us to this point during a transformational decade. We also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the University Avenue Corridor Coalition, which we founded and has become a collaborative of more than 80 community partners that have played a key role in revitalizing the areas surrounding our campus.

Between a celebrated past and the bright future that we celebrate, leadership opportunities emerged while meeting the challenges of the Flint Water Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. We successfully confronted these challenges with innovative responses, several of which are now taught at other universities as case studies in flexible, effective, compassionate crisis management.

In this special edition of our magazine, I invite you to explore the extraordinary opportunities made possible by the Boldly Forward campaign and the Learning Commons and to read about the other exciting developments underway on campus today.

Welcome to Kettering in 2022, where the future is here, and where we are transforming the University and transforming learning.

Warmest Regards,

Dr. Robert K. McMahan

President and Professor of Physics