Saint Martin's University launched the Science Initiative to construct a new state-of-the-art science facility to increase the number of graduates with science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, degrees in our region.
The Board of Trustees, University President and Science Initiative Steering Committee dedicated the new Father Bede Ernsdorff, O.S.B. Center on Thursday, May 9, 2019. This new science facility will house the Department of Math and the Father Placidus Reischman, O.S.B. Department of Natural Sciences, as well as collaborative faculty and student research spaces and teaching labs and classrooms.
Saint Martin's University joins a national movement to increase America's science and math graduates. The jobs of tomorrow are already here today, and many of those jobs in our region are going unfilled. Washington State has one of the highest concentrations of STEM jobs in the country, but we are one of the lowest states for producing these graduates. Saint Martin's new science building will be strategically located next to Cebula Hall and the Panowicz Foundry, creating a STEM triangle on campus.
While STEM enrollment at Saint Martin’s has grown significantly, we are losing many highly qualified students to other colleges and universities which have built state-of-the-art science classrooms and laboratories for their programs.