Messages from the Department Head

Winter 2023 - Funding our priorities

Dear Alumni and Friends of CEE,

I am pleased to write at this time of Thanksgiving to thank you individually and the CEE Alumni Association as a whole for your generosity, dedication and loyalty to CEE. I am delighted to report that the state of CEE is strong. Our student enrollment is approaching 1,400 (including more than 600 graduate students) and we see great enthusiasm around our new B.S. in Environmental Engineering coming this fall, research activity and expenditures are the highest in a decade, CEE is home to two new national Centers, and our staff, faculty and students are excelling and being recognized in myriad ways. We are looking forward to the many opportunities and challenges worth meeting to provide an exceptional student-centered education and to remain at the forefront of the profession.

In 1965, the department’s alumni newsletter announced the establishment of a new fund to enable donors to direct their gifts to the civil engineering department to be used for whatever needs were most pressing. Established through a Declaration of Trust between the University of Illinois Foundation and the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Civil Engineering Alumni Association, the resulting Civil Engineering Trust Fund was for “the advancing and furthering of purposes and achievements of the Civil Engineering Department.”

In recent years, the CEE Trust Fund was renamed The Priority Fund, but nearly 60 years later, its purpose remains the same: to allow the department to direct funds wherever they are most needed. In 1965, the list of examples for use of the Trust Fund included “scholarships for undergraduate students or fellowships for graduate students; student loans; research programs; establishment of special professorships or chairs; publications; lecture programs; faculty and student participation in regional and national conventions; conferences for educational or professional purposes, stimulation of interest among alumni and friends of the department; acquisition of library and reference materials; or purchase or rental of equipment; visiting professorships; and special prizes for students and/or staff for scholastic or professional achievement.”

Today, the need for unrestricted, discretionary funds is just as keen. Thanks to our Priority Fund, we can give undergraduate students the opportunity to work on research projects with faculty and graduate students while getting paid, through the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Thanks to the Priority Fund, the department can provide much-needed financial support to our more than 25 CEE-based Registered Student Organizations and CEE undergraduate and graduate student activities. The CEE magazine, which has kept CEE alumni informed and engaged for 60 years, is also supported by this fund. Other uses include purchase and replacement of specialized equipment for labs and financial support to allow faculty to explore exciting new directions in research. Another innovation made possible by the Priority Fund recently are “Brain Breaks” for students – once-a-month, drop-in events with snacks and table games, where undergrads and grad students alike can visit with faculty, staff and each other in a relaxed environment. These events have helped encourage a sense of community – something that had suffered during the pandemic.

During the department’s campaign to raise money for the new Civil and Environmental Engineering Building and the Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge, gifts to the Priority Fund fell off a bit, as donors focused their philanthropy on the campaign for teaching laboratories, reconfigurable classroom space,
and office space for our burgeoning numbers of faculty and graduate students. This focused generosity resulted in the success of the greatest capital project the department had undertaken since the building of the Hydrosystems Laboratory in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and we are so grateful. We see the impact of these new spaces every day. And while it is true that there is still work to be done to realize the full potential of the new laboratory spaces, we must turn our attention to additional needs.

So I ask each of you to consider a gift to the Priority Fund. If you belonged to a student organization during your college years, or found yourself amazed by a faculty member’s innovative research, or enjoy hearing about events and research in your home department at Illinois, then you have benefited from the Priority Fund. As always, I know the department can count on you, our students of the past, to reach back to help the students of the present. 
In this season of gratitude, know that the department is grateful for all of our alumni around the world, doing great work and carrying the Illinois name to new heights of achievement.

-Ana P. Barros                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Donald Biggar Willett Chair of Engineering                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Department Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering