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VIEWPOINT: Making companies more competitive I look forward to supporting MESA through my new role as chair of the MESA board of directors. As a member of California industry, I have been convinced for years that MESA is essential to the well-being of California’s industry, its education system, and its residents. MESA brings out the potential of students who have the capability of becoming great engineers, scientists and mathematicians. MESA does this better than any other program I have encountered. I became involved with MESA some 20 years ago, as a manager at Pacific Bell. I was asked by Chuck Smith, who is now president of SBC West, to investigate how the company could diversify its engineering workforce. Chuck reasoned that it made good business sense for our employees to reflect the society and cultures of the communities we served. A diverse workforce also would help sharpen key business decisions, from product development to entry into markets. This perspective was ground-breaking for its time. Very few companies recognized the importance of diversifying their workforces; today, it is standard business practice. I found very few programs that were producing the high-quality engineers from different backgrounds that we were looking for. MESA was among those exceptions. I had the good fortune of hearing students speak about the importance of MESA at an end-of-the-year banquet at UC Davis in the mid-1980s. Most students were the first in their families to graduate from high school, let alone college. One girl recalled an episode in which her family couldn’t pay the $1,500 in tuition and she almost left college before MESA came through with the funds for her, literally at the last minute. I thought, this is unbelievable, we’ve got to do something. I’m proud that I was involved in many activities of the company to support MESA through the years. It paid off. Pacific Bell, now SBC, employs many outstanding MESA graduates who are now senior managers. Since retiring from Pacific Bell to lead a start-up company, I have continued my involvement with MESA because I know it works. Its flexibility and willingness to continually improve makes MESA relevant to today’s business environment. Industry today faces an even bigger gap in the number of math-based graduates in the U.S. than that of other countries. We need programs like MESA to supply professionals for industry. MESA helps make companies more competitive on a global basis. It is unfortunate that MESA and similar programs have not been a priority in the state budget. The current pace of funding does not provide enough professionals to meet industry’s need to be more competitive. MESA gives educationally disadvantaged and underrepresented students a chance to become the professionals we require. We lose a huge percentage of these promising students before they even get to college. MESA works. It has worked for over 30 years. Its program model should be built into the education system so it can touch all students who need it. Educational institutions continue to seek programs that do what MESA has proven to do effectively. Why re-invent a wheel that already is rolling perfectly well? As MESA board chair and as a member of industry, I am committed to supporting MESA. If we are to ensure that California industry can be successful in an increasingly competitive world environment, we need this outstanding program now, more than ever. Dave Morse
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