Hockey Champs.
By defeating Brown 10-2 on Friday and Harvard 5-4 on Saturday, the last
games of the regular season, the Golden Knights were number 1 in the ECAC. That assured the
team of an invitation to the NCAA national championships.
For the first round of the ECAC championship, Clarkson defeated Cornell 5-3 in Cheel
on Saturday, March 11. The next locale was Lake Placid for the championship games a week
later. On St. Patrick's Day, Clarkson lost to Princeton 2-1, and then, after defeating Colgate 10-
5 in the consolation game, ended in third place. Finishing the regular season in first place,
however, assured them an invitation to the NCAA tournament.
A slow start and missed opportunities played a large role in Clarkson's early exit from
the NCAA Tournament as the defending champion, Lake Superior State, withstood a late
Clarkson rally to defeat the Golden Knights 5-4 in the first round of the NCAA East Regional at
The Centrum in Worcester, Mass., on March 24.
Mini-Baja Victory.
For the second time in three years, Clarkson's Mini-Baja all-terrain vehicle
took top honors at the Mini-Baja East Competition. (See 1993)
Held at West Virginia University in Morgantown, this three-day affair tested the four-
wheeled vehicles from over 40 colleges and universities from the eastern United States and
Canada.
Under the advisorship of William Keat, assistant professor of mechanical engineering,
Clarkson's team created a vehicle with a "secret weapon" which "wowed" the audience the first
day. That secret was four-wheel steering, an innovation created by Scott Wilkas '95. It proved
itself by ensuring a second-place finish in land maneuverability, a fourth-place finish in water
maneuverability, and by holding up during the four-hour endurance race.
Both team captain Johnathan Boyer '95 and inventor Wilkas were four-year members of
the team, and both had worked on the 1993 winning machine.
Strategic Plan.
In May 1992, Clarkson embarked on a two-year strategic planning process that
incorporated the input of employees, students, alumni, the Board of Trustees, and local
community members. From these discussions emerged a revised Clarkson Mission Statement, a
Vision Statement for the University in the year 2001, and a set of Goals, Objectives, and
Strategic Initiatives. These documents articulate a strategic focus that will provide the
framework for planning over the next decade. The Board of Trustees unanimously ratified this
strategic focus at its May 1994 meeting.
This focus placed the student at the center of Clarkson's mission, and is designed to
increase the quality of students' experience at the University. Although students are the ultimate
end served by the goals, objectives, and strategic initiatives that constitute the strategic focus,
other groups within the University will also benefit. In many cases, the path to increasing the
quality of students' experience lies in the enhancement of some dimension of faculty, staff,
administration, or alumni experience.
The major changes, innovations, and new directions proposed by the goals, objectives,
and strategic initiatives fall into three major categories:
1.Develop distinctive curricula and programs;
Engage all undergraduate students in experiential learning outside the classroom, including
co-op, undergraduate research, and study abroad, among many other possibilities;
