Kettering University Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Enrollment Management recently wrote a guest blog post for the Washington Post. Here’s an excerpt:

Some institutions are working toward eliminating the unpredictability by creatively shouldering the burden of risk management. Kettering University recently unveiled a fixed-tuition guarantee that not only assures the same tuition rate throughout four years of study, but also eliminates all academic fees. While Kettering is the first STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) institution in Michigan to do this, other institutions have effectively instituted fixed-tuition guarantees, the most prominent of which is George Washington University. Mount Holyoke College, one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the United States, recently announced a tuition freeze, a move that earned praise from the Boston Globe for “for breaking the cycle of endless rate hikes, and recognizing the central responsibility higher education institutions have for addressing the nation’s ballooning student debt crisis.”

Kettering graduate Steve Walmsley was recently quoted in a press release discussion the U.S. Patent and Trademark office:

New U.S. Patent Offices in Detroit and Dallas Will Provide Added Value for Reising Ethington Clients

Troy, MI – July 9, 2012 – In an effort to help speed up the patent process, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced plans to open three more regional USPTO offices in addition to the Detroit USPTO location that is scheduled to open July 13. The additional regional offices will be located in the Dallas, Denver and Silicon Valley markets. Intellectual Property law firm Reising Ethington, P.C., with offices in both the Detroit and Dallas markets, is uniquely positioned to provide clients with more efficient service in terms of both time and money as a result of the new patent offices.

According to Reising Ethington shareholder, and Kettering University alumni, Steve Walmsley, “Our clients compete in a wide range of industries and often come to us with extremely cutting-edge technologies. Having patent offices located in the same markets as our Detroit and Dallas offices will provide valuable and tangible benefits for our clients. Our attorneys will be able to meet face-to-face with a patent examiner without having to spend an entire day going to Washington D.C. This will save our clients time and money.”

Reising Ethington was included in meetings with David Kappos, Director of the USPTO, during the planning stages of the Detroit patent office where various initiatives were discussed to help improve efficiency and quality of patent examinations.

Reising Ethington is very proud that the first USPTO-Detroit office is named after one of the firm’s early clients: Elijah J. McCoy. Although McCoy was issued more than 50 patents in his lifetime, he is most famous for inventing quality locomotive products that caused buyers to demand “The Real McCoy” to make sure they were buying superior goods. For more information please visit www.reising.com.

Charles “Chuck” Puccini, president and CEO of Bauer Foundation Corp. and a corporate partner of Kettering University, was recently honored with an entrepreneur award. From the news release:

Puccini has driven the company, which provides deep foundation services for the construction industry, to success using this principle.

One such innovative solution Puccini made at Bauer Foundation was expanding payroll to include more sales positions, which enables the company to be creative and more attuned to the needs of clients.

As a result, the company wins clients by bringing everything to the sales table, including a team of motivated and talented workers to perform a quality job.

Alma Guajardo-Crossley, writing for Latino Magazine, discusses the successes a Kettering University education helped her and her brother attain:

Additionally, I was very fortunate to have an older brother, Lorenzo, who wanted the same and set the foundation for what would be my career in the automotive industry today. You see, Lorenzo wanted to be an engineer, and had heard about a tremendous opportunity at a private institution called General Motors Engineering and Management Institute (now Kettering University). This school was at the time privately owned by General Motors and offered an innovative internship program for students. It was and still is a very competitive program, which required not only for your application to be accepted, but also for a student to be “sponsored” by a GM business unit, now open to other corporate sponsors.

Kettering is a perfect combination of work and student life on a super intensive schedule. As a student, you rotate every 3 months between work and school. While at school your course load is heavier given you have less time than a standard school, and while at work you are being paid and rotated through different departments to gain exposure. It is a five year program (5th year thesis) in which you earn your undergraduate degree, but at the end your chances of securing a full time job with your sponsoring unit is close to 100%, given the investment made and the experience gained.

My brother, who is now a successful GM engineer because of this university, motivated me to apply knowing the work rotations would be very helpful in covering tuition fees. Even though I have never had a passion for engineering, I became extremely excited once I discovered I could earn a business degree working with one of the most influential and greatest car companies in the world. I was accepted and sponsored by Oldsmobile Division, and as they say, the rest is history.

Ozzie Zehner '97

Wired.com has an interview with Kettering graduate Ozzie Zehner about his new book, Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism. From the interview:

Although an academic, Zehner has deep Detroit-area automotive roots. He attended Kettering University (née General Motors Institute) in Flint and then worked for GM for five years, along with a stint in advanced vehicle development at the company’s Opel division in Europe for three years. Originally from Kalamazoo, Zehner completed grad school at the University of Amsterdam, where he studied the sociology of science and technology. “My research was looking at how technologies are taken up in society — their benefits, limitations and unintended consequences,” he says. “But cars have always remained a big interest of mine.”