FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 1, 1999
Contact: Debbie Hinz
Tel.: (202) 366-4831
RSPA 24-99
RSPA ADMINISTRATOR COYNER
VISITS UTC ASSUMPTION COLLEGE
WORCESTER, Mass.— Research and Special Programs Administrator Kelley S. Coyner participated today at the kick-off event for the University Transportation Center (UTC) at Assumption College.
"President Clinton and Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater are committed to improving transportation safety, expanding education opportunities and protecting the environment," Administrator Coyner said in her remarks. "The University Transportation Center at Assumption College will help provide the people we need to lead, manage and operate America’s transportation systems in the 21st century."
The event marks the official beginning of the Center for Transportation and Environmental Education for the Twenty-first Century, established last year under a grant awarded by RSPA. This center is one of 33 UTCs funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Collectively, the UTCs include more than 80 schools throughout the United States. All of the centers conduct combined programs of research, education, and technology transfer activities.
The Center for Transportation and Environmental Education specializes in developing education and science curricula that incorporate transportation and the environment into the training of current and future K-12 teachers. Its objective is to ensure that our nation’s young people will become informed citizens, better prepared to assume responsibility for making and implementing necessary transportation and environmental decisions that will enhance our nation’s place in the global economy of the next century.
The UTC program already has produced more than 1,200 research reports and involved more than 3,500 university students and faculty in the study of transportation. UTC Program grants must be matched by recipients on a dollar-for-dollar basis, doubling the value of the federal investment.
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