For serving Western Michigan University for more than a quarter of a century, IME professors Fred Sitkins and Dr. Kailash Bafna were recently inducted into the WMU’s 25-Year Club. Each received dinner, a framed certificate, and a gold watch.
Fred Sitkins
If years as a WMU undergraduate student were added in, Sitkins has spent nearly 30 years at WMU. Being able to teach at his alma mater is a “privilege,” he said. “I shall always be a Bronco.”
Sitkins came to WMU in 1979 on a two-year temporary appointment that became tenure-track later that year. In 1984, he joined the newly formed Engineering Technology department, which later merged with industrial engineering to become IME. He became a full professor in 1998.
In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Sitkins has been an active participant in the WMU community. For several years he served as advisor to the Sunseeker project and to the SME student chapter. He assisted many senior design projects including the one that built a replica of the WMU East Campus trolley for the 2003 Centennial. He also participates in the Mike Gary athletic fundraiser.
“You get the personal satisfaction associated with these kinds of activities by doing them because you want to rather than because you have to,” Sitkins said. “There is much to be said for giving back and the endless rewards gained from it.”
Sitkins has taught vocational education at three Michigan secondary ed programs, Henry Ford Community College, and Ford Motor Company. He also owned and operated Sitco Manufacturing, a stamping and fabricating facility, for seven years.
In addition to his BA from WMU, Sitkins earned a MS from Eastern Michigan University. He is also certified as a manufacturing engineer in both manufacturing management and robotics and as a motion control and technical sales specialist.
Sitkins and his wife, Christine, have seven children and 11-going-on-13 grandchildren.
Bafna has been part of what is now the IME department for 24 years. He has served as associate professor, professor, and department chair. For one year, he was an assistant dean for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
“Working at WMU has provided me with extreme flexibility in how I conduct my classes to make an enriching learning experience,” he said. “It has also provided me with the opportunity to serve my profession internationally.”
Kailash Bafna
Before coming to WMU, Bafna was an assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology and an associate professor at University of Wisconsin, Platteville. He has also worked in industry.
Bafna earned a BS in mechanical engineering at Banaras Hindu University, a MS in production management from University of Mississippi, and a PhD in industrial engineering from Purdue University. He and his wife, Vimla, have two children and two grandchildren.
The 25-Year club was founded in 1982 with 98 members. It now has 393 active members and 480 retired members.
Among those active club members are several other IME faculty, staff, and administrators, including Jim VanDePolder, who began teaching in WMU’s Transportation Technology Department in 1966. In his nearly 40 years at WMU, he says that every time he meets a former student, “it’s a great day.”
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