Clarkson University has issued a statement saying it supports legislation introduced in the Senate Wednesday to help schools strengthen their engineering programs and meet the growing demands of 21st century manufacturing.

The measure is sponsored by by U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Graham (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).

The Manufacturing Universities Act of 2015 will help train American students and workers for 21st Century jobs and ensure that when manufacturing jobs are available U.S. workers will be ready to fill them. It would designate 25 universities as ‘Manufacturing Universities’ and provide incentives to better align educational offerings with the needs of modern manufacturers, the Clarkson statement says. The incentives would be used to bolster universities’ efforts to focus on manufacturing engineering and curricula specifically related to targeted industries.

“Senator Gillibrand has it right: a vigorous manufacturing base in the U.S. is critical to sustaining our research leadership, and a healthy university research base is critical to sustaining our manufacturing economy,” said Clarkson University Provost and Senior Vice President Chuck Thorpe. “This is a great partnership.”

Three years ago, Thorpe worked in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, helping create the groundwork for a resurgence in U.S. manufacturing.

“Now, with Senator Gillibrand's support of this bill, we are taking a crucial step towards building the university research base to accelerate our manufacturing economy,” Thorpe said.

The full text of a news release on the bill is at Sen. Coons' website via http://1.usa.gov/1MJhloc.