Monthly Archive

I was just walking around campus yesterday, and it is amazing how quiet everything becomes after the students head home for the holiday break.  Yes, there are still some students on campus (in fact, two of them were over at our house for dinner last night), but the vast majority have scattered around the country (and, indeed, the world) to spend some time with their families.

During the past month or so, I had the opportunity to meet individually with each of our separate Freshman Seminar classes, and one question I asked each time was for the freshmen to relate to me how they think they have changed during their first semester.  In almost every instance, the first thing that got mentioned by the students was “more independent,” followed frequently by comments such as “more self-confident,” “realized that I can do a lot of things for myself,” “learned to manage my time better,” “more focused,” and “got to have fun and meet people from backgrounds different than mine.”  I consider that to be very good progress on a lot of levels for the first semester.

Indeed, this past semester has seen a good deal of progress on many fronts.  Our Nursing program received accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.  Our innovative student-run non-profit, Project 701, expanded significantly, adding numerous new student-run projects.  We became a significantly “greener” campus, with the introduction of much more energy-efficient outdoor lights and the recent installation of a solar-powered water heater for our new George M. Smart Athletic Center.  Our wonderful facilities staff just completed construction of our new outdoor ice rink (located behind the residence halls’ parking lot).  And our DC Global and DC Edventure programs are off to a great start, as we continue to add more and more domestic and international trips for our students.

We also took a significant step this semester toward our goal of giving all our students meaningful hands-on experience related to their major that links what goes on in the classroom with the realities of the world beyond.  In pursuit of that goal, this semester saw the introduction of our new and innovative collaboration with the Defiance City Schools which gives our education majors an opportunity to receive hands-on experience in classrooms starting in their freshman year.  I am very excited by the thought that our education majors will be able to enjoy four years of classroom experience, rather than the standard year or two in most more traditional programs.  And the opening of our new George M. Smart Athletic Center this upcoming semester will create a similar kind of opportunity for our Sport Management majors, as they will get hands-on experience running and managing a major sporting facility, booking events, etc.  Of course, we already have similar kinds of opportunities in many of our other majors, but these are the two most recent initiatives!

Before we know it, December will have turned to January, and we will be welcoming our students back from break.  While I will enjoy some time off during the holiday week, I am eagerly anticipating even better things to come next semester.