Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the year – Move-in Day! Although the down time during the summer is needed to regroup, replenish and prepare for the coming year – and that was never more true than this summer with the number of construction projects going on all over campus – I am always happy when everyone gets back and the school year is under way.
This weekend, I will be experiencing move-in in a whole different way as my wife and I drop our daughter off for her own freshman year of college. I can now fully empathize with the feeling of great pride—edged with a tinge of sadness and nostalgia—that the parents of our students must be feeling as they watch their children head out into the world.
Among the many changes to campus—small and
large—is the addition of a new Big Red Ale at Red’s that those of you over the
age of 21 can enjoy. I think the new tap is pretty cool.
This week was our annual Community Connections program. Community Connections is an immersion program that provides incoming freshmen who are interested in community service with an introduction to various service opportunities in the surrounding community. It also increases their understanding of the diversity and disparity that occurs in urban areas. In addition to service activities, such as working with Habitat for Humanity, serving in the soup kitchen and assembling school backpacks for elementary children, the students also attended a Spanish Mass, had a Puerto Rican meal and learned to salsa. This year, 48 incoming freshmen participated in the program, along with 15 upper-class student leaders and six to eight faculty/staff advisers. Thanks to Matthew Kaye, Esther Thomas, Margaret Casey and the rest of the Community Connections team for getting our students off to such a great start.
Congratulations
to Gary Rose whose book, Shaping a Nation:
25 Supreme Court Cases, continues to be
included in the latest National Association of Scholars study of college common
reading programs and the books they assigned in academic year 2012-2013. This
report, Beach
Books 2012-2013: What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read
Outside Class?, covers 309 colleges and universities and 190 reading
assignments. Gary’s book is recommended for “more ambitious college common
reading programs.” Gary recently published a new book called NO
HOLD BARRED: The 2012 Connecticut Senate Race about that hotly contested primary season and
general election race between Christopher Murphy and Linda McMahon.
If you have a chance, stop by Campus Field this afternoon at 3:30 for the Tenth Annual Fall Preview Show by the marching band. In honor of SHU’s 50th anniversary, the theme is “Decades” with songs from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and today. It should be a great show.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that classes start on Monday. I am wishing all of our students a wonderful start to this very special 50th anniversary year.
It looks like another great weekend! Enjoy!