 |
A May
bouquet: Of showers, flowers and
hope for the future
April showers bring May flowers.
That’s a proverb rooted in meteorological and horticultural
fact, but you can’t prove it by me. When I lived in Corvallis, on the wet
side of Oregon, April’s showers started in November. When I moved to Le
Grande, on the dry side, we welcomed any rain, any time. Then, when we came
to Green Bay, there was a four-inch snowfall in late April our first year here
and, to be honest, I don’t recall how it affected that May’s flowers
one way or another. Sometimes, precipitation just leaves you cold and wet.
If we enjoyed bright moments at UW-Green Bay during April
2003, it was also a month shadowed by dark skies and painful budget reductions
brought on by the state’s fiscal crisis. We have acted to reduce budgets
while protecting longer-term capacity. Right now it is difficult to foresee
good coming of any of it, as we are forced to move in a direction opposite of
what I heard you wanted, needed and expected of UWGB. I also worry about the
effects upon committed, hardworking colleagues whose positions are affected
— either directly, through position reductions, or indirectly, through
postponement of our capacity to fully support their high aspirations for serving
our students and region. Long term, however, your UWGB will prosper. It must,
if we are to effectively serve the increasing needs of a dynamic but transitioning
region. That’s why, as many see May flowers as a hopeful metaphor for cyclical
progression, I, too, am hopeful.
In this season of showers and flowers, then, and with my
need to pack varied topics into this final report of the academic year, I’ll
gather a handful of items into one big bouquet and present them here. I also
want to call attention to some big things popping up in May.
|
|
Hanging with college kids, touring the "cool" dorms,
having the run of the campus. . . our 550 fifth-grade visitors on Phuture Phoenix
Day loved it all. (I'm still at a loss as to why some wanted "the big principal's"
autograph, but the energy was amazing.) Thanks to volunteers, corporate sponsors
and Green Bay Public Schools for making it possible.
|
|
