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Why
fall is spring, the future is bright, and what you think matters Labor Day week is back-to-school week at public universities across Wisconsin including UW-Green Bay. It is, without question, one of my favorite times of the year. There’s something I love in the rhythm of the academic calendar, the way the relative calm of early August is swept away by the fall-semester rush... the return of students to the campus... the influx of new faculty and staff members... the last-minute preparations to make everything just right for another university year. I love the excitement on people’s faces and in their voices. As I write this, I’m preparing to welcome our new-freshman class and their parents, a thousand or more people gathering in the Weidner Center. I participated last year during one of my first Green Bay visits and recall it as great fun and just a little rambunctious. The energy of our new freshmen — the anticipation, the exuberance and even that hint of nervous apprehension — will help me fully charge my own batteries for the year ahead. It’s a special reminder that “going away to college” is one of the great milestones, and pursuing an education one of the enduring aspirations of American life. In a sense, fall is our spring. It’s a natural time, on a college campus, to talk about fresh beginnings and future promise and growth and blossoming potential. And at UW-Green Bay, as first semester begins, we have plenty to share in terms of growth and development: • The opening of Ed Thompson Hall, a 120-bed unit that allows us to pare our student waiting list and maintain our leadership in state-of-the-art housing; • A freshman class of truly talented top-tier individuals and, most encouraging as we move toward a more diverse campus, a record 59 new freshmen of color; • The new Master’s of Management program, organized in response to community demand, off and running with its first courses; and • The start of heavy lifting on the Laboratory Sciences construction project, an $18 million update and expansion that will give us our second “new” building and the wherewithal to revolutionize science education for the next generation. That's just this week. There's much more to come. UW-Green Bay is a terrific institution with a terrific story to tell. |
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 Last week's faculty-staff convocation was an opportunity for singing the praises of UW-Green Bay. (For a recap of "the list," see the next page.) |
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