Eventful

I apologize for the brief hiatus here on the blog, but it has been a busy couple of weeks. Perhaps you’ve wondered what I’ve been up to?

I have been busy traveling to visit friends of the College and donors, but made it back to campus in time for a couple of big events.

Last Thursday, the university had an event to announce the naming of our new Nanoscience Metrology Facility, which is under construction. This building is being added to the north of Jorgensen Hall , the home of our Department of Physics. It will offer state-of-the-art research facilities for faculty and students from physics and chemistry and others from engineering and elsewhere. It was announced that the building will be named for Don Voelte and Nancy Keegan. The Chancellor got quite a laugh when he slipped and announced their gift supporting the building as totaling five dollars as opposed to the actual amount - five million. Thanks Don and Nancy!

On Friday, I made it to the A&S Free-4-Fall event, which turned out to be a great success, despite miserable weather. Our Student Advisory Board, Dean’s Scholars and our Student Ambassadors helped give out hot dogs, chips, cookies and cold drinks to students, faculty and staff in the College. I didn’t think we could give away 300 hot dogs in two hours and to my surprise, we did it in 40 minutes! I send my regrets to anyone who showed up after noon and had to go elsewhere for their lunch. The students also handed out A&S T-shirts and other goodies.

I’ve also been finishing a letter (as I mentioned in my last blog entry) to explain to faculty and staff in greater detail what the Chancellor’s recently unveiled recruitment, retention and research goals mean for the College. I expect to send that out soon and I will post a link here, too.