A special letter from Dr. Denise Doyle, chancellor of UIW. President Dr. Louis Agnese has just returned from a sabbatical.
Dear Friends:
There is a feeling you get at UIW when commencement is upon us. It is a sense of anticipation! The campus is abuzz with grounds men blowing leaves and trimming hedges. Everything is being spruced-up for family and friends attending ceremonies on the campus. There are students taking pictures, posing in caps and gowns. There are groups of friends mugging together, perhaps for the last time. There is a gathering of fond memories as students look back on their years on campus. There is the hint of farewell in the air.
There is a feeling you get at UIW when graduating students march between their faculty on the way to commencement! It is a sense of mutual admiration and mutual success. Each student has accomplished a dream and perhaps a series of challenges along the way and has prevailed. Each faculty member has contributed his or her knowledge, inspiration, and guidance to the ultimate goal of these students reaching graduation. It is a wonderful feeling of success, and congratulatory greetings abound! For retiring faculty (see p. 22) these are some of the memories they will cherish.
“There is a feeling you get at UIW when graduating students march between their faculty on the way to commencement! It is a sense of mutual admiration and mutual success.”
There is a feeling you get at UIW as the semester is ending. It is the move from a rush of activities that mark the end of another semester, to the slower pace of summer. It is the gradual thinning out of crowds of students, as dorm rooms are emptied and exams are finished. Suddenly there are more parking places open and fewer students waiting for shuttles. The tension of a crowded calendar of year-end events is gradually released.
So when the summer starts, those of us who work over the summer take a deep collective breath and enjoy the rest. We wander across campus and see the space left by graduating students, retiring faculty friends, and the inevitable changes that summer brings. We enjoy a less hectic pace and more parking. But it doesn’t take too long before the fatigue of the spring semester is replaced with anticipation of the fall semester, the new Fine Arts Building, new students and faculty, and the return of familiar faces. These are the cycles of the university by which we set our semester clocks. Enjoy the summer, Cardinals, and come back soon!
Sincerely,
Dr. Denise Doyle
Chancellor
