Friends,

As you might suspect, things are pretty quiet around here without you. However, that doesn’t mean we are sitting around or playing a lot of Frisbee golf (just a little if you have seen the post card). In fact it has been a busy summer as we are now working full-time in preparation for the fall semester to begin. I hope that you are excited for your return to campus. We certainly are!!

By the time you get here, the Colts will have come and gone for their second year of training camp on our campus (at least if a labor agreement got made). We were excited to have over 80,000 campus visitors last year and hope to match that number again.

There are no big physical changes on campus this summer, but you will notice that there are a number of new staff members in Student Life. New Resident Directors in Rice Hall (Amber May) and Morrison Hall (Sarah Westfall), along with the moves of Mike Scott from South/Tara to Smith Hall, Alecia Carmichael from Fair Commons to Martin, and Trent Palmer from Smith Hall to Fair Commons in a role that combines RD with Student Programs, most specifically Intramurals. Beth Boys, an alumna from 2006, will be our new Director of Student Activities in a position combined with the South Campus/Tara East Apartment Resident Director role. Finally we welcome Laurie Judge as our new Director of Career Development. We are always sad to say good-bye to staff who have moved on, but like most years, we feel like we have hired some excellent staff. Can’t wait for you to meet them!

One significant change that will impact the whole campus relates to Chapel. Beginning this fall, Chapel will begin at 11:00 a.m. instead of 10:00 a.m., yes, 11:00 a.m. instead of 10:00 a.m.  The other significant change is that Chapel cards will only be available until 11:00 a.m. sharp, as shown on the clocks in Reardon Lobby. Our previous practice of allowing five minutes for providing 'late cards' had slowly evolved into a situation where a great number of students were arriving at Chapel like it began at 10:05 which was disruptive to the start of the service and to many students. Classes are being scheduled differently this fall on Tuesday and Thursday and consequently classes before Chapel will be over at 10:45 a.m. at the latest. With more time to get from class to Chapel and a later start, it seems less necessary to provide that extra five minutes and our program will benefit from starting on time. 

As is our custom, a group of students, Student Life staff and a faculty member or two have worked and prayed together in order to arrive at our theme for the 2011-12 year. The one word theme for the year is RESToration, and here is a short preview from your campus pastor, Todd Faulkner.

Restoration is a work of the heart. The long processes of repairing, mending, and healing take dedication: a commitment to fix up an old car or flip an old house; a loving perseverance to work through the difficulties involved in mending broken relationships; the patient endurance necessary in waiting for a reset bone to heal or a torn muscle to recover. These kinds of transformations involve not only the changing of something (a car, a house, a relationship, a bone, a muscle) but also the changing of someone in the process. Likewise, just as we can commit ourselves to participation in God's ongoing works of restoration around us, we can also open ourselves up to the divine work of restoration within us. As we choose to participate in God's loving work of restoring the world around us and even through us every day—lives, families, neighborhoods, communities, the natural world—we can rest assured that God also wants to restore the hearts within us...the hearts that beat so quickly so much of the time…pounding under the pressure of more, more, more…busier, busier, busier...reforming those hearts to be still and know that he is God: the God who makes all things new…the God who restores beauty from the ashes...in us, through us, and all around us.

I am anticipating that we are going to have another great year. I hope that you will take seriously your role as an upperclassman and really look out for the freshmen and transfers who will be joining you this year. Freshmen bring a lot of energy but upperclassmen set the pace. I pray that you will set the pace with your eyes fixed on Jesus, the who one began a good work in you and the one who will continue to pursue and refine you until the good work is completed.

If you have questions or there is anything we can do to help your transition back to school at the end of August, please don’t hesitate to contact me or someone else on the Student Life team.  And take a look at the rest of this e-newsletter. There are some helpful reminders on all kinds of topics.

See you soon,

Brent Baker, Ph.D.
Vice President for Student Affairs
and Dean of Students