Welcome back to all of our students and to the first edition of the Norwich Guidon. It is my privilege to write a column in every issue and I welcome the opportunity for using this as another way to communicate with the entire University community. The Guidon is an important vehicle to have that happen, and I encourage everyone to participate in both reading it and also serving on the Guidon staff.

I am always open to suggestions for topics of interest from our University community and I encourage you to write to me with your suggestions at pres@norwich.edu.

The Trustees have just visited Norwich and had wonderful things to say about our faculty, staff, and students, how beautiful our campus looks, the inspirational parade, and how well the University has progressed since their last visit in May. Our facilities team has done a wonderful job improving the campus; the faculty have worked diligently preparing for their courses for this fall; we have seen major changes and improvements in the training plan for the Corps of Cadets and the arrival of our new civilian freshmen and rooks. In my eleven years serving as your President, this has been the very best start of a new academic year, for which many, many people should take great pride and pleasure.

We are celebrating this year as "The Year of Honor." I wrote to all the faculty over the summer and asked them to incorporate this topic as appropriate in their courses and to give you real world examples in your disciplines about the issue of honor and honorable actions. The class of 1952 will be returning to campus to celebrate their 50th Homecoming in a few days and we will be providing opportunities for them to interact with our students to discuss this important topic and to get an historical perspective on it.

I look forward to an outstanding academic year for all of our students. Remember that every day is a great opportunity to excel, and I know you will.

Back to Guidon index