Welcome back to campus after what I hope was a really enjoyable and restful holiday break. The faculty has been very busy over the break getting ready for your next semester, and the staff has been working diligently on the campus and in the information technology office to improve student E-mail service. You will be reading more about this in the coming weeks as we bring the new system up.

I recently received a report that I read over holiday break concerning the activity of the Cadets in their recruiting efforts. I want to commend everyone who went out to recruit new students for us. We need to do even more recruiting if we are going to realize our plans of growing the Corps to 1,250 students and to build a new civilian housing complex on the far side of Kreitzberg Library. When I came to Norwich in 1992, the students used to get just Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving break. The Corps and I made a commitment with each other that if I gave them three extra days leave, they would go visit three schools and brag about their campus and the Corps. The data for the last three years is as follows:

We also had more students, cadets and civilians, recruiting during the Christmas holiday break. As soon as we receive those statistics I will make sure I pass them on as well. I want to commend everyone who has been diligent in honoring the commitment to the University and ask that the rest of you think about what you could do to find good students for us. Certainly from these numbers, not everyone is recruiting, but those who do are making a profound impact on our ability to maintain and grow the Corps of Cadets. A special congratulations and well done to Band Company for having the most cadets recruiting and returning the most inquiries (India Company was a close second.)

Our new University Long Range Plan is posted on the web at http://www.norwich.edu/about/lrp.html.

The whole focus for the next ten years will be on improving the academic quality and programs of Norwich. We have done a great job over the last three decades on the physical plant and on generating scholarship money of which there is never enough! During this past fall and into the spring the academic divisions have been working on their three to five year plans of how they are going to realize some of these goals that are articulated in the Long Range Plan. It is going to be an exciting time academically during the next ten years as we push more resources into academics to improve our learning environment. Already we are seeing the results of the Leadership Campaign paying off academically in both improved quality of our inbound freshman class and having some wonderfully renovated spaces for all of our students to enjoy in mathematics and the sciences and for those studying engineering and architecture. Over the course of the spring I will be working with the faculty, the Provost, and the Vice President of Institutional Advancement to lay out what the next campaign will look like and what it will support.

The Leadership Campaign, in which we are raising $25 million, will be brought to a close at the next Homecoming in October. We are already at $24.5 million as of December 31, 2000, so we are going to well exceed our goal by October 2001. Over the course of the spring I will also be meeting with our graduating seniors to explain the vital role they will be playing in the next campaign. As our Alumni and friends continue to invest in Norwich, each year our students can see improvements to their academic and co-curricular experience.

Welcome back and enjoy a great spring semester.

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