President's Message: September 8, 2009

Dear Faculty and Staff,

I hope you had a relaxing Labor Day weekend…you deserved it! I want to thank you for making these first two weeks of school such a big success. College is an exciting and sometimes scary time for our first-year students and you made them feel welcome. The Capital Times recently ran an article about the things every first-year student should know about college. Along with Carlotta Calmese, Jennifer Hoege, Paul Short, Michael Shumway, Lorin Toepper, Renee Alfano, and Al Studesville…I had the opportunity to give my “words of wisdom”. I hope you have time to read this straight-forward and thought-provoking article.

Jim Thomas Fundraiser
In case you haven’t heard…money raised from the Athletic Department’s September 24th Golf Outing will benefit our late golf coach’s family. Jim Thomas passed away last month at the young age of 43. He left behind a wife and four children. I hope you can help support this wonderful fundraiser.

Marvels
During my many talks with students…I ask them about their favorite teachers.
Here’s what they recently told me:

Victor Gagliano, Science
Amy Gilliland, Arts and Science
Anatomy/Physiology team:
-Sharon Holthaus
-Mary Savage
-Deb Wiepz

Highlights of My Week
• welcomed new college staff during their orientation session on Monday morning;
• stopped in at our veteran’s orientation and benefits fair;
• was interviewed by Eric Ely, a writer for our student newspaper The Clarion, for an article related to our college name;
• attended a WisPolitics luncheon where we heard Senator Russ Feingold discuss his views related to health care reform;
• delivered homemade cookies to staff to thank them for their tireless efforts to ensure that our students successfully began classes at the college this fall;
• greeted board members and staff from Iowa Lakes Community College who were on campus Thursday morning to take a look at our new TelePresence technology;
• sponsored a gathering of The Business Forum and spoke about happenings at our college;
• met with a representative from AccuWeather, Inc. to learn about the services they have to offer for our multi-campus system; and
• met with representatives from the QTI Group to discuss the position profile for our human resources director vacancy.

Recently Bob Dinndorf from our Foundation sent me this quote by Mary Kay Ash to sum up our efforts regarding conducting our “Smart Future” campaign during these difficult economic times:

“Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it, so it goes on flying anyway.”

Keep on flying!

Bettsey