Life at a university is cyclical in a number of predictable ways. Each fall, we welcome a new cohort of students along with all those returning to our campuses, we hold Opening Convocation in Ted Wilson Gymnasium, we attend sporting events and classes and host alumni who come back for homecoming. In January, many of our students study abroad. When the spring semester rolls around, student groups host events they’ve been working on since the fall, Wildstock brings wild energy to campus, we’re enthralled by the lūʻau, we celebrate students’ work at a symposium and, of course, we host commencement in the Oak Grove. Then many of our employees take a deep breath before spending the summer laying the groundwork to do it all again.
Of course, there are always times when we experience the unexpected: pandemics, wildfires, heatwaves and ice storms. As my sixth fall at Linfield University approaches, I have experienced both the predictable and the unexpected. These experiences lead me to be contemplative about the year ahead and what it is we do here.
I look forward to welcoming new students and reuniting with returning ones. I am eager to continue working shoulder-to-shoulder with so many great colleagues on both of our campuses. Opening Convocation, homecoming and home soccer games will again be a joy. Most of all, though, I look forward to enmeshing myself in a teaching and learning community where we are all striving to make the world a better place, by helping our students lead a life of color.
The Linfield University seal that has appeared on our diplomas since 2021 features the Old Oak overlaid with an acorn and an “L”. The tree has three primary root systems, representing learning, life and community (the cornerstones of our mission statement). And from behind the oak, rays of light emanate out to the broader world. Because fundamentally, that’s what we do: Send rays of hope and higher learning out to a world in desperate need of both.
In the months ahead, we will celebrate the winning ways of our student-athletes and the incredible resiliency and talent of all our students. We will be awed by the hard work put in by faculty and staff members, we will attend performances and participate in classes, and we will marvel at the world-class wonder that is our newly opened Linfield University Science Complex. We will develop relationships that will last the rest of our lifetimes.
And we will, of course, continue to engage the community outside of our campuses, delivering those rays of light to the world both near and far. Thank you for being a part of that delivery system with me and for inspiring our students in the year ahead.
