Holiday Weekend Celebrates Inclusion

I want to begin by wishing all who celebrate a happy holiday weekend. The combination of both Easter and Passover over the same weekend reinforces our exceptional commitment to celebrating diversity and inclusion. Our recent Legacy Celebration served to remind our campus of our unwavering commitment to inclusiveness on the Columbus State University campus. Indeed one of our core values reads: "Inclusion – Fostering and promoting a campus that embraces diverse people, ideas, views, and practices." I want to thank our Student Affairs team for choreographing such a wonderful and spirited event.

It's been another great week for faculty and student music on our campus. The LegacyLive concert by professors Sergiu Schwartz and Alexander Kobrin was moving and powerful. The packed house was so very impressed by the performance of these faculty, performing works from Mozart to Mendelssohn. Three days later, professor Kobrin performed with professors Wendy Warner and Lisa Oberlander, offering another exceptional evening, including works by Schumann and Brahms. Last night, Legacy Hall rocked with the sounds of the CSU Jazz Band led by professor Alex Pershounin. The 17-piece band has grown in such popularity that the concert was moved from the Studio Theater to Legacy Hall. The audience cheered, and the students responded. It was a great evening for all.

Finally, yesterday, I had the great pleasure of introducing Georgia's gifted Attorney General Sam Olens at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce. The AG was here to promote his food bank campaign across Georgia involving attorneys and law firms. This great effort will provide a much-needed boost to Feeding the Valley, and it was a great honor to participate in this visit.

Busy Campus Keeps Us on the Run

For the 20th consecutive year, our College of Education and Health Professions (COEHP) brought the National Teacher of the Year to Columbus. This year, Michelle Shearer, an AP Chemistry teacher at Urbana High School in Frederick County, Maryland, spoke to COEHP students and faculty, to the Columbus Rotary and to honorees in the 2012 Muscogee County Teacher of the Year program. Ms. Shearer embraces technology and teaching strategies and pushes students to push themselves into the STEM disciplines. Her talks were inspiring, and the STEM focus was incredibly appropriate, given our participation in the UTeach program. What a treat to have her on campus.

This past weekend, professor Alex Kobrin, who directs our piano studio in the Schwob School of Music, performed at Legacy Hall in a special concert with some of his students. The concert, performed on four Steinway concert pianos, was truly exceptional. No less exceptional was the performance of our Women's Tennis Team, a gifted group of international student-athletes who remain undefeated, and the great first place showing of our Women's Golf Team in a tournament in Carrollton.

By the way, I did manage to finish in the middle of the pack in Cody's Run on Saturday, a 5K coordinated by our Sustainability Committee.

CSU ensemble wows National Band Directors Association audience

I know this is homecoming weekend, and Lauren and I look forward to continuing to participate in an exciting array of activities (including getting a whipped cream pie in the face for charity).

But today I had the remarkable pleasure of driving to Atlanta to attend a meeting of the National Band Directors Association, where our Schwob School of Music Wind Ensemble was invited to play before attendees. Under the direction of  Dr. Jamie Nix, the students (over 60, in all) were truly remarkable. The students, taught by 15 wind and percussion faculty, were poised for a great evening. Additionally, Dr. Amy Griffiths performed flawlessly in conjunction with the ensemble in the Concerto for Saxophone by Ingolf Dahl. I was so very proud of this magnificent performance.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Dr. Nix and the ensemble was the thundering standing ovation delivered by a very grateful audience.  To which I say, bravo!

Terrific students make for terrific programs, events

Special thanks go out to so many Columbus State University students who committed so much time, energy and effort to fighting cancer with a series of special events at our men's and women's basketball games this week. The players were adorned in pink, and the efforts of these students and funds raised  will contribute wonderfully to cancer research. For our family, where my wife Lauren is a 20-plus year survivor, this is most important work. Thank you.

Both our men's and women's basketball teams will play in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament, which will be held in our own Lumpkin Center arena. We are thrilled.

Last Sunday, Lauren and I, had the opportunity on our anniversary to hear our violin studio gala featuring the students from the studio of professor Sergiu Schwartz, the William B. and Sue Marie Tuner Distinguished Faculty Chair in Music. There are 18 students in the studio from the U.S. and seven other countries. What a concert!  Immediately after, we went to Columbus' famed Liberty Theater to hear the Pershounin Project, the jazz quartet led by Schwob School of Music faculty Alex Pershounin and Paul Vaillancourt. It was a truly great evening.

Today, our Student Government Association learned their voices were heard as our 2012-2013 senior meal plan for residential students was modified to meet the needs and desires of students. A great shout out goes to SGA President Antonio Orsborn for his wonderful work.

From the Capitol to our campuses, what a week!

Columbus State University will never be accused of demonstrating anything but an abundance of energy.  The past week was one more exceptional example.

On Tuesday, a team of CSU students, faculty and staff descended on the state Capitol in Atlanta and hosted our first-ever CSU Day. With great support from our legislative delegation and wonderful friends of CSU like Pete Robinson, the day was a huge success. We left the campus at 5:30 a.m. and showcased an incredible array of programs, from our UTeach initiative and various graduate programs, to the Coca-Cola Space Science Center to Oxbow Meadows. Our exhibit areas were packed with visitors and our students were incredibly engaged all day. Special thanks go to John Lester in University Relations and Steve Morse and team in Logistics for all of their pre-visit work and set-up.

We had an exceptional program at Legacy Hall featuring our Woodruff Scholars in the Schwob School of Music and honoring our donors. This followed a great musicale delivered by select Woodruff Scholars  hosted by Dr. Catalina Aranas and Mr. and Mrs. Akitoshi Kan.

Following an amazing weekend of watching men's and women's tennis, basketball and our Cougar baseball team, Lauren and I had the great fortune of seeing Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom presented at our CSU Riverside Theatre, as well as seeing senior violinist, Zubaida Azezi's recital. Also, I stopped by our Ilges Gallery for our new art exhibition, Soft Science, and managed to visit the Coca-Cola Space Science Center's Mission to Mars.

What a great, engaged campus, offering best-of-class academics and community programs and interaction. That's what wonderful universities are all about.

Faculty help produce crowd-pleasing HMS Pinafore

My sincere congratulations go to Schwob School of Music professor Joseph Golden, artistic director, and Dr. Lawrence Dooley, stage director, of HMS Pinafore.

The performances played before sold-out audiences in RiverCenter over the weekend, and everyone in attendance truly enjoyed themselves. The 22-member chorus was wonderfully prepared by professor Constantina Tsolainou, and the cast was fantastic.

The show, a great reflection of the College of the Arts partnership between music and theatre, portends great things for our opera program in the future.

Wishing all a happy and healthy 2012!

Lauren and I so enjoyed the time spent with so many international students and athletes at our home over the holiday period. Many often forget that a number of students are simply unable to travel over the break. This is the fourth consecutive year we have opened our home for these students and a number of faculty to help usher in the holiday season. How very special when a terrific student athlete and a world-class faculty member, both from Croatia have the opportunity to visit for the very first time!  This is truly one of the great distinctions of global institutions