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

Great weekend closes semester

We are in the midst of final exams, clearly a demanding time for all but one that also validates the hard work done by students over the past 15 weeks.

On Friday, we had our annual holiday celebration in two shifts! Thanks to great work by Laurie Jones, director of Human Resources, we had a huge afternoon event for faculty and staff at our Cunningham Center and than later a smaller but no-less-wonderful event for our many staff who work the evening shifts at the university. This is important recognition for very important people who many rarely see because of their work hours.

On Saturday, our men's basketball team posted a victory over the University of West Alabama, and two of our soccer players were named All-Americans, marking the first time ever that two student-athletes in soccer were honored the same year.

Later on Saturday, our Student Recreation Center hosted the annual holiday gathering for one of the Valley's great non-profits, Big Brothers,Big Sisters. We had the "bigs" and the "littles" on campus, and it was a great affair.

That evening, Lauren and I took the entire student delegation from the Beijing Institutue of Petroleum and Technology for dinner. They had a great semester and will be exceptional ambassadors for CSU in China.

We are looking forward to commencement on Friday the 16h and hosting Regents chair Ben Tarbutton and honoring our friend Mrs. Richard Hallock with an honorary degree.