Fall 2015 Welcome Speech

[SLIDE 1 WELCOME]

  • Welcome
  • Hard at work all summer

[SLIDE 2 BECAUSE OF YOU]

  • Thanks to Dean Kennedy and Housing team.
  • Fabulous job turning rooms from summer conferences to undergraduate move in day in short time.
  • More competition from nearby apartments than we’ve ever had and we’re respectably occupied at the moment.

[SLIDE 3 MOVE IN DAY]

  • Thanks to Luke and the Campus Rec staff for hosting check-in.
  • Give yourself a pat on the back, everyone, for a job well done.

[SLIDE 4 BRONCO WELCOME]

  • I ask Charlie Varlandevery year to coordinate Bronco Welcome and he does it with a smile on his face.
  • He would be the first to say he doesn’t do it alone.
  • All of you contribute to making sure Bronco Welcomeis the event we want it to be, a showcase of some of the best things we can offer our students.
  • I really enjoyed the Involvement Fair and I can tell our students did too.
  • I talked to the sword fighters for a moment and told them they were immortalized in the painting that we have in the Vice President’s office and they were shocked and amazed. Hopefully they’ll stop by for a visit.
  • Wonderful returning events:
  • Diversity Day Defined
  • Get Rec’d
  • College Night at Fred Meyer
  • I think Fred Meyer was a success based onthe pictures posted on Instagram and tweeted from the event.
  • New events this year
  • Trivia
  • Game Night
  • Favorite event: Splatter Party. More people came than last year even though we charged admission this year.

[SLIDE 5 BRONCO NIGHT]

  • Student Involvementand ASBSU hosted Bronco Night.
  • More than a thousand students.
  • They taught the traditional Boise State fight song and cheers.
  • An impromptu dance party broke out. Apparently thousands of students were whipping the naenae.

[SLIDE 6 B ON THE BLUE]

  • We can’t talk about the first day without talking about Convocation and B on the Blue. Sarah and New Student and Family Programsstaff did another remarkable job coordinating these events.
  • More people at Convocation than ever.
  • Overflowed the overflow room/people standing in the lobby
  • I was so proud of us that day.
  • I had several deans stop me and talk to me about how well students seem to be acclimating to the campus. How many more activities there are for them to engage in campus life in general and how we are consistently delivering.
  • It’s because we have a great staff. It’s because we really care about our students.
  • I appreciate the work and the thought you put into every day that you spend on campus serving those we serve.

Behind the scenes workenablesall the flashy things to occur.

  • Take a moment to recognize some of whatgoes on behind the scenes.
  • Processing financial aid and grades
  • SUB is clean and looking good every day
  • We make sure our housing is maintained
  • Many of you have those jobs that are the work behind the scenes and I thank you.
  • Programs for specific populations
  • Wendy Turner and her staff at the Disability Resource Center
  • Lori Sprague and Nico Diaz keep the wheels turning at Veteran Services.
  • These folks are engaged in a way that makes a real difference for our students. Thanks to all of you.

[SLIDE 7 MOVING FORWARD]

Moving forward, here are some things that I’ll challenge you with, because if I don’t do that, what’s the beginning of the year speech about anyway?

  • Take a bystander training coursefrom the Women’s Center.
  • Take LGBT 101. Understand our students better.
  • The training we have in our division helps us change the status quo.
  • Through making sure we create an inclusive environment we actually do change the world. Maybe we change it a little step at a time, but it makes a difference.

[SLIDE 8 CHANGE OUR WORLD]

  • I grew up at a time and in a part of the country watching violent images on television. I watched knowing there were marches going on in my city. That was at the same time we were going to the moon. It was a time where almost the best and worst of our humanity were occurring simultaneously.
  • I look at what our students are going through today, particularly the young ones, our traditional students, and what they face. They’re facing fear. Their world has been fearful for years. Since Columbine and 9-11.
  • All the messages they’re getting and what they’re seeing now on television, isn’t all that different than what I saw and what I’ve experienced myself.
  • I’ve been in that church in Charleston, South Carolina where nine people were killed this past summer.
  • I’ve looked at 16th Street Church in Birmingham and I know 40 kids were killed there.
  • That’s not a world I want to leave behind if I have any possibility of changing that.
  • It’s about making a decision to make a difference. I’m not interested in changing anyone’s belief system. I will fight harder than anything for anyone to believe what they want to believe.
  • I want to make sure on a daily basis I serve students in the best way I can and I ask that you do as well.
  • I don’t think our students today can live through what they’re living through without help. It’s the reason they have a lack of resilience.
  • We all have such a variety of experiences that we can share with our students. They would be richer if we did. We will be richer, because we’ll listen to them in a different way.
  • How can we make students less afraid? How are we going to change world and how are we going to help our students change it? They’re going to change it.

[SLIDE 9 TICKET SOLUTIONS]

  • One of the things I love about our division is how we respond when things get sticky. We had a problem with the University of Washington football game ticket sales.
  • So proud of what happened that night.
  • Leslie Webb, the general, got an army of you together. People volunteered out of the woodwork.
  • We had about 2,000 to 3,000 students spend the night in line.
  • Thanks to SILC staff we had movies on the inflatable movie screen.
  • “Guardians of the Galaxy”
  • “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
  • We served pizza and breakfast.
  • Charlie summed up the night the best. He said, “If you’ve never watched‘Ferris Bueller’s Day’ off at 3 am in a parking lot, you’re missing out!”
  • That’s what happens when the team is so good that everyone is more concerned about making those we serve more comfortable than placing blame.
  • I’ve already been told by the President’s office that no one could have pulled it off like we did that night.
  • By the end of the night the tweets were getting more and more positive.
  • I’d like to end with a few announcements:
  • Anna Moreshead received a grant for financial programming. Congratulations, Anna.
  • Lori Sprague has taken on the role of interim coordinator at Veteran’s Services since RK’s retirement.
  • We welcomed 193 new international students this fall.
  • Our Bronco Zone is now open again on Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.Bonus, you get to watch the band practice while having a nice meal.
  • And the last thing: there’s a new-hire orientation coming up next week. I think we’re expecting 35 new colleagues at that.

[SLIDE 10 EINSTEIN QUOTE]

  • What we do keeps getting better. It is because we’re intentional, strategic, committed, passionate. We do it because we know it’s important.
  • “The world as we have created itis a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein
  • You’re committed to making our students experience at Boise State exceptional—and that makes you exceptional.
  • We continue to change our thinking to serve better. To make our students comfortable. To reach even higher than we’ve reached so far.