August 2009 Archives

A new school year hasn't officially begun until the Honors College annual picnic has gotten the year underway. So we made it official yesterday by gathering all of our students in front of Bennett Auditorium for food and fellowship. Kudos to Stacey Ready and the Honors College Ambassadors for getting the event organized and running it -- as usual -- like clockwork. Many of our faculty showed up as well. The good time confirmed my strong sense that we have a terrific group of students this year. My only regret for the day is that I cheated while doing the limbo.

More photos from the event are loaded on our Facebook fan page at http://tinyurl.com/usmhonors.

Our incoming director of University Forum, Dr. Douglas Chambers of the History Department, assembled the freshmen after the picnic for the introductory Forum class. We're glad to have Dr. Chambers on board!

Excitement simply couldn't get much higher today for the first day of the Fall Semester. Freshmen began moving in Friday, and they've been in and out of the office sorting out last-minute adjustments to their schedules. Monday we held orientations for both General Honors and Senior Honors students, beginning events with an ice cream social in the Thad Cochran Center. (I gave official welcomes to the students in between servings of ice cream, above.)

We couldn't be prouder of this year's incoming class. The average ACT score of incoming freshmen is 29, and the average high school grade-point average is 3.7. We expect this group to be particularly strong.

The always-diligent Honors College staff deserves special kudos for staying on top of the myriad demands of a new school year. I have terrific colleagues, and their many strengths are best summarized in one common attribute -- they all put students first.

Let's get this school year started!

The semester kicked off to a great start Friday with freshman move-in day. Our 160 newest students moved into Hattiesburg and Mississippi Halls, and we thought it best to celebrate a day of unpacking with a pizza party in R.C. Cook's Lounge in the Hub early Friday evening. (Many thanks to my incredible colleagues who put it all together.) The pizza was good, but the company was great. The best part was watching strangers turn into friends in every corner of the room. My hunch is that this is going to be a great school year.

We’ll officially welcome the students back with a pizza party at 6 p.m. this Friday at R.C. Cook’s Lounge in the Hub. Students should be ready for their pizza; they’ll have spent much of the day moving back into their dorm rooms.

Monday afternoon we’ll have our orientation sessions for students in both General Honors and Senior Honors. Senior Honors orientation is at 3 p.m. and General Honors orientation is at 3:30 p.m., both at the Thad Cochran Center. Since — as every Southerner knows — the best welcome always includes food, we’ll have ice cream for our General Honors students right after orientation.