I had "the budget talk" with the extended cabinet yesterday. The primary objective of the meeting was to make sure that the campus leadership is clear about our progress toward budget reductions so that they, in turn, can answer the questions of their constituents. The text of my talk will be posted on our website in Fall Semester Buzz, but part of it bears restating.
We are NOT going to let our budget define us this year. It would be an insult to the good work that surrounds us.
Enrollment is up. Retention is up. Research funding is up. Private fundraising is up. The only thing down around here is the economy, and plenty of smart people at Southern Miss are figuring out how to deal with that.
As I left the meeting yesterday, I remembered the words of Winston Churchill (who had his own share of troubles in 1941) when he spoke at Harrow School:
Do not let us speak of darker days; let us rather speak of sterner days. These are not dark days: these are great days--the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.