Hello Red Wolves:
I hope everyone is having a great summer. There’s lots of great, recent news for the entire A-State community. With the start of a new fiscal year, let me catch you up on things you may have missed since the end of the spring semester.
New Faces on Campus (and hopefully hundreds more this fall)
Help me welcome to campus our new Provost, Dr. Calvin White, and the Founding Dean of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Glen Hoffsis. Dr. White is settling in over the Fourth of July week, and I’m sure you will see him out and about on campus. With meetings both in and out of state ahead, Dr. Hoffsis will be very busy over the coming months completing our process to launch the A-State College of Veterinary Medicine.
This time of year, everyone wants to know about the incoming first-year student class. Our Student Life staff and Pack Leaders have hosted fantastic (and packed) New Student Orientation sessions this summer, and our Enrollment Management team is continuing to stay in contact with our new Red Wolves. Things are looking up for the Class of 2027, but as we all know, we won’t know for certain until August.
Speaking of our new students, we are planning new programs for this next class of students. We want to provide more support – academic, community and emotional – for all Red Wolves. Dr. White and I have been working with the staff in University College and Student Life to revamp some old programs and to create some new ones. We’re very excited that Dr. Nikesha Nesbitt agreed to become our interim dean of University College. Look for more details as we approach the fall semester.
Supporting Our Red Wolves
Another support for our students – financial – got a boost recently when the second half of the transformative $10 million Neil Griffin gift arrived. The late Mr. Griffin dedicated the majority of his support to student scholarship funds, and soon that will mean more scholarships for our Griffin College of Business students. Speaking of scholarships, two more Red Wolves, Reagan Bingaman and Jadyan Watson, received prestigious competitive national awards recently.
Along with the overall 2% merit pool raises for employees, many staff support positions received additional salary adjustments to promote retention and provide salaries that are more competitive in the marketplace. This is the final group to transition from the State Classification Compensation System to non-classified status.
In case you missed it in June, I want to say congratulations to Cori Keller, who won the Miss Arkansas scholarship pageant, and will represent us at Miss America later this year.
Welcome Week is Now Wolves Up Week
Before you know it, Wolves Up Week will be here to start the fall semester, and we’ll be getting ready for classes. I hope each of you has a chance to take some time this summer to recharge before the excitement begins. Great things are ahead!
