I decided to keep my calendar open today so that I could get moved into the office, meet with staff, send a few notes, meet with my administrative team, get out and meet a few students, and work on the budget.  I also expect that there will be a few people dropping by for a visit or calling in to the office. In addition to the transition in the President’s Office, today is a major milestone day for Louisiana Tech athletics.  Today, we officially became members of Conference USA!  This conference provides us with national caliber competition with universities in our region which will enhance rivalries and build greater fan participation.  It will also provide Louisiana Tech with significantly greater regional and national visibility by regularly having games in several major metropolitan areas in the south.  I look forward to visiting with our fans and alumni as we travel to these games.  C-USA has done a great job in negotiating television rights this year and it looks like we will have at least 10 games televised.  There will be several bowl options for C-USA teams, so we are looking forward to making it to a great bowl game.  A big thanks goes to all of those who worked so hard to position Tech be invited into C-USA. Another big athletic milestone begins today as we start searching for a new Athletics Director.  This will be a very important position for us as we push to increase national visibility for Tech.  I am very confident that we will have an outstanding slate of candidates to consider.  We will move swiftly to fill the position, but want to carefully check out all possible options. Today is also the first day of the fiscal year and, regrettably, we still do not have a complete picture of our budget.  It will be another challenging year for us, and we will not be able to do everything that we would like to do.  However, we are determined to find ways to bring greater value to our students, greater support to our dedicated faculty and staff, and a greater future for the citizens of Louisiana.  We are well aware of our challenges and I am optimistic that we will find a way to achieve our ambitious goals.  There is no university president in the country that has a more committed team and caring community of supporters.  Onward Louisiana Tech!