Monday evening, I was invited to speak to the Bienville Parish Chamber of Commerce in Arcadia.  There was an excellent turnout of over 350 people and many of those in attendance had Tech ties, including Chamber President Tom Martin, CEO of Gibsland Bank and Trust, who invited me to speak. A few people reminded me with pride that former Tech President F. Jay Taylor was from Gibsland in Bienville Parish. I was proud that one of our alumni, Mr. John Paul Fields, received the prestigious Heritage Award from the Chamber.  I remember seeing Mr. Fields at many events on the Tech campus over the years, particularly basketball games at the TAC. The linkages between Bienville Parish and Tech are strong and we hope to increase those ties in the future. Tuesday morning, I met Raney Johnson in my office for an interview over KLPI.  I was “DJ Papa Bear’s” first guest on his new web show.  You can play back the interview at http://thebearofnews.wordpress.com/. The interview was a lot of fun and we are both looking forward to doing that again in the near future. Raney is Public Relations Director as well as DJ for the station and working hard at promoting KLPI to have a more prominent program on campus. KLPI has been an important part of the Tech experience for many years and it has greatly enhanced the skills of those who have worked there.   On Tuesday, we also hosted Jenee Slocum and Susie Schowen from Louisiana Economic Development (LED) who were on campus to review our innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce programs.  Over the years, Louisiana Tech has built model programs in those areas and these programs are having significant impacts. Dr. Davy Norris does a tremendous job as Executive Director of Enterprise and Economic Development for us. On Friday, Davy and Entrepreneurship Coordinator Debbie Inman hosted our Top Dawg New Venture Championships where six teams pitched their business ventures before judges to compete for a total of $8,000 in prize money. Early Tuesday evening, Kathy and I hosted all of the Tech Spirit Groups for a dinner and recognition event.  The Cheerleaders and Regal Blues do a great job of representing the university at so many events and are typically involved in many other campus activities, often in key leadership positions. They have to do a great job of managing their time so they can practice, work, participate in organizations, go to class and study. Special thanks to Sam Speed, Assistant Dean of Student Life, Steven Ehrhard, and Lauren Derveloy for their leadership and support of our Spirit Groups. Early Wednesday morning, I headed out to Baton Rouge for Board of Regents and University of Louisiana System Board meetings. At this time of the year, everyone is focused on bills in the legislature that are impacting higher education, particularly those things that have to do with funding. We are still hopeful that higher ed will receive stable funding and also support through the WISE legislation that targets special funding for academic programs that support high demand jobs. With only five weeks left in the session, there are still many questions yet to be answered. On Friday, we hosted the executive planning team from Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) who were on campus to meet with our computer science, cyber engineering, and computer information systems faculty and university administrators to develop plans for our partnership. We are excited to have this opportunity to work so closely with a Fortune 200 company that has committed to build a new Technology Center in Bossier City, hosting at least 800 high-tech workers. Many Louisiana Tech graduates will benefit from this partnership and we believe that this is just the beginning of even more great economic development wins for our area. On Friday evening, we had a dinner in the Tonk recognizing major benefactors of the University. This was our first time to have this dinner in this format.  A panel discussion featured four of our faculty who are recipients of Distinguished Professorships to talk about the impacts of the professorships on their research and education efforts.  Four of our students followed the professors to talk about the impacts of scholarships on their success in their studies and in preparing them for success in the future.  The turnout was excellent and we look forward to having the event again next year.