From the desk of President Leslie K. Guice
Great experiences in the midst of university campus life
We had a campus-wide retirement recognition event on Monday and recognized 36 employees who had a combined total of 980 years of service at Louisiana Tech. We celebrated their service and wished them the best in their retirement. However, we will certainly miss them and appreciate all of their contributions. Dr. Joe Pullis was recognized for the longest service of those retiring, contributing 47 years to Louisiana Tech. And we recognized two very special people who are retiring from the 16th floor: Marilyn Ringheim and Reggie Hanchey.
I was invited to speak with the University Senate on Monday afternoon and took the opportunity to provide updates on our anticipated budget and plans for next year.
On Tuesday, I had a nice visit from Dr. David Anderson and Dr. Jeff Hankins from the Department of History. David presented me with a copy of his latest book, the Hank Williams Reader, and we spent a while discussing Hank Williams’ influence on culture in the country. You can read more about David and his book in my recent blog post: http://guiceblog.latech.edu/2014/03/10/dr-david-anderson-making-your-cheatin-heart-a-part-of-history/
I had my second video interview with Raney Johnson of KLPI on Tuesday, this one for the Tech Talk. Check back on Tech Talk Online to catch that interview.
Tuesday evening, I attended the School of Performing Arts’ 25th Anniversary Concert featuring Tech’s Choral Director John Petzet and the Louisiana Tech University Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, North Central Masterworks Chorus and Chamber Orchestra. They featured Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass” and Vivaldi’s “Gloria” for a wonderful evening of music and a great audience in Howard Auditorium.
Dr. Dolliann Hurtig of the Department of Modern Languages stopped by the office on Wednesday and brought me a copy of her recent book titled “Allons au cinéma: Promoting French through Films.”
Our Administrative and Planning Council met on Thursday afternoon. I was able to thank Allison East for her great year as President of SGA and Dr. Heath Tims for his service as University Senate President. We have been blessed to have great student and faculty leaders. I also recognized our new SGA President Maggie Brakeville, who was also selected this week to be the student representative on the Board of Regents. She will do a great job!
During the APC meeting, I recognized out-going Dean of the College of Business James Lumpkin for his service and welcomed Interim Dean Tim Bisping to the Council. Tim, who has been serving as Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Research for the College of Business, will do a great job during this transition.
Friday was a huge day for us as VP Stan Napper and I were invited to meet with Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and UnderSecretary for Cyber Security Phyllis Schneck who were brought to the Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City by Senator Mary Landrieu. We spent the entire time with them focusing on our partnership with the CIC which has created a major cyber workforce pipeline that goes from middle school through the university. We also provided overviews of our related R&D, infrastructure, and corporate partnerships. This was a wonderful opportunity to showcase our work to key national policy makers. I believe they left quite impressed.
As we returned home to Tech on Friday, I went to the Cyber Storm 2014 event that featured our computer science & cyber engineering students, and others who were involved a real-time cyber hack-fest event where student teams were engaged in a fierce battle in cyberspace to test their skills in network defense and attack strategies. Cyber Storm is designed to raise awareness about the problems our society faces in cyberspace. Special thanks to Dr. Jean Gourd and Dr. Travis Atkison who work so hard to make this event a huge success each year. We were also pleased that about 10 representatives of our new corporate partner CSC attended to sponsor and participate in the event.
While I was observing Cyber Storm, a few journalism students from Dr. Judith Roberts’ class were doing a Friday afternoon Scavenger Hunt where they were required to find the President and get a “selfie” with the President holding the most recent copy of the Tech Talk. They found me! Addie Martin and her team of Lacy Camp, Nancy Bergeron and Kaamilya Salaam also caught up with me at Cyber Storm. It is a wonderful experience to be a part of this great campus life every day!
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