Last week came to a close with an exciting Bulldog football win over Rice, which sealed Tech’s position as Conference USA West Division champs and earned them a place in the conference championship game versus Marshall University in Huntington, WV on Saturday. This win created some challenges in my planning and scheduling this week, but the victory was certainly worth the challenges. Before the Thanksgiving weekend drew to a close, Bret and Christy revealed the sex and names of the twins they are expecting, in a unique and exciting way. Christy is very creative and prepared scratch-off cards for all of us to see the names at the same time. We were thrilled to see that they are expecting twin girls. Girls are actually very unusual in our family line, but we can’t wait for them to arrive to join our grandson Christopher and further bless the Guice family. After meeting with my staff and others on Monday, I headed to Lafayette for a University of Louisiana System Strategic Retreat involving all system Presidents and members of our leadership teams. I have found it to be helpful for us all to convene to review our progress and make plans for the coming year, particularly in areas related to legal, financial and legislative affairs. ULS President Sandy Woodley does a good job of organizing and leading the retreat, and I appreciate the opportunity to interact with our colleagues in a more relaxed environment. We had a nice reception on Monday evening at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s LITE Center and spent most of Tuesday in meetings. I left the meetings in time to attend the Bulldogs basketball game against Northwestern State University at Prather Coliseum in Natchitoches. That is an interesting and historic facility that brings back memories of many great contests between the two universities. Coach Mike White and his team pulled out a big win over the Demons and I was very pleased with the large turnout of Tech students and alumni at the game. It is exciting to see the momentum developing with the team and fans. On Wednesday, I spent much of the day flying from Shreveport to Washington. I usually plan to use flight and layover time reading some books that I have recently added to my shelf. For this trip, I read ‘The CEO Tightrope’ by good friend and Tech alumnus, Joel Trammell. Joel has been highly successful as an entrepreneur and CEO of several high growth companies. I found his book to be excellent and helpful to me in my role as President. Late Wednesday and Thursday, Cyber Innovation Center Director Craig Spohn and I spent quite a bit of time meeting with various federal government folks in the DC area who have interests in partnering with us in research and education activities. On Friday, I am scheduled to fly into Huntington, WV to meet up with the football team and staff as they take on Marshall for the C-USA championship. The conference provides transportation and support for the championship game, and we are very glad that the Tech Band of Pride and Spirit Groups will be able to attend. On Sunday, I will fly from Huntington to Nashville to attend a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges Annual Meeting. SACSCOC is our regional body for accreditation of the institution. After a long week of traveling, I’ll look forward to returning home to Ruston late Monday night.