Monday morning, I met with Dr. Donna Thomas, chair of our athletics council, to discuss various topics related to athletics and to hear the recommendations for our 2015 Hall of Fame class. I also met with our new Vice President for University Advancement, Dr. Brooks Hull, who was in town to begin preparations for his transition to Tech in mid-November. Brooks will be a great addition to my leadership team and will lead a major fund-raising initiative for us over the next several years. Monday afternoon, I traveled to Shreveport to meet with regional officials to discuss future opportunities for increasing passenger rail transportation across I-20. You can expect to hear more about this in the coming months.   Tuesday was packed with meetings with key administrators and our University Senate leadership. My good friend President Emeritus Dan Reneau came by to catch up on things as well. It was great to see him and get his advice on some key issues. Later Tuesday, my leadership team and I met with an architect to begin discussions on the vision for our future library. This is going to be a major project for us that will truly transform the heart of our campus. Tuesday evening, I attended the College of Business and Ruston-Lincoln Chamber Awards banquet to introduce Mike McCallister, former Humana CEO, as the third member of the College of Business Hall of Fame. Mike has been a loyal supporter of Tech for many years and is most deserving of the recognition that puts him in the Hall of Fame along with James Davison and Glen Post. This was the first major non-athletic event that we have hosted at the Davison Athletics Complex and it was a perfect venue. A major focus for Wednesday was a meeting at the DAC with representatives of the Regents and Board of Supervisors along with local political leaders and facilities planning representatives to review our various capital outlay projects. Wednesday afternoon, I was honored to welcome to campus Col. Sherry Stearns-Boles, the Commander for all USAF ROTC units in the nation. I returned back to the DAC on Thursday morning to join AD Tommy McClelland, Coach Skip Holtz & his staff to visit with members of the Letterman’s Club who get together the first Thursday of every month. Normally, they meet at Squire Creek but decided to come to get a tour of the DAC for this meeting. The rest of Thursday was filled with meetings with my administrative team. I also took some time to walk around campus and visit with some of our students. The energy on campus is fantastic as our student body grows and as the students get involved with so many of the activities that are available to them. Friday was a special day for Kathy and me as our youngest son Bret and his wife Christy arrived at our house early morning after driving all night from Jacksonville, FL. Fortunately, Christopher and his twin sisters Elizabeth and Everly had spent much of the trip napping, so we were able to spend some quality time with them when they arrived. I spent the rest of the day splitting time between the house and the office. It was fantastic to have all of my family in town on Saturday to enjoy some time together and to enjoy game day festivities. We had a huge turnout of enthusiastic prospective students and parents for Time out for Tech on Saturday and most of them were in the Joe on Saturday evening as the Bulldogs handily defeated down-state foe ULL. This week turned out to be another winner in many ways!