Kathy and I spent most of last week-end in Starkville watching the Baseball Bulldogs play in the NCAA Regionals. This was the program’s first time to be in the regionals since 1987, so it was a special occassion for the team and our fans. The Bulldogs did a great job battling a tough Cal State Fullerton team in the first round before falling 1-0 in a very long and rain-delayed game. Then, the ‘Dogs knocked out Southeast Missouri State before coming back to beat Cal State Fullerton in a 2nd game and then losing to the home team and SEC champ Mississippi State in the finals. We were very proud of the Tech Bulldogs for the terrific season and tournament and thank all of the fans who were there to support the team. I left Starkville early on Sunday and dropped Kathy off in Ruston before heading on over to Dallas for a Conference USA Board meeting. On Tuesday morning, I returned to the office for budget meetings with CFO Lisa Cole and Budget Officer Jerry Drewett. This is always a challenging time of the year as we close out last year’s budget and prepare the budget for next year. It is particularly challenging in preparing for next year (starting July 1) when the legislature is still meeting to consider revenue measures. It will be very important to us for them to find enough revenue to help us avoid one of our largest cuts in state funding since 2009. Additional revenue is needed to fully cover TOPS and higher education. Later Tuesday, I had a meeting with VP for University Advancement Brooks Hull to get caught up on our fund-raising program. On Wednesday, I welcomed Band of Pride Director Jim Robken to the office to show me the new design for our band uniforms. Special thanks to all of those who are contributing to the new uniforms and instruments to support our rapidly growing band. Because the size of our student body is growing (and with very talented students), we are seeing increasing interests in students wanting to join the Band of Pride. Other meetings on Wednesday included VP for Student Advancement Jim King to talk about new housing and campus improvement plans and AVP Sam Wallace to discuss some other plans for campus lighting and maintenance. Students and parents began arriving to campus on Wednesday for our first Orientation Session of the year, this one for honors students. We had an all-time record of over 400 students join us for the session and I was pleased to welcome them and their parents to campus for the “Big Tech Welcome” on Thursday morning. I also enjoyed meeting with many of the parents for lunch. Kathy and I thoroughly enjoyed the “Tech Presents” program performed by our outstanding Orientation Student Leaders on Thursday night. It was a fun, entertaining and informative evening and I left there even more proud of our student body and more excited about the future students who will join us this Fall.