This week, Kathy and I really came to appreciate why we were given children when we were young. But we did greatly enjoy having our 3 grandkids at the house as Bret and Christy left them with us during their business trip to California. I don’t know that Kathy could have managed it without my help! (I am certain to get in trouble for that remark.) On Monday, we hosted a reception for Vice President Stan Napper who recently announced that he is retiring late this summer. Stan has had a huge impact on Louisiana Tech dating back to his time as a student leader in our nascent biomedical engineering program and then continuing through his roles as a professor, administrator, dean and vice president. He provided strong leadership in developing many of our most innovative academic, research and partnership programs that helped elevate Tech to national prominence. I will certainly miss him both personally and professionally, and will always be grateful for his loyalty, commitment and service to Louisiana Tech. I was honored to present him with VP and Professor Emeritus status at Monday’s reception. I had intended to head to Baton Rouge on Wednesday for ULS Board meetings, but those meetings were postponed due to Tropical Storm Cindy. The cancelled meetings allowed me the opportunity to stay in town and participate in part of our second Orientation session. But, I spent most of my time this week at the house with the kids while continuing to keep up with important university activities from there. The ULS Board Executive Committee met late Friday afternoon and took care of our time-sensitive actions and, thankfully, we were not required to be present for that meeting. Kathy and I took advantage of the extra time to take Bret, Christy and their kids to see my mom in Bastrop. This morning, I participated as a judge for the final competition in one of our cyber camps. Students from eight high schools from across Louisiana and Arkansas participated in this intensive week-long program. I am very grateful and proud of our faculty from engineering and liberal arts who organized such an impactful program. Here are a few of my favorite pics for the week: