From the desk of President Leslie K. Guice

What's up? A typical week with the prez….

Nov 11, 2017 | Weekly Update

Student worker, Lizzie Hummel, and her family stop by to visit.

It was good to start this week off in the office meeting with visitors, students, faculty and my administrative team. Early Monday, I met with the dynamic Manu Platt, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, who was on campus as part of the New Frontiers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series that is run by our faculty. This program creates greater exposure and opportunities for our faculty and students. I also met with an applicant for an eminent scholar chair in Entrepreneurship, a prospective student from Baton Rouge, and the family of one of my excellent student workers. I also had a visit from a student of one of our Comm 101/FYE classes who wanted to interview me for her class project.  And a couple of students came by to let me know about some bandwidth challenges, a problem that was quickly resolved thanks to the work of my team.

SGA leader Harrison Potts provides a report on student activities to the APC

Tuesday morning offered me more visits from prospective students, one was a son of one of my former students. I had a few meetings with my administrative team and then held a meeting of our Administrative and Planning Council at the Suites Club level. I wanted to put the team in a different environment and also wanted to give all of them a chance to tour the new facilities. We hope that others will take advantage of this special location for small group meetings. Late Tuesday, I drove to New Orleans to have meetings with alumni and benefactors of the university. I returned back to Ruston late Wednesday.   On Thursday, I drove to Bossier City to meet with BPCC Chancellor Rick Bateman and CIC President Craig Spohn to discuss our plans for the new Academic Success Center. That space is nearing completion and we are working through some of the ways that Tech and BPCC will work together to build academic programs and support the success of students that will be part of the programs offered there. This will be an amazing facility that will provide greater educational opportunities for students in Northwest Louisiana. We will begin operating there by the beginning of the Winter Quarter, but still have a lot of preparation work to do.

AE Phillips Cheerleaders at Techsters game

Friday morning, I met with a business colleague at Squire Creek, attended an Accounting Advisory Board meeting in the College of Business, and then headed over to the TAC to watch the Lady Techsters win their season opener in front of thousands of elementary & secondary school students. Later Friday, Kathy and I enjoyed watching the Dunkin’ Dawgs win their season opener and then headed home to get ready for a busy football week-end hosting our friends for a special military appreciation day. Here are a few of my favorite pics for the week:

Prospective student and her mom

Dr. Manu Platt from Georgia Tech

               

Carrie Flournoy & Terry McConathy tour suites

Lunch at Windsor Court in New Orleans

             

Grand entry to Academic Success Center

Interesting ceiling design for Center

             

Coffee break area for center

Cyber Training Center ceiling

                 

Late afternoon practice for Band of Pride

Breakfast at Squire

               

Practicing to cheer with the students on Saturday