I had a lot of opportunities this week to interact with our students. It began on Monday when I was invited by Aramark to serve our students for lunch. I asked if we could do gumbo and they happily agreed. Gumbos with students, friends and family have been a tradition for me for many years, so I was happy to celebrate that tradition with our student body. I served students for about an hour and a half and then began to fade. To be honest, the Aramark staff gently nudged me out of the way because I was spending too much time chatting with the students. But it was fun, and I look forward to serving the students again before the year is over. Later in the week, I walked around campus and visited with a few more students who were in the midst of final exams and projects. I had several meetings with current, prospective and former students throughout the week. One of my visitors was a young lady who is coming to Tech from Michigan because of our cyber program which she had heard about four years ago when several our faculty hosted a cyber discovery camp in Michigan. I also had a visit from an outstanding young man from Alexandria who was interested in coming to Tech for our pre-med track. I enjoyed walking him over to see Dr. Jamie Newman and the students in her stem cell lab. Dr. Newman also escorted the student to the Biomed building to visit with Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore and see some of the labs there. During the latter part of the week, we hosted the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors meeting and retreat. They met in the DAC on Wednesday and considered formal requests from our nine ULS institutions. Tech’s SGA President, Ben Rice, also serves as the ULS Student Board member and contributed much to the discussions. Ben also participated in other ULS Board social activities, tours and retreat. I was amazed that he could do that and also prepare for finals! We gave the ULS Board a tour around the campus on Thursday afternoon so they could see progress and plans for projects, most which have been approved by the Board during their previous meetings. During the tour, Dean Chris Martin showed the Board the new Interactive Trading Room in the new wing of the Business building. Several of our students were in the lab using the sophisticated system. We also toured the Board through Tech Pointe and let them interact with many of our students who are working with Fenway Group in that facility. Kathy and I hosted the Board at the Prez’s rez on Thursday evening and invited a few Tech administrators and community leaders to join us. Throughout the Board retreat on Friday and Saturday, we had the opportunity to showcase several of our programs from each of our colleges, including faculty and students. I was so proud of the performances of these students and the way they represented Tech. Some favorite pics for the week follow: