Today provides me an opportunity to reflect on my six years as President of Louisiana Tech. I appreciate the tremendous support and encouragement of many people over the past six years. And I am especially grateful for those who have invested their time, energy and resources over that past 125 years to build this great institution. So many have worked to ensure that Tech fulfills its mission of serving and impacting the lives of those who live here and those who are educated here. I thank my leadership team and our faculty and staff who have dedicated themselves to serving our students, and for creating incredible programs, facilities and activities that ensure that our students have the best possible opportunities to learn and succeed. There is a special culture of caring on our campus, and that is perhaps the most important factor in Tech’s success over the years.

As I enter the 7th year of presidency, I am pleased that we have budget stability that will enable us to sustain our momentum of growth and national-scale impacts for our region and state. Thanks to the Governor and legislature for fully funding the TOPS program and for providing additional funding to our institutions during this last legislative session. A special thanks to our alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students for participating in record numbers in our $125M Forever Loyal Capital Campaign this past year.  We hope to make exciting announcements about this campaign over the coming weeks.

Thanks to the recruitment efforts of our faculty, staff and students, I anticipate that we will continue to see growth of our student body in the 2019-20 academic year, both in numbers and quality. We will strengthen our focus on providing education pathways for both traditional and non-traditional students including veterans and those serving our country, as well as those who begin their education in community and technical colleges, and those adults who may have stopped out along the way. With the increasing demands for skilled workers, it is important that we do more to advance the opportunities citizens across the state to gain the knowledge, skills and credentials that are essential for their future success.

This year, we will continue to build a 21st century campus by enhancing our academic, residential and athletics facilities, and will also beautify the campus through planting more noble trees and creating more pleasant walks. We have much to do as we rebuild our athletics, residential and intramural facilities from the tornado that ripped through our campus on April 25th. By leveraging the state and federal recovery funds with our private and self-generated funding, we should continue to transform our campus over the next five years.

We will also continue to focus on our partnerships with the private sector, particularly those with high-growth potential and who are highly dependent on having a talented workforce for their success. In my 40+ years of history with this institution, I have never seen a better opportunity for economic growth and prosperity for our region than we have now. We anticipate the development of another tenant building in our Enterprise Campus as companies look to grow here to capitalize on the talent available on our campus.  And a major new facility will begin construction in Bossier City later this year to house some of our R&D and education programs as well as other activities in support of BAFB and cyber activities that are growing there. 

As we will celebrate Tech’s 125th birthday, the quasquicentennial, I look forward to the numerous activities this year that will bring together our alumni, community and campus. We have so much to celebrate!

On Thursday, we will celebrate a special Day of Independence. We are reminded that we have freedoms for which so many have fought and sacrificed over the past 250 years. Those freedoms provide us opportunities to enhance our way of life, to grow and prosper, to pursue those things that are important, to celebrate in successes and to reflect and learn from failure. I am grateful for all of those who have fought to give us these opportunities.  I hope that you have a Happy Fourth of July!