What a week it has been!
No, school hasn't begun just yet.
That will begin at Armstrong on Monday, at SavTech on the following Monday.
However, this week Armstrong held its Fall Convocation and CST greeted our return with its Fall Meet & Greet.
At both events, change was in the air, lending it a sharp tang like freshly burnt gunpowder.
Well, that's what you would expect when in the presence of seasoned gunslingers, isn't it?
Nice of them to give us free lunch on both occasions, to allow folks an opportunity to discuss the changes to come on this campus.
Of course, the Chemistry & Physics Department is in high denial, but that's to be expected. They are all so accustomed to the department head getting his way in all things Armstrong... I'm not sure they can see anyone else's vision.
Well, they need to remove their blinders and look toward the future.
As both gunslingers from the Board of Regents have attested, this consolidation is to place the emphasis squarely on fulfilling the needs of the communities in Savannah and Statesboro. Southeast Georgia needs a more educated workforce. Period. The emphasis at both Georgia Southern and Armstrong State will be on teaching, not on research. Both universities have been guilty of using undergraduate students as lab workhorses and that is coming to a screeching halt. The only students who benefit from that practice are those few who opt to go to graduate school.
That's quite a small number of students.
The majority of the students, upon graduation, accept jobs locally, enhancing the economic impact of their education on the surrounding area.
I say: bravo for change!
Bravo, especially for change accompanied by free lunch!
Of course, I jest. You are already well aware of how open I am to change. "Stagnation" and "status quo" and "superior" are not words or phrases which belong in a description of an institution of higher education... but they have been stamped all over my department for better than a decade.
The blonde woman (despised by Dept of C&P for the change she represents) is Armstrong's interim President, Jennifer Frum.
The tall man beside her, a former Marine accustomed to herding contrary cats, is our new Provost, Chris Curtis.
I wish them success on the hard road ahead.
The students deserve better, especially
those students in the health professions.
They are the bread and butter of Armstrong and have been for decades.
Those two lunches on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, were not the only free ones I had this week. Nope! I've had free lunches EVERY WEEKDAY of this second week of August.
Monday and Thursday, the Savannah Bananas treated me to free Kickin' Chicken Sandwich Meals at Zaxby's. Yeehaw! Quite tasty!
On Tuesday, the Armstrong Foundation hosted a free pasta luncheon for those of us alumni who work her on campus. How very nice of them! Of course, that was to lure us here for a photo shoot... but that was fine with me! I had a leisurely conversation with Phyllis Panhorst as we dined before the photo. Then, after we returned for seconds of the repast, i had a lovely talk with Cheryl Ciucevich. Both of them are staff professionals here at Armstrong - how refreshing to hear their side of this new merger!
Nice to see Yvonne (center, left photo) amd Hai (red shirt, right photo), too!
You know, Yvonne and I graduated in the same class at Armstrong State College, back in December of 1987.
Change: it's part of life!
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