April Staff Monthly

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April 2018

Lawrence University

Staff Monthly

Upcoming Events BYOC (bring your own coffee). Morning mingle with donuts, muffins, fruit, and a few glutenfree options.

April 26 Drop-in anytime 8:00am9:30am Brokaw

Drop-in lunch with Linda Morgen-Clement in Sabin House

May 3rd 12pm1pm

All-Staff May 10th Meeting— 9:00am Warch Somerset Room

Staff Recognition Thank you to everyone who has helped make prospective students and their families feel welcome on campus. March and April are the busiest months for visiting high school seniors that are in the process of making their college decision!

Student Life Update from Chris Card Spring term is often one of mixed emotions as we work diligently to bring the academic year to a close even while we begin our planning in earnest for the next year. Our graduating seniors are finalizing their plans for the “next chapter” in their lives and we are excited for them as they transition to becoming alumni of our university. Meanwhile, we are deep into the processes of RLA, Core Leader and various peer leader selection. Already, we are beginning to have a glimpse of what next year will be like. Our Student Life team continues to make a large impact on the co-curricular life and student experience. Working with the Board of Trustees and a wide variety of constituents, we spent the past two terms examining our students’ readiness and preparation for the future in the Task Force on Life after Lawrence. We are preparing now the final report which will give our campus community more information on how we will augment our support for our students to lead successful and fulfilling lives in their post baccalaureate years. We began important work examining issues around mental health as we launched the Task Force on Emotional Wellbeing during the winter term. The task force is chaired jointly by Provost Katie Kodat and Christopher Card, VP for Student Life. This task force will continue through the fall of next year and is expected to give us greater insight, direction and action steps as we address and support emotional wellness at Lawrence University. This remains a challenge for colleges and universities across the nation and Lawrence is demonstrating its leadership by having this task force in place. Search processes are in place to recruit and hire new colleagues to the Student Life team. A search for an Associate Dean of Spiritual and Religious Life has commenced and is being led by Dean Linda Morgan-Clement. Later this month, we will launch a search to hire a new Executive Director of Career Services. These hires will energize and add critical capacity and new vision to our collective work, all towards enhancing the educational experience for our students. We hope to continue our conversations on “balance” for our students and for ourselves and wrestle away from the current narrative of “Lawrence busy” to a healthier space of “Lawrence in balance.” Of course this is not just a conversation for student life staff and so we welcome broad support in modeling and engaging students and each other around this topic.

Photo of the Month “Spring at Wriston”

Here’s a joke to get you in the Spring mood! Be sure to spread the joy with your coworkers for a good laugh. Four high school boys afflicted with spring fever skipped morning classes. After lunch, they reported to the teacher that they had a flat tire. Much to their relief, she smiled and said, “Well, you missed a test today so take seats apart from one another and take out a piece of paper.” Still smiling, she waited for them to sit down. Then she said, “First question: which tire was flat?”


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