Fond Farewells

Senior speaker Maddie Smith with me.

As the 2015-16 year came to a close last month there were many celebrations and farewells. Most notably, we bid adieu to the Class of 2016 through a number of farewell activities concluding with an excellent commencement. The student and featured speakers were outstanding. You can access those on the Tiger Network and they are worth watching. The alumni speaker, Valerie Alexander received a standing ovation. Well deserved at that.

Graduate Ingrid Harb and her mom at the Last Great Reception.

In addition, some of the students on campus initiated the first Kente ceremony for black students. It was held the night before the full commencement in the chapel. John Jacobs in Student Involvement and others assisted students under the leadership of Martel Matthews. Many staff members from Student Involvement and President Anderson attended this joyous and family-centered celebration that will assuredly become a new Trinity tradition.

Also, there were several retirements and several staff members have moved on to different challenges and opportunities. Several times this blog has allowed me to write about the working community at Trinity (see the "collegiality" label at right). Below are just a few photos from some of the farewells.

IMHO the staff missed the perfect chance to say "Soi Long, Farewell!!" on their sign... Soi Inthavong Smith was our Coordinator working with diversity and multi-cultural issues and had an impact on many individual students and organizations.

After eight year, Edwin Blanton left his post working with Experiential Learning, Service Learning, and Community Service to take a position with another school in San Antonio. Simply the best, Edwin is caring, student-centered, and driven by social justice. 

With changes in our administrative structure I am rotating off of the executive team. Our new Vice President for Student Life, Dr. Sheryl Tynes, will assume this leadership position. I'm not going anywhere. But President Anderson acknowledged the end of my tenure with this group with a terrific chocolate cake at my last meeting. Colleague and VP Gary Logan (seated and on his laptop) seems pretty broken up about it all.