Sharon Blackman, Ed.D.
It has been such a pleasure to celebrate our students' accomplishments of this semester and the whole year. I know that many of you are aware that we have some very talented students who have chosen to pursue their dreams at Brookhaven College. Our students are thoughtful, hard-working, intelligent, but most of all, dedicated. Our students come to Brookhaven because they believe in us and we believe in them.
Students have shared with me their appreciation of the encouragement, concern, support and quality education they have received both inside and out of the classroom from Brookhaven College employees. They have expressed how faculty and staff have helped to further develop their goals, but mostly you have helped them increase their belief in their own abilities. All of this reinforces our purpose and that is to help students achieve success.
With all of this said, I would like to send some important thank yous to those people who have worked tirelessly for the success of our students. First, are the SPAR Office employees, Joy Arndt, Yasaman Contractor and Eve Holland for the implementation of the many student programs throughout the year, and Linus Spille too, for the work on the year-end celebrations, such as the Student Leadership Institute Celebration and the Graduation Party. Special thanks also go out to the faculty members who have taught, supported and nurtured the students who have gone on to receive national, state and city awards for their success. Our Brookhaven Courier staff won awards, while other individuals won literary awards in national competitions. The music, dance and theater performances have been great and several of these students have been recognized for their outstanding talents.
Sunday our annual Student Scholarship Reception was a big success and I must thank Vice President Mary Brumbach and her staff, especially Hannah Love, for a job well done. As usual, members of the Phi Theta Kappa student honor society were on hand to assist with this event, along with students from the talented Jazz Combo who helped to make the atmosphere welcoming and relaxing.
Thank you also to Athletic Director Lynne Levesque for her leadership with our successful athletic program and the wonderful job she continues to do to keep us informed about the standing of our teams. We are sending special thoughts her way and with the baseball team as they compete at the District C post-season tournament.
We all know that a great deal of work goes on behind the scenes. This is the case with our Marketing and Public Information Office. Their work in keeping the Core Curriculum at the forefront of our printed and online publications is being used as a model for our sister colleges. This is important as the state accountability measures soon will be in effect for Core Curriculum completers.
As we move into summer, we will continue to move forward with our bond initiatives for building construction. After being delayed for a few months, we will have the first architectural firm selected by the end of the week. This first firm will be responsible for designing the Allied Health and Science building and the developing our campus master plan. This building is the most complex of all, will take the longest time to complete and is projected to be completed by the fall of 2009. We will continue to keep the college informed of the progress of the building initiatives.
I would like to remind you about reserving a special date on your calendar: Sept. 29. This is the day that the college will commence an all-day, collegewide strategic planning activity. A list of books, articles and videos will be e-mailed by May 15 to you and posted on the Employee Intranet, so that you can begin to prepare yourself for this planning activity. This is not a required reading list, but I hope that you find time in the next several months to select something of interest that will help you participate in the development of our learning-centered college and how we see education in the next five years.
I know we all look forward to the fun that summer brings and I hope this summer will bring you great fun and relaxation. Once again thank you for your commitment and dedication to making Brookhaven the college we all want it to be! I look forward to seeing you at Commencement.
