As I write this, we are less than one week from “move-in day” for our new students. As they arrive on campus, there are many new things to experience. We will be introducing them to new people and new facilities. I would like to update you on some of these.

New Faculty:
* Business Department: Theodore Pauls joins the business department with a concentration in marketing.
* Philosophy Department: James Stover provided great teaching as an adjunct last year and has accepted a full-time visiting position for this year. Rev. Craig de Paulo, Ph.D. is a part-time temporary position for the fall semester.
* Nuclear Medicine: Dr. Robert George and Debbie Wilkinson are the new faculty members in this department. Dr. George is the director and Debbie will coordinate the clinic aspects.
* Professional Education Department: Connie Myer is the director of this department and comes to us with years of experience in public education and administration.
* Fine Arts: Robert Troeger moves from director of the University singers and adjunct professor to a part-time position in the fine arts area. He is the coordinator of the new music minor in addition to leading the singers.

Saying Goodbye:
* Professor Paul Ostasiewski: After a long and strong fight with cancer, Paul surrendered this summer. We will miss his great personal touch with the students, his inspiration for us and his dedication to the University.
* Dr. Charles Loner retired this year after many years of service in the chemistry department. We thank Dr. Loner for his work in making the chemistry department grow and excel in the preparation of our students.
* Dr. John Cox accepted the position of department head at North Dakota State University. We wish him well as he accepts this new challenge.
* Dr. Barbara Fenner decided to move to Massachusetts with her husband and very young son. She has been very helpful in our development of undergraduate research in the biology department.
* Denise Radaker has been a full-time faculty member for the past three semesters replacing Dr. Chris Czajkoski, who returns this fall after a leave of absence. Denise provided great instruction and support to our students and will continue as an adjunct.
* Dr. Steve Jensen (Philosophy) and Dr. Al Alberts (Teacher Preparation) spent one year with us and are moving on to other employment. We thank them for walking with us in this past year and wish them the best in their future endeavors.


New Program and Faculty:
* Athletic Training is a new major this year. We will be starting with a small number of sophomore students and around 15 new freshmen. We will be working toward accreditation by the year 2010. Dave Dennis has been a member of the Athletic Department for many years and he is a new faculty member. David Hanna, an experienced athletic trainer from the area, is joining the faculty after completing his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree here at Wheeling Jesuit University. We look forward to working with them to make this a unique and rigorous program. Please see the new website at http://www.wju.edu/academics/at/.
* Masters of Science in Organizational Leadership: The first students of our newest graduate degree will begin in September. The program has been inspired by the success of the BOLD program. It is an interdisciplinary approach to inspiring leaders in all areas of business and the public/ private sector. Please see the article on the website for more information.


New Names:
o We have made some name changes of two departments on campus. The Adult and Continuing Education department has become the Center for Professional and Graduate Studies. The name more accurately reflects the true function of this Center. The article above also explains this change.
o The Professional Education Department is the new title for the Teacher Preparation Program. We are preparing students to become a part of a cadre of professionals who masterfully teach our children and youth.


Renovation of the Dining Facilities: People entering the dining facilities will be welcomed into a serving area with new stations including a open fire pizza oven, expanded salad bar and sandwich area in the old Headlines area. Once selecting the food of desire all will enter the old Benedum Room, which has been totally renovated. The room is more open with only desserts and drinks along the wall. Parkhurst and Physical Plant have done a great job at refitting this area.

Leadership Training for athletes, residence assistants and Student Government: This past weekend we had a wonderful session of leadership training for student leaders across campus. The goal was to create a core of leaders from all areas of campus to encourage student input and initiatives. The students presented action plans to change issues that they view as important to the student body. Although I have not seen the final proposals, several of them will be involve Academic Affairs policies and procedures. The students would like to address quiet studies areas and the library being open longer, oversight of class schedules to avoid conflicts and class cancellations, and the absentee policy for classes. I look forward to working with the students to resolve these issues to improve the academic experience for all, while maintaining the academic rigor that is the hallmark of a Jesuit education.

Updates to the Technology: Students expect to be able to be connected all around campus. In order to make this possible, we are adding more wireless sites and two new locations of public computers. The lounges in Campion, Ignatius and Kirby residents halls will be wireless along with the McShain and Library Plaza's. We will have two kiosk-type computer stations, one in the B-room and one in the Acker Science Center Kiosk. For those of you who have not been on campus for a while, the Acker Science Center is behind Donahue and has a small snack bar in the first floor. We will also be providing an online site for students to permit legal downloading of music and videos. The site is called “Ruckus.” In order to ensure continuous access to the internet we will also be providing a backup system incase of failure of our primary site.

I would encourage you to browse the news section of our website. There are many great stories there that keep you up to date on the events on campus. So much has occurred over the summer that it is difficult to put it all in this update. I am convinced that this year will bring many more great events…so stay tuned!!