January 16, 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome back to campus. I wanted to reiterate what I told you at the collegiate meetings last week. Thank you for a great fall semester and welcome back for the beginning of another great spring at ULM.
First, we do not have any official enrollment numbers but the preliminary enrollment and persistence figures are promising. I will report actual information to you as soon as the official statistics are released.
I am also pleased to announce that as of today the Faculty Club is officially reopened in the newly renovated SUB. I want to thank Sally Davidson for working to secure a spot in the SUB. We will be working with ARAMARK and Chef Joseph to plan a few recurring special luncheons. You will be hearing more about this in the near future. Please join us in the Faculty Club everyday and for the grand opening of the SUB on January 23 at 10:30 AM.
This fall as I instituted meetings with the collegiate deans and department heads, I suspended the meetings with small groups of faculty. Many of you commented that you enjoyed those informal discussions and would like to see those meetings return. I appreciate your comments and decided to borrow the idea of one of our deans and have those meetings over lunch. Therefore, I set aside several days over the spring semester to host a luncheon for small groups of faculty. I alternated the days between Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday so that everyone would have an opportunity to join me regardless of their class schedule. I hope that you will join in an informal discussion of the issues surrounding higher education, ULM, and the work that you do. To encourage an open dialogue, I would like to keep the luncheons to around fifteen to twenty faculty. The dates for the luncheons are January 24, February 1 and 14, March 8 and 21, and April 3 and 25 with lunch being served from noon until 1:30. Other dates will be added based on demand. Please contact my office at x1010 and reserve any of these dates. I look forward to our renewed discussions.
Once again, welcome back and I look forward to a great spring.
James E. Cofer, Sr.
ULM President