We have our 15th president!

Good news!!

It's now official, David McInally will succeed President Phifer as Coe's 15th president. The Board of Trustees met today and after a presentation by myself and the rest of the search committee, the board unanimously elected Dave as Coe's next president.

Dave and his wife, Janice, arrived on campus this morning in time to meet the board, have lunch, and then the decision was announced to the whole campus. Dave made a small speech and Max and I presented Dave and Janice with Coe College sweatshirts (the first of many Coe items).

It was exciting to finally announce the decision to campus. Everyone seems extremely happy. We are ready to celebrate President Phifer's time at Coe and also prepare for Dave to start in July 2013. To read more about this good news, check out Coe's coverage or the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Happy Fall Break!

This post is from sunny Wisconsin because it's Fall Break! We're about halfway through the first semester and have a nice four-day weekend to catch up on sleep, homework, family, and friends. On Saturday, my dad and sister picked me up and we headed two hours north to another IIAC school to watch my younger brother play soccer (he's a freshman). I got home late that night .

I spent Sunday getting some sleep, working on some paper due after break, and just relaxing. It was raining all day so it was a perfect day to spend inside.

Today I'm running around Mt. Horeb and Madison going to appointments and running a few errands. This afternoon I plan to hit the books again and keep working on that homework!

Got a busy week ahead of me; the board of trustees will be in town so I have some Presidential Search Committee obligations. Should be fun yet always busy!

Learning outside the classroom

As I'm out on tour, one statistic I love to highlight is small class size. I usually say something along the lines of, "The average class size at Coe is 16 but last semester I had a class of five and a class of six." I then launch into why I love having a class of six English majors. Let me tell you, it's a party. Of literary awesomeness. 

Not only does the small class size allow me to get to know my peers better, I also create solid relationships with my professors. Case in point would be Monday. 

My friend, Ashley, and I are Writing Fellows for our English professor, Melissa Sodeman, and her History of English Literature class. We've had her for History of English Literature, Literary Analysis, and now, 18th century literature. She emailed us and said she'd like to take us out to coffee to thank us for being her writing fellows. 

After class on Monday, the three of us, along with another classmate, Chloe, headed over to Brewed. We grabbed some coffee, sat down at a circle table and started chatting. The conversation began on our class, moved through other literary topics, and then turned down the "let's talk about our lives" path. 

It. Was. FANTASTIC.

Suddenly, an hour and a half had passed and Melissa had to go teach another class. It was such a nice break from my non-stop busyness. I was ready to conquer the rest of my Monday, inspired and hyped up on coffee.

And, not only do I know my professor better, but Ashley, Chloe, and I had a nice bonding session! It's these sorts of things that I really believe makes Coe unique and a great place to be. 

Successful Weekend!

Definitely a good weekend on campus. Saturday morning was Campus Visit Day and boy, did I have fun. Started the morning off in the library, chatting with families before heading over to Hickok for a student-faculty panel. I love being on panels; I love getting asked questions because they change for every group you talk to. And this panel definitely brought some good memories of Iowa's Private College Week back!

Once the panel was done, it was time for the tour. My escort was Loxley, a sophomore art major. We had two students in our group, Autumn and Dana. Autumn was a prospective art major and Dana was a prospective English major. So a perfect combination. The tour was so much fun and Dana and I got to geek out about English things. I also made sure to set her up with information about our theatre productions, New York Term, and issues of The Coe Review. That's probably my favorite part of working with prospective students -- being able to give them things that they are interested in. Makes their experience at Coe even more enjoyable.

Slept in on Sunday to make sure I'm well rested for this week. Lots going on so I'll be on my toes. Nothing new though.

Stay tuned for more! :)

Just another crazy week

I seriously don't know where this past week has gone. It's Friday and I don't know what to do with myself. I'm just happy for the weekend where I can attempt to relax and catch up on a few things.

For some, it's no surprise I've been so busy. For others, you're probably scratching your head and thinking, "Who is this girl and what is she doing?"

Let me explain.

This week, two candidates for the next president of Coe visited campus. Since I'm on the committee, it meant a lot of running around to make sure the visits went smoothly. It definitely kept Max and I on our toes but it was totally worth it. We got some great interactions with the two candidates, from giving them a campus tour to having several meals with them. There will be one final candidate next week and then it will be up to myself and the rest of the committee to decide on who we would like to nominate as our next president to the Board of Trustees. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

But running around campus means that homework has taken a bit of a back seat this past week. I did stay up pretty late Tuesday night to attempt to catch up. I will not share how long I slept but let's just say it should not have been enough for me to function properly the next day. Somehow though, I made it through Wednesday (with a little help from caffeine of course).

Also, yesterday the First Year Experience (FYE) Committee (a committee that I'm on) hosted a FYS Faculty Workshop. I attend as the student representative from the FYE Committee and it was a lot of fun. I got to hear about how professors put together a paper prompt and what they're thinking about as they are reading our papers. Being the only student means your opinion is sought out after; it was nice to hear about the other side and attempt to explain to my professors what the students are thinking. It's awesome that I get these student-faculty interactions; it really opens my eyes to Coe as a whole from myself as the student to my professor.  

Happy Friday! I think I need to get some reading done and maybe even take a nap! I deserve it! :)