Dear Colleagues!
We are glad to have this opportunity to say welcome to the fall term and thank you for your continued dedication to doing the right thing for Webster students. In the coming weeks, we will enjoy many opportunities to renew our contact across the university community—in meetings, during meals, at welcome events for students and colleagues, and at the Fall Convocation on August 23rd—in person at Webster’s Loretto-Hilton Center or via livestream.
This year’s convocation will focus on the impact we have on our students—the heart of our mission to meet an unmet need. Members of this community—faculty, staff, and students alike—are making a difference every day to support our students who show such amazing drive, curiosity, and enthusiasm to make a difference themselves. While those needs have evolved since Webster first awarded an A. B. to Florence Waddock in 1919, our pride in students’ accomplishment persists. In 2019, we will celebrate Webster’s 100th graduating class, a moment to cherish and to celebrate with confidence in our university’s future.
Thank you to all who have worked so well this summer to develop and implement initiatives that will strengthen Webster’s academic and financial position. In the short run as well as medium and long term, this community is pulling together to assure a strong Webster for ourselves and those we serve.
To encourage us all, we share these words written by our first graduate to describe her college experience:
Happy is this parting Senior
Having such an Alma Mater,
Where the teachers and the students
Each for each with love and longing
Look upon these old traditions,
On these days now too soon passing.
Thus it was this Senior journeyed
Through her years at dear Loretto;
And for this she wrote her story,
So that all might feel encouraged,
Know what joy and pleasure forward
And for those who are at College.
Best wishes for a great year,
Beth and Julian
