Dear Team,
Know what I love about weekends? Decision-making is generally low key, especially on Saturdays. Cereal or waffles? Go out today, or just hang out with the dogs? I confess I am particularly fond of shoes-optional days, but do my dogs really look interested in spending time with me? Maybe I’ll go out...maybe not. Do something with my hair or just let everyone else embrace my “casual and curly style”? Hm...you know, hats are good!
During the week, decision-making is more challenging. Some things are still easy. I will brush my hair and wear shoes, for example. No contemplation of other possibilities required. But other things get harder. Every decision I make about budgets or services or personnel echoes in the lives of other people--and not just the lives of my colleagues and staff, but, ultimately, the lives of the students, their families, and the institution.
The same is true of the decisions each of us makes as representatives of Student Affairs and ISU. The issues and services we choose to promote, the caliber of the work we do each day, the very way we choose to engage with others in the course of our jobs influences the way others experience our services and our institution. We are the face of ISU in every one of those encounters. Our decisions matter.
Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about quite a lot in this new year. President Satterlee is called upon to make hundreds of decisions every week that impact the rest of our ISU community, and they are anything but low key. Do we go fully online? Do we mandate Covid screening? What do we prioritize to ensure a sustainable budget and future for the university? All the while, hope, trust, compassion, and stability are the foundations of who President Satterlee is and how President Satterlee leads.
Valentine’s Day is coming up. I know, I know, the focus is typically on romance, but it’s also a time just to appreciate the people with whom we are connected. Making positive and meaningful connections relies on us choosing, every day, to do the right thing, to do the best thing, to be the best representatives of our services and institution, to make the very best decisions for the wellbeing of our entire community. This Valentine’s Day, why don’t we reach out to all of those people who make those hard decisions every day and let them know that we appreciate what they do?
Roar, Friends!
Lyn
