Thanks to all of you for what has been a fine fall semester. There have been a number of successes and accomplishments by faculty, staff and students of which we can all be proud. I appreciate your hard work on behalf of our university. Some work remains; good luck to our students taking final exams this week and all of you who are working with them. 

The semester concludes, appropriately, with graduation and we have another sizeable Commencement ceremony this Friday. In all, more than 550 students are expected to graduate, and some 470 have indicated they plan to don regalia and march in the ceremony. Bob Hansen, the CEO of Dow Corning, will be our speaker. My thanks to those faculty and staff who participate in this occasion; it means a great deal to our students and their families.

Even in this late stage of the semester and the calendar, our students and faculty continue to receive accolades. 

• Sara Beth Keough of our geography faculty received word that she was selected to receive the 14^th annual McColl Fellowship, given to only one scholar each year by the American Geographical Society.
    
• Six of our students have qualified for the national moot court competition in Virginia next month, after a successful regional competition hosted here for the first time.
    
• Two of our football players recently were named Academic All-Americans, Grant Caserta (first team) and Zach Cecich (second team).
    
• Zach Myers became the first men's soccer player in school history to receive first team All-American honors. Goalkeeper Jason Wise was selected to the third team. Coach Cale Wasserman was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Division II Midwest Region Coach of the Year.

Our governing board has a number of important items on the agenda for their meeting this Friday. The matters they will be considering include:

• an investment of up to $2.5 million in energy conservation measures
• construction of additional parking adjacent to the current lot J-1 near Curtiss Hall
• approving faculty sabbaticals
• reviewing the latest draft of the University’s strategic plan

As the semester winds down, all of us are ready for a break. I hope yours is enjoyable and spent with the people who mean the most to you.

This will be my final weekly update for 2012.  We will resume on Monday, Jan. 7.