Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

Welcome to the start of the academic year 2009-'10 at Roosevelt University!

I hope you all made the most of your summer months and are prepared for what promises to be another very exciting and important year in the University's history.

To our students: Whether you are a returning student or a new member of our community, you and your peers are changing the very nature of the University day in and day out, year by year. At this time of year I always think of that day in 1962 when my parents dropped me off at the residence hall and wished me well, then drove off and left me there to make my way academically and in every other way. It was the best moment of my life up to that point as it was the beginning of an adventure that continues to this very day. I await the opportunities to get to know you and to find ways to be sure that your student experience is every bit as challenging and rewarding as mine.

Here's a piece of unsolicited advice: whether you take courses at our Chicago or at our Schaumburg campus, do more than that. You will have opportunities every year to venture outside of your classrooms into the communities in which we reside and to go even further afield to study abroad if you wish. While on campus, find others who share your interests and be sure to take advantage of the ever-expanding number of student organizations and extracurricular activities available to you. And if you don't find the one you'd like, it's easy to create it yourself. Just ask Bud Beatty in Schaumburg or Sarah Manzeske in Chicago how.

And remember always that doing well in class along with meeting new friends and enjoying extracurricular activities out of class time are both vital components of your success not just here but over your coming lifetime.

Finally, when you see me in the elevators or just walking around, say hello and make my day!

To the new faculty and staff: Permit me to begin by congratulating you on your decision to join us here at this very energizing time at Roosevelt University. It is an extraordinary place where one can develop her or his full professional potential. It is my goal to support you to the best of my ability to assure that your contributions to our successes are also mirrored in your own growth and development in your career path.

You arrive at an exceptional moment in our history. With another year of record-breaking enrollments and the largest group of new full time faculty members in the history of the University, the year will be one of exciting new ideas and opportunities merging with ongoing successes. Each of you has both an opportunity and an obligation to help us continue our twin traditions of social justice and academic excellence as we teach these amazing students and prepare them to join over 75,000 alumni in living the University mission.

If you do not yet know it, stop at the entrances of each campus and read that mission statement. Embedded in it is this simple truth for each of us: it matters that you are here and it is both a privilege and a responsibility to contribute to the value-laden successes that we as a community have year in and year out.

Finally, when you see me in the elevators or just walking around, say hello and make my day!

To my colleagues on the faculty and staff who are starting another year together: I hope that you had a productive summer and that you took some time for yourself personally to recharge your batteries. Each year there is both a changing landscape of programs and people and an enduring continuity of our many and growing successes rooted in years past. This will be no exception.

This year we will welcome 42 new full-time faculty members from all over the country and around the world. I need not tell you how significant an accomplishment that is, not just in the context of Roosevelt's history but especially in these challenging times for higher education generally. They will be joined by dozens of new staff who have been hired to keep every division of the University working in support of our mission. I'm sure that our story of adding so many new colleagues is unique in higher education this year and I thank you profoundly for all you have been doing over the years to make it possible.

Thrills and Pills: This past Spring we announced the return of intercollegiate athletics to Roosevelt University and welcomed George MacKinnon as the founding dean of our new College of Pharmacy at the Schaumburg Campus. The Dean and the new Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Mike Cassidy, have been working hard and successfully all summer laying the foundations of these programs. We can all look forward to welcoming new students into them in the Fall of 2010 and Fall of 2011, respectively.

Finally, together we should keep alive our practice when we see each other in the elevators or just walking around of saying hello and enjoying the mutual pleasure of knowing we all make a difference here.

I look forward to seeing all of you at Convocation at 11 a.m. on Friday, August 28 in the Auditorium Theatre as we usher in the 2009-'10 academic year. We will matriculate the new students into the University and introduce our new colleagues to the community, and then we will gather for conversation and lunch afterwards.

My very best wishes,

Chuck Middleton