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Welcome
August 1, 2007 Welcome to St. John Fisher College—where our students learn to meet the next horizon! While walking around the Buffalo Bills NFL summer camp last night, I heard time and again several people in the crowd express the exact same sentiment in returning to visit the St. John Fisher campus this summer. The often heard topic of conversation was: “…we were walking across campus and we did not recognize the place.” The explanation for these comments is that the near-completion of the new 42K square-foot Wegmans School of Nursing is but the latest of an annual series of new and renovated buildings across this campus. But, even more remarkable, the architectural and engineering feat of placement with this newest building is this: the new Wegmans School of Nursing building will connect the academic corridor and create a campus quadrangle encircled by residence halls, Lavery Library, the Wegmans School of Pharmacy, the Skalny Science Center, the Golisano Gateway, Basil Hall (with the nearly completed and new Basil North Media Arts Center) and Pioch Hall. With these architectural additions, Fisher has completed the most ambitious improvement and expansion program in the history of the College, designed to enhance the academic, administrative, athletic, and residential facilities on campus. Within the renovated facilities, many existing classrooms/labs and the library have been refurbished with state-of-the-art media and educational technology. Completed in September 2003, the Ralph C. Wilson Building houses new classrooms, faculty offices, seminar rooms and meeting spaces. This building has also become home to the newly established Ralph C. Wilson School of Education (NCATE accredited) and its Founding Dean. Also in the remodeled Alesi Graduate Center, the Ed. D. in Executive Leadership and the Master’s in Educational Leadership programs have a permanent home with convenient parking and instructional technologies. The new, spacious Campus Center and Keough Residence Hall were opened in August 2005 with extraordinary facilities designed for student-centered campus living and learning. And finally, the MBA will start in a new and permanent home in the renovated quarters of Murphy Hall with multiple student-friendly accommodations and food services. Through the campus’ multiple changes in the past 4 years, I have made the following assertion to the faculty and the students here at Fisher: the senior administration is keenly aware that we can change the campus skyline and rewrite a campus map; we can construct academic programs and residential structures for living-learning synergies; we can attract the best and the brightest students and faculty; we can post record levels of enrollment and full-time students in residence and we can put the most modern of technologies in the hands of both students and faculty. We can accomplish all of these feats--but unless we invest in a “campus community” and keep people first in our mission and vision, we will have achieved nothing. Our investment has included new undergraduate scholarship programs that are available for specific groups of students—such as the Kodak Diversity Scholarships, the Service Scholars Program, the First Generation Scholarship and the Science Scholars Program. These programs have helped to attract a diverse and talented body of students. Freshman students are introduced to academic work by placement in a Learning Community in their first semester—these learning communities are coordinated course clusters whose structures have received national award recognition year after year. In similar fashion, we are continually seeking the resources and assets to support faculty development and scholarship. Working with the City of Rochester Mayor’s Office and the United Way, Fisher has established the Center for Community Engagement whereby students are benefiting from a College-wide philosophy of “integrative learning.” Let me close by citing a final example of the coalescence of constructing a physical facility with academic and educational vision. The Basil North project, mentioned previously as the incipient home for our burgeoning program in Media and Digital Arts, will present the College with the space, facilities, and functionality to explore and offer to future students an education in new media resources and technology. This project will enhance the capabilities of the academic programs to prepare students for an interactive environment in the “media convergence” phenomenon that is currently blending television, print, radio and the web-based services on the Internet. Because the convergence phenomenon is just beginning to reshape our information age and its multiple conveyances that demand “digital literacy,” our programs, faculty and students will have the opportunity to contribute to the shaping of this new world of information sharing. At Fisher, we know that today’s horizons are tomorrow’s environs. Our students are prepared for both today and tomorrow. We hope to see you at Fisher sometime and please feel welcome to contact me for a campus visit. |
