The long winter will surely be over soon now that the students are back on campus and spring semester is under way. Everyone is bundled up as they hurry to their first classes today - temperatures remain quite frigid. I’m sure many students and professors were able to travel to warmer places during the winter break, but as they came back this week, they found the campus covered in a lovely, gently drifted snowfall. As you can see, it created some beautiful scenes and even wrapped me in a white mantle.

Best wishes to the students for a great, rewarding semester. And check back. I hope to be reporting on signs of spring soon!

When students return to campus for the spring semester, they will find beautiful new street lamps lighting their walks along Bradley Avenue. Workers are braving a clear, single-digit January day to install new lamp posts along Bradley Avenue and Institute.

Once complete, this three-year project will more than double the number of light poles on and around campus. The first phase, which adds lighting along Bradley Avenue from Glenwood Avenue to Duryea Place, should be completed in early spring. The new, more energy efficient lamps have white lights with reflectors that aim light toward the ground.

I am thrilled that we can continually find ways to make our campus more beautiful and inviting. I was thinking just the other day that with spring coming, I would also love to see more flowers and greenery accenting the landscape. We have many wonderful flowerbeds and trees now, but personally I think you can never have too many colorful blossoms in view!