{"id":26272,"date":"2013-09-06T09:24:51","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T16:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=26272"},"modified":"2016-02-20T12:10:27","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T19:10:27","slug":"connecting-to-campus-culture-through-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/connecting-to-campus-culture-through-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting to campus culture through tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laura Huenneke, Provost<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Modern society seems to favor breaking news and the latest fashions over cultural history and respect for the past. That leaves college life as one of the most visible settings where traditions are still cultivated and celebrated.<\/p>\n

I was thinking of tradition as we enjoyed this week\u2019s welcome picnic<\/a>\u2014a relatively young tradition on campus.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to create new traditions that really fit a community. We\u2019ve been fortunate these past few years to add the picnic, as well as Family Weekend\u2019s Celebration of Academic Achievement, to the list of Lumberjack favorites.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s not that easy to get rid of old customs, either\u2014witness the persistence of Tequila Sunrise excess at Homecoming, despite many efforts at redirection.<\/p>\n

Traditions help shape the identity and working environment of a campus community. A thought-provoking essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/i> last year reflected on the importance of introducing new colleagues (hired from elsewhere) to the campus culture and identity.<\/p>\n

The author observed that often campus culture centers on \u201csagas\u201d or tales of difficult moments in institutional history: stiff budget cuts or wretched leadership, for example. The essay pointed out the value in shaping a culture based equally on points of pride and a shared sense of accomplishment.<\/p>\n

This certainly seems a happy moment in the history of Northern Arizona University. Enrollments are booming (against the backdrop of stagnating enrollment nationwide); new, innovative programs are being launched; and faculty achieve recognition for their scholarship and leadership.<\/p>\n

The Flagstaff campus continues to flourish. We\u2019re creating new ways to support student learning and achievement. Sharing traditional events (whether move-in weekend, the welcome picnic, or football games) is part of building our connections within the NAU community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Laura Huenneke, Provost Modern society seems to favor breaking news and the latest fashions over cultural history and respect for the past. That leaves college life as one of the most visible settings where traditions are still cultivated and celebrated. I was thinking of tradition as we enjoyed this week\u2019s welcome picnic\u2014a relatively young…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":25691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[439,440,437,438,70,38],"class_list":["post-26272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views-from-nau","tag-campus-culture","tag-campus-tradition","tag-family-weekend","tag-homecoming","tag-laura-huenneke","tag-nau"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}