{"id":64246,"date":"2021-10-21T08:54:59","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T15:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=64246"},"modified":"2021-10-21T09:28:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T16:28:04","slug":"notes-oct-21-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/notes-oct-21-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from the President: Oct. 21, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Lumberjacks,<\/p>\n<p>The past week was truly special, celebrating my first Homecoming with the Lumberjack community. The experience was incredible: vibrant, enthusiastic, celebratory and full of the life, hope, opportunity and optimism that I know makes this university and this community such a great place to live, learn and work. Below are a few highlights that do not even begin to capture the richness of the experience and the joy of interacting with so many lifelong Lumberjacks in Flagstaff.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was an honor to join our students at the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1448844253707190272\">Homecoming Chili Cook-Off<\/a>\u2014where I was a judge!\u2014and traditions day pep rally and bonfire. The heat of the chili and the bonfire cut through a cold evening!<\/li>\n<li>Swinging by Rolle for a dominant performance by our <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1448846153420660739\">Lumberjack volleyball team<\/a> was a great cap to the evening and set the tone for a winning weekend for NAU Athletics.<\/li>\n<li>I joined the NAU Foundation and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449138006317666306\">NAU Alumni Association Board<\/a> meetings, where many dedicated alumni and supporters came together to share in the important work for our university\u2019s future. I\u2019m inspired by their commitment and thankful for all our Alumni and Foundation Boards do to advance NAU\u2019s mission.<\/li>\n<li>And speaking of supporters, the time spent with our <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449168184611770370\">La Cuesta Society and 1899 Society<\/a> members was humbling and important. Hearing from these individuals who invest so much time, talent and treasure in our institution\u2014and sharing the direction and aspirations for our future\u2014confirmed that we are in good company, with valued supporters helping propel us forward.<\/li>\n<li>Friday evening brought with it a wonderful celebration of our alumni at the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449189825161019394\">Honored Alumni Hall of Fame<\/a> Truly, it was a pleasure to see so many Lumberjacks back on campus who represent all that we aspire to be\u2014in service to communities, in professional and academic achievement, in artistry and accomplishment. What an evening! I am so thankful to have been able to host this event in-person this year to recognize these tremendous individuals. I will be looking forward to attending it in the years to come.<\/li>\n<li>The evening concluded with a visit to our impressive student-led <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449227992752746498\">Homecoming Carnival<\/a> \u2014an exciting and energizing celebration by our students.<\/li>\n<li>Saturday was a blur of excitement\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449429051777511425\">Flannels and Flapjacks<\/a>, breakfast with alumni and friends at Caf\u00e9 au Louie, leading the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449437089343311872\">Homecoming parade<\/a> (thanks for the ride, Joey!), a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449455461753708544\">great tailgate<\/a> that truly demonstrated that at NAU, we are Lumberjacks for life, and an impressive win by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1449498039828156419\">NAU Football<\/a> and celebrations with all members of our NAU community throughout.<\/li>\n<li>With the energy and excitement of Homecoming, it\u2019s been difficult to come back to day-to-day life. But already, this week has been off to a busy start. I\u2019ve met with many of our leadership team on important operational matters for the university, while continuing to push forward our goals around equity, access and attainment.<\/li>\n<li>I visited our student-journalists at <em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1450259547734495233\">The Lumberjack<\/a><\/em> for a thoughtful and timely discussion and many great questions.<\/li>\n<li>Yesterday evening, after a day of work, I logged into Zoom, joining <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NAUPresident\/status\/1451015338460532739\">presidents from universities in China and the United States for an engaging forum<\/a> on internationalization, educational and economic development, and sharing the great work of our colleagues around the globe in enhancing educational outcomes. Thanks to our team at the Center for International Education for their work in building these partnerships with institutions, students and faculty throughout the world to enrich the NAU experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s been a weekend to remember. And I cannot believe that we are more than halfway through my first fall semester at NAU. I\u2019m looking forward to the important work ahead, to other NAU traditions I will experience for the first time and to finishing this semester strong.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/President_signature_blue.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-63892\" src=\"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wordpresst\/uploads\/sites\/153\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/President_signature_blue.jpg\" alt=\"Jos\u00e9 Luis Cruz Rivera\" width=\"153\" height=\"102\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/notes-oct-21-2021\/\">Dear Lumberjacks, The past week was truly special, celebrating my first Homecoming with the Lumberjack community. The experience was incredible: vibrant, enthusiastic, celebratory and full of the life, hope, opportunity and optimism that I know makes this university and this community such a great place to live, learn and work. Below are a few highlights&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1820],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes-from-the-president"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64246","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}