A St. Ambrose Welcome is a Gift Forever Treasured

It is customary for retiring university presidents to leave behind a letter addressed to their successors. Ed Rogalski, PhD, kindly did this for me. I soon will do as much for Amy Novak, EdD, who will assume the office of president on August 7.

Most of what I will include in such a note will be shared in confidence. Here, I may recount a few of my own favorite Ambrosian experiences, which I'm certain will enhance the new president's tenure just as they have enhanced my own.

One such experience is witnessing the joy in spirituality our students share during Mass, particularly during a Mass in the Grotto on a warm fall evening. (And because both Amy and her husband, Ken, are proud University of Notre Dame graduates, I will tell them our grotto is a replica of Notre Dame's own. It was kindly donated by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Lujack, who knelt and prayed before that space on the Notre Dame campus on nights before he helped shake down the thunder.)

Another annual delight for me was the August "clap in." Seeing the slightly befuddled but delighted faces of our first-year students as our faculty and staff welcomed them to St. Ambrose was good fun. Seeing the wiser and enlightened faces of those same students as they graduated a few years later truly was affirming.

Dr. Novak should keep an ear attuned to the sound of our Athletics Band practicing on the square outside her office on a steamy August afternoon. It is a pleasant, audible harbinger of the coming academic year. She also will enjoy the cacophonous buzz in the cafeteria every Wing Day. Finally, few campus sounds are as inspiriting as the communal harmony of "Silent Night" sung in Ambrosian unison in a candlelit ballroom each December. For me, this will be a treasured memory for many Christmases to come.

Countless other such pleasures, large and small, await the next president and I will heartily advise that she embrace every opportunity to know, experience and celebrate this very special place. I have every confidence that she will.

The central focus of the message I will share with Dr. Novak in August, meanwhile, can be summarized in a single word: Welcome.

The welcome Amy, Ken, and their children will receive as they make St. Ambrose their home will be unique, special and, above all, genuine. It will be extended not just by our campus community, but also by our alumni, our Trustees, the Diocese of Davenport, by higher education professionals across the state of Iowa and by Quad Citians at large.

When I considered St. Ambrose for my second presidency, the communal commitment to students and the St. Ambrose mission truly appealed to me. What I did not anticipate was the incredible feeling of inclusion and support.

l feel that still today. St. Ambrose will always be part of who I am, and I will treasure that. It is that community of faculty, staff, students, board members, alumni and friends who will be a lasting gift to me.