Author: Ken Anselment

How some of our students spent Mother’s Day

Nancy Truesdell, our Vice President of Student Affairs (and overall awesome lady), sent the following email to the Lawrence administration today. Seems fitting and proper to post here, too. Since Nancy’s message pretty much says it all, we’ll close by going right to her note:

I thought I should pass along that I heard we had 80 students go to senior homes yesterday to provide Mother’s Day makeovers (manicures, etc.)  to the senior residents and offer little homemade gifts (particularly going to residents who had no family visit on Mother’s Day) as part of the regular outreach that the fairly new campus org Glamour Girls arranges.  Glamour Gals (featured on one of the This is Lawrence videos) goes weekly to offer companionship and spend one-on-one times to both men and women in the senior centers by doing nails and hair, etc., but I thought the Mother’s Day outreach was very special and demonstrates the heart of our students.

My office also received a call today from the daughter of a blind woman who lives at one of the senior centers who so enjoyed the “singing visit” from Sinfonia (men’s music fraternity) – the daughter gushed about how special this was very [important for] her mother and how touched she was that busy college students would take time to do this…

Nancy

Begin again…

Even though we are still welcoming the last of our new students for 2012 into the fold, we have already begun turning our attention to the class of 2013, many of whom arrive today, Friday, May 11, for Junior Visit Day. Just under 12 months from now, they’ll be making their final decisions about where they’ll spend their four undergraduate years.

So last night we had this reverse radio call-in show…

Last night, for students who had not yet finalized their college plans, we hosted Lawrence’s first “Reverse Radio Call-In Show” using some technology that involves robo-calling. (That we did so during an election cycle gave us pause, knowing that many households still attached to landlines are receiving calls from various and sundry political candidates).

On the phone with me were Dean of Student Affairs, Nancy Truesdell, and Dean of the Conservatory, Brian Pertl. They answered questions from students calling in from coast to coast. Seriously. We had students from Boston and students from Alaska–and many places in between–on the line last night.

If you have half an hour to burn, you can listen to a recording of the phonecast here (skip past the first 30 seconds unless you like hearing a lot of back chatter). It works well if you’re looking for answers to questions about student life (including a great question about starting a formal group house dedicated to “slow-food cooking”) and life in the Conservatory of Music. It also works well if you’re having a hard time sleeping and you find the dulcet tones of university administrators to have a soporific effect.

Phonecast May 1

On May 1 at 7 p.m. CST, we’ll be holding a last-minute phonecast for students and families who may have some last-minute questions before they make their final decisions. On the line with the dean of admissions and financial aid will be members of the Lawrence community who can have a live conversation with you and your fellow admitted students (and their families). It’ll be like a radio call-in show, except we’ll be calling you using some kind of new-fangled robo-calling equipment. If you’re interested, simply pick up the phone. If you’d rather not be bothered by it, please ignore the call.

How we get those nifty Conservatory productions to your home over the interwebs

If you’re planning on watching tonight’s broadcast of our conservatory’s production of “The Messiah,” and wonder how we support it technologically, you’ll enjoy Dean Brian Pertl’s walkthrough of our new remote camera system in the Con.

Hallelujah!