Dear alumni and friends...

At the beginning of each academic year, we join together as a college for our annual faculty and staff conference. This year, the members of our faculty and staff entered the meeting to the tune of one of my favorite songs, Michael Buble's "Feeling Good." I chose it because its lyrics were apropos of the conference, as well as the coming academic year, and our future as a college: "It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life. And I'm feeling good."

In many ways, for our college it is a new dawn and a new day. We have weathered the challenges of a year and a half of extraordinary change, yet managed to move forward in so many positive ways. By working together diligently and with great patience, not only did we survive these challenges, but, by many measures, we excelled and achieved great success.

This issue of Ivy Leaf highlights a number of these achievements. As you peruse these pages, I hope that you, as a member of our Penn State Altoona community, will share my pride in the accomplishments of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

As a college we have established specific goals and a vision for the future. A top priority is the cultivation of academic excellence. We must make teaching and learning more than a fine art; we must be the gold standard for excellence in both. Having quality academic programs begins with hiring quality faculty. We have and will continue to recruit, hire, and tenure highly qualified teachers and researchers.

Fostering a vibrant learning culture among our faculty, students, and staff is also important for our college. By bringing the newly-defined knowledge that comes from research into the classroom, our academic programs will remain on the cutting edge. We also must determine what information our students need to learn and what skills they need to develop for post-graduate success. Feedback from students and from those who employ our graduates, particularly about their readiness to work in their respective fields, is critical. In light of this feedback and our research, we must constantly review and update our curricula so that we offer our students the best possible academic programs.

At Penn State Altoona, as at other colleges and universities, we have an opportunity to prepare our next generation of leaders. We take ordinary people—some of whom face enormous challenges and forces working against their probabilities for success—and we give them extraordinary opportunities. By enriching their lives, we strengthen our families and our communities, and we change our world for the better.

Many serious challenges face our world today: crises in the Middle East, natural disasters, drugs and violence, global warming, poverty, health insurance issues, corruption in business and in government, and more. At Penn State Altoona, we work toward meeting these challenges by creating the next generation of leaders. No job is more important or more pressing.

I began my tenure as chancellor with a lot of hope, and I have learned a lot. I have also come to understand a fundamental truth: the responsibility for the success of this college does not lie solely with me. It lies with each of us, our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends. One and a half years later, I remain hopeful. We are poised for an exciting and successful future.

It is a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life. And we should be feeling good.