The week before classes began on Aug. 26 was Gold Rush week at Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU). As the new president of SMSU, this was my first Gold Rush experience. One of the most impressive parts of this week was the sense of community at SMSU. On the move-in day, for example, with over 100 students, faculty, staff, and community members helping students to move into the residence halls, the energy level on the campus was fantastic. Even some middle school children from the community participated in the event. One parent of a new student said “We drove for three hours to get here. I thought it would take another two hours for us to unload the car and take everything to her room. With the help of all the “Mustang Movers,” it took us less than 10 minutes to get everything up there.” Move-in day culminated in an all campus picnic sponsored by US Bank. This is one of the many ways that the community comes together to help students at SMSU.

With all the programs at SMSU to ensure the success of our students, I believe the vision of SMSU should be to become the most inclusive and student-centered university in Minnesota and beyond with a keen focus on innovative teaching, experiential learning, leadership development, and strategic partnerships. I am asking the university community to discuss and embrace a common vision for SMSU this fall, which subsequently will guide all the activities for the next five years. I offer you the following examples as reasoning for my thinking.

There are many services available to SMSU students such as the help offered by the Math Center, Writing Center, Speech Center, Student Success and Advising Center, etc. In addition, since stress, depression, anxiety, relationship concerns, or other personal issues can affect students’ well-being and academic success, SMSU’s Counselling and Testing Services offer free confidential short term counseling services in an empathetic, non-judgmental setting. Moreover, as many of our students face food insecurity, SMSU has a food bank called the Mustang Pantry that offers free food to any SMSU student who has a need.

One of the priorities at SMSU is to increase the diversity, inclusion, and equity among the members of the campus community. To this end, the Office of Cultural Diversity works with the entire campus to promote multiculturalism. The office of Access, Opportunity, and Success (AOS) provides many services to under-represented students, first generation students as well as students from low-income families.

In the short amount of time as president of SMSU, I have been impressed with the world class faculty and dedicated staff I have met here. They share a commitment to the success of our students. Our recent graduates are 99 percent employed or in graduate school, SMSU ranked 7th in the nation for affordable bachelor’s degrees by Best Value Schools, and our RN to BSN nursing program was recently ranked fourth in the state. SMSU is a unique university, with thousands of success stories that I am excited to hear, and share. I look forward to meeting people in the coming months who are loyal supporters and were instrumental in helping to elevate SMSU into the outstanding institution it is today.