Spotlight

Summer 2007                                                                  Back to Spotlight home page

Under construction

Editor's note

The curvature of my sagging spine, roiled by long hours in a chair, is one byproduct of this abominable habit we call writing. Office workers everywhere can relate. Writers will tell you their task is at once painful and refreshing.

Writers will also wear their hearts on their sleeves (also called complaining). After a couple weeks in my first job as a newspaper reporter, I told my editors I wasn’t used to sitting for extended periods of time. They smiled at me, unsympathetically, as if to say, “Get used to it.” As I interviewed professors and administrators for this issue’s story on faculty research, we visited about the demands of academia. There I was talking with doctorate-holders about writing Spotlight by day and literary theory papers by night for my pending English degree. The reaction was, “Yep, been there, done that.”

Our faculty members can relate. Outside their classroom duties, faculty members at ESU are devoted to research and creativity. See the story, see the video, and read it in their own words. The payoff is enhanced education for ESU’s students. The reward for the spine-compressing part of writing is the chance to recognize two colleagues. The summer 2006 cover image (at right) earned two regional awards from CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) in January – a gold in photography went to J.R. “Dick” Garvey (BA 1977), and a bronze in graphic design went to John Decker (BFA 1990). Without them, the Spotlight does not happen.

The refreshing aspect of writing is the chance to tell ESU’s stories. New leadership on campus brings with it a renewed sense of grand possibilities. From the inaugural celebration to shifting student demographics to a broad range of opportunities, we are truly excited to see what the future holds.

The future of ESU includes you. Whether you’re here every fall for Homecoming, or you haven’t been back for years and only read about your alma mater in these pages, your opinions shape the future of Emporia State. Send me a note with your thoughts, and they’ll be included in ESU’s plan for the future, under construction now.

Yours for ESU,

Jesse Tuel (BSB 2001), editor

Last Updated April 17, 2008