Had a great discussion this afternoon over lunch (Subway...does anyone else notice how pungent the smell of the "fresh" bread is?) with our faculty liaisons and senior faculty members and coaches. The topics ranged from how we can better educate and involve the faculty in the mission at Trinity to create excellence, to recruiting, to real forums where faculty and coaches can interact and share ideas. Essentially, it seems that many faculty are envious of the relationships we are able to generate with our recruits and current athletes - whereas we know almost as much about the incoming class as admissions many professors will enter a class in September and have no background information whatsoever about their class roster. What kind of campus community could we have if there were personal expectations of excellence in the academic and athletic realm before setting foot on campus. It's one thing to expect to earn good grades or produce excellent work (those two are not necessarily the same beast) because of your own personal drive and initiative or parental expectations and quite another for your teacher or coach to want to help you reach your potential (or exceed what you think may be your potential).
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Interesting Meeting This Afternoon
Had a great discussion this afternoon over lunch (Subway...does anyone else notice how pungent the smell of the "fresh" bread is?) with our faculty liaisons and senior faculty members and coaches. The topics ranged from how we can better educate and involve the faculty in the mission at Trinity to create excellence, to recruiting, to real forums where faculty and coaches can interact and share ideas. Essentially, it seems that many faculty are envious of the relationships we are able to generate with our recruits and current athletes - whereas we know almost as much about the incoming class as admissions many professors will enter a class in September and have no background information whatsoever about their class roster. What kind of campus community could we have if there were personal expectations of excellence in the academic and athletic realm before setting foot on campus. It's one thing to expect to earn good grades or produce excellent work (those two are not necessarily the same beast) because of your own personal drive and initiative or parental expectations and quite another for your teacher or coach to want to help you reach your potential (or exceed what you think may be your potential).
