Welcome to returning students, faculty, staff, administration, and to the incoming class of 2009! It is commonplace to claim that the year ahead holds potential for many wonderful memories, accomplishments, events, moments, and activities, because the year ahead is really just a period of time we are given to use in any way we can. Lawrence provides us with the materials, the professors, the facilities, the money, the assistance, and the support to do many great things, yet it ultimately falls on the shoulders of our student body to create the memories that will mark the year. We have all come to Lawrence in pursuit of a liberal arts education, which means something about the wide variety of opportunities, whether it be the chance to become a certified scuba diver in the campus pool or the opportunity to participate in our individualized learning program strongly encouraged by President Jill Beck, appealed to us. Yet, the one piece of advice I would offer as a graduating senior who arrived with many interests of her own, would be that you have to make it happen. The greatest complaint launched at the student body by the student body has been an overabundance of apathy and inaction. So I encourage and challenge the incoming freshmen class to not fall prey to such habits.
I hope that this welcome week issue of The Lawrentian provides all students with a foundation of information from which you may begin pursuing all the interests, passions, and dreams that brought you to Lawrence in the first place. The Lawrentian is the university’s newspaper, staffed by students and advised by Associate Dean Paul Shrode. Hopefully, we can continue to inform, advise, exhibit, and entertain you throughout the coming year.
Welcome,
Katharine Enoch
Editor in Chief