RI The academic year is well under way and it looks like it will be a great one. Last year, our athletic teams were very competitive and provided us with some very exciting games and it looks like this year will be just as good or better. Our men’s hockey team lost two key players to the NHL but this also provides the coaches with excellent new recruits as players see the benefits of wearing the Laker anchor. This year will be the last year for the CCHA conference as our hockey program is preparing to move to the new WCHA next fall. Planning for the Norris Center expansion continues with groundbreaking scheduled for the spring. This $4.3 million project is due to the generosity of a longtime friend of the University and will greatly benefit our athletic programs and the institution. Athletics isn’t the only area where there’s been a lot of action. Last year’s LSSU Student Government team was the most politically active group we’ve had on campus in a long time. LSSU students held key positions at the state level in the Student Association of Michigan and represented our university well. Several are active in this fall’s political campaigns. Look for some LSSU grads to be state and local political leaders in the not-to-distant future. Over the past three years, LSSU has implemented a very strong Shared Governance process that developed a new strategic plan for the university. See what we’ve developed by going online to www.lssu.edu/sp. Unlike most strategic plans, our Shared Governance groups will be continually reviewing progress and revising the plan. This should provide the administration and board of trustees with guidance in future decision making. As you may know, the entire Lake State campus is a designated historic site with more than a dozen remaining structures from the Fort Brady era. These buildings, with their historic architecture and former use as a U.S. Army fort, make the campus unique to Michigan. Thanks to the work of our maintenance staff, the buildings and campus are looking better than ever. Several years ago, a plan was developed to demolish one of these historic structures -- South Hall -- to make room for a new classroom building and to house the LSSU School of Business. The plan was not well received. Thanks to the input from faculty, staff, students and community members, a new plan was developed, calling for the complete renovation of South Hall to turn it into the new home for our School of Business and much more, with versatile classrooms to support many of our programs. The $12 million facility will house a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where market-needs thinking can occur among students and faculty. It will also include an Import/Export Center and Securities Trading Laboratory. The commons and meeting spaces will foster exchange of ideas, and modern classrooms will ensure that students learn both the theory and current tools of the trade, along with how to put them into action – a hallmark of an LSSU education. From the President O RS E S UN U M IBU UR PL TATE U N E IV E SUPE R SI T Y K LA M ULA SI QUAERIS PENINS M NA OE AM • 1 94 6 ICE CIRCUMSP • Tony McLain The School of Business has recently been combined with the School of Engineering and Technology and the Product Development Center into the newly formed College of Business and Engineering. The new facility will serve this area of campus well. The innovation and prototyping laboratories currently in place within engineering will now be coupled with business school expertise and community resources to allow multidisciplinary teams to design, develop, finance, and make prototypes of products, as well as market, manufacture and distribute them. At the request of the LSSU Board of Trustees last October, the LSSU Foundation launched a campaign to raise $3 million by this November. The $3 million is the university’s portion of the $12 million project, with the remaining amount to be funded by the State of Michigan’s Capital Outlay program. Members of the Foundation’s staff and a small cadre of volunteers have been diligently reaching out to alumni and friends to garner the support necessary to make this project a reality. I hope when you learn more about the South Hall Renovation Project in this issue of the Laker Log, you will contact the LSSU Foundation with your support and join us in this extraordinary opportunity to provide an exciting, new – yet historic – educational facility to be used by future Lakers for many years to come. Find out more at lssu.edu/foundation/southhall. Go, Lakers! Tony L. McLain President 1