We officially opened up the semester with our faculty-staff institute on Tuesday. We have noticed, like most campuses, the number of students struggling with a myriad of personal issues. So I wanted to spend time helping faculty and staff learn how to assist students in a meaningful way.

We set the stage with Michael Hutchinson, assistant to the president who leads our Black Male Initiative. He shared some of the stories he had regarding his work with the men on campus. Many of the faculty and staff were shocked by some of the challenges our students face.

We then brought on Dr. Ruth Harper, professor of counseling, and Mr. C. D. Douglas, director of minority affairs, at South Dakota State University. Dr. Harper is editor of a new book regarding counseling skills. They covered a number of issues that today's college students deal with. Those who don't work in higher education really don't know the depth of the issues.

We then broke the group up.

And after answering questions regarding our students, the groups began their discussions.

We ended by having the groups report the significant areas of challenge they see in our students, and our presenters gave us some take away strategies to assist students. So this was a helpful exercise and helps us continue to try to educate the whole student.

The Prez