Office of the President

Speeches & Reports

Message to Texas A&M Faculty and Staff

Sept. 3, 2009

Howdy! It's been a long, hot summer, and it's wonderful to see the campus come alive again with enthusiastic young faces, not to mention some enthusiastic older faces. I have greatly enjoyed serving as your interim president over the past two-and-a-half months.

This is the first of what I plan to be a series of regular email messages to faculty and staff (with a separate message for students). These are intended to keep you informed on the latest campus events and issues:

• Once again, we have welcomed what is projected to be the largest freshman class in our university's history (about 8,100) and the largest student body in our history (expected to near 49,000).
• We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the failure of the Howdy! Portal to work as it should earlier this week. Our experts say the problems might have been caused by the heavy load of users signing on simultaneously, and assure me that they are working to correct the problem as quickly as possible.
• Because of the renovation of the Memorial Student Center we have added some new dining options around the MSC area during this time. I hope you'll take advantage of them. And for those of you who've been asking, the fully restored Military Walk is scheduled to be completed by next March.
• We have a team closely monitoring the H1N1 flu situation and preparing our campus to respond quickly when cases of the flu emerge. I encourage you to take care of yourself and become familiar with the precautionary measures outlined on our emergency preparedness website.
• There will be a lot of activities beginning tomorrow, Sept. 4, that are associated with the first football game against New Mexico on Saturday. Aggie Colors Day and First Yell will kick things off — I encourage you to wear maroon and white and support our university.

As you probably know by now, I am the guy in Aggieland wearing the bowtie, typically maroon in color. If you see me on campus, please stop and say hello. I look forward to getting to know as many of you as possible this semester. If you have any questions or want me to address a particular topic in future messages, please email me at president@tamu.edu. I will provide an update on our important Academic Master Plan in the very near future.

I am honored to serve you during this time of unprecedented growth and development at Texas A&M. Gig 'em Aggies!

Dr. R. Bowen Loftin '71
Interim President