View from Spilman

Engage and succeed

One of the joys of serving as interim chancellor has been welcoming a new group of freshmen during first-year orientation sessions this summer and at move-in.

We have 4,366 freshmen at ECU this fall, and during orientation I encouraged them to be grateful, engaged, proud, passionate and confident – and most of all – to be themselves.

We recruit and attract faculty, staff and students from all over our region, state, nation and world. Each individual makes our university stronger. It allows us to learn more and learn better.

At faculty convocation, I shared my priorities for the coming year and encouraged faculty to focus on research and internship opportunities for students – things that will give our students an advantage when they graduate and compete in the workforce or graduate school.

In turn, we need our students to become engaged so they can achieve success. There’s no room in Pirate Nation for people who just sit around. We’re proud of everything we are – be it our nationally ranked baseball team, our faculty who win prestigious state and national awards, or our highly ranked academic programs. And we do it with passion.

In this issue of East, we will spotlight some of our passions, from the classroom to the playing field.

Here’s to a great year in Pirate Nation.

Dan Gerlach
Interim Chancellor