My address to the campus during Welcome Week included a poem encouraging everyone to recognize they have an important role in shaping WSU.

You’re all part of the river …

All the professors are part of the flow,
Service faculty, with all that you know,
Student Affairs, Advancement, and Res Life,
(I live in Lourdes Hall with Kelley, my wife)

Office assistants and student workers
In ITS there sure are no shirkers.
GMWs, Facilities crew,
What do you know?  Administrators too.

Somsen, Gildemeister, Kryszko, Minné,
Maxwell and Pasteur, now what do you say?
Phelps and Krueger and Wabasha and Stark,
Gathering down at the river, and hark!

Every student who’s willing will ride
With us together in this rising tide.

All of us together, every IFO, ASF, AFSCME, MAPE, MMA, MSUSA, ABC, 123, Do Re Mi, Baby you and me! [1]
We are a community, we are learners, and we improve our world.


[1] Olson, S. (2005, August).  “Our train.” Unpublished speech, with a reference to the song “ABC” by the Jackson Five, written by Mizell, A., Perren, F., Richards, D., and Gordy, B.