Welcome to a brand new academic year at Clemson!!
Whether you are a new or returning member of the Clemson family, you can feel the excitement this week as we get ready to greet almost 100 new faculty members and more than 4,700 new freshmen and transfer students.
Our new Provost and Executive VP for Academic Affairs, Bob Jones, will join us on September 16. Meanwhile, get ready for a busy few weeks ahead!
Saturday and Sunday are move-in days for students. Sunday is Football Fan Appreciation Day and Freshman Picnic. Monday brings new student convocation and our Summer Reading lecture, along with the Welcome Back festival.
On Tuesday, Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University, will speak at the Victor Hurst Academic Convocation. His leadership has been transformational at ASU, which he calls “the New American University.” Faculty members will not want to miss his talk!
Things will settle down as classes begin Wednesday, then ramp up again for our first home football game September 6.
There is nothing quite like the start of a new semester on a campus as beautiful as ours.
If you have been away for the summer, you’ll notice some major campus improvements under way. Work has started on the Watt Family Innovation Center and Freeman Hall, both in the vicinity of the Library.
We’ve also received final approval on two major capital projects: the core campus development, which will replace the final section of Johnstone Hall and Harcombe Dining Hall, and the Douthit Hills development, a mixed-use development that will provide housing for the Bridge to Clemson and upper-division students. Facilities staff are also working hard to clean up and make repairs caused by recent heavy rains.
This progress on improving our facilities will require some patience from us all, however! Be prepared for changes in traffic patterns, and watch Inside Clemson for updates on construction, traffic and parking!
In other big news this summer, we passed the $800 million mark in our Billion-dollar Will to Lead campaign, and re-opened large sections of the South Carolina Botanical Garden damaged by flooding in 2013.
It’s going to be a great semester, and I can’t wait!
Welcome back, and Go Tigers!
Jim Clements
