EMU’s annual faculty-staff conference, offered last week, traditionally marks the divide between slower summer days and the excitement of the new academic year. Shortly after the conference, students begin to trickle onto campus.
Fall semester classes at EMU begin 8 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31. The fall semester runs through Dec. 17.
Students begin to arrive
Students who will serve as community advisers or ministry assistants began arriving for training sessions Friday, Aug. 20.
First-year students will check into the residence halls Saturday, Aug. 28. Orientation programs for new students and transfers run through Monday, Aug. 30.
Returning students will arrive on campus Sunday, Aug. 29. Final fall semester registration will be held Monday, Aug. 30.
Fall convocation
EMU President Loren Swartzendruber will speak at an opening convocation 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Lehman Auditorium on the theme, “Think About These Things,” based on Philippians 4.
Cross-cultural sending
A student cross-cultural group going to Spain and Morocco for the fall semester will be commissioned during the convocation.
The service will conclude with an ice cream social on Thomas Plaza of the Campus Center.
Alum Shirley Showalter opens conference
Shirley H. Showalter of Kalamazoo, Mich., opened the faculty/staff conference Aug. 18 with an address on “EMU’s Learning Community as Spirituality in Action.”
Dr. Showalter, a 1970 English major graduate of EMU, taught at locally before entering graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a PhD.
After more than a decade on the faculty of Goshen (Ind.) College as professor of English, she became the 14th president in 1996 and served there until 2004, when she joined the staff of the Fetzer Institute, a social justice and community healing organization. In 2010 she left the Institute to focus on writing.
Conference highlights
A dozen workshops ran concurrently Wednesday morning and afternoon on special interest topics ranging from “spiritual direction” and “leadership as coaching” to “community in a Facebook world” and “life experience and wellness.”
Other highlights of the conference were the “state of the campus” report from President Swartzendruber, daily worship, fellowship, an ice cream social, and the annual all-campus picnic.