{"id":31367,"date":"2017-01-11T14:07:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T19:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=31367"},"modified":"2017-03-23T14:38:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T18:38:55","slug":"winnie-pooh-wisdom-new-years-resolutions-mark-president-susan-schultz-huxmans-first-convocation-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/winnie-pooh-wisdom-new-years-resolutions-mark-president-susan-schultz-huxmans-first-convocation-address\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year’s resolutions from all\u2014to all\u2014mark President Susan Schultz Huxman’s first convocation address"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eastern Mennonite University\u2019s spring 2017 semester convocation marked a new era of leadership with President Susan Schultz Huxman\u2019s first address to the campus community<\/a> in a packed Lehman Auditorium. Huxman, who assumed her duties Jan. 1 from Interim President Lee Snyder, introduced herself as a leader who pays attention to ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy academic field of study, as you have heard, is communication,\u201d said Huxman. \u201cThe Latin root word of communication is community. So in my discipline, we take special interest in symbols and occasions that bind us to one another \u2026 like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huxman then turned her attention to another ritual\u2014 the New Year\u2019s resolutions we often make but seldom keep, in part because they are so \u201caudacious\u201d in their high expectations.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The EMU campus community gathers for convocation to hear President Susan Schultz Huxman’s first address as president of the university.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe three most common New Year\u2019s resolutions are: lose weight, exercise more and be a better person \u2026no wonder we never succeed,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to us to lose sight of the reason we make these big, audacious, \u2018I want to be a better person\u2019 kind of resolutions. Believe it or not, they have their place, especially if we want to create healthy, vibrant communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reading from Winnie the Pooh \u2014performed by Huxman in voices that brought the rotund bear, Rabbit, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet to life, and the audience to laughter\u2014contributed the point that friends don’t ask for change, but instead “help you to be more of who you are.”<\/p>\n

She invited the audience of several hundred to write a resolution on a 3×5 card for her to read later. Make these \u201cnot for personal gain,\u201d she requested, \u201cbut for community-building gain, not for advancing ourselves, but for advancing our school. I want us to think about New Year\u2019s resolutions we should have for EMU in 2017, to help it become more of who it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous day, Huxman packed a full day of activities into learning more about \u201cwho\u201d EMU is.