May 18, 2012

I think everyone is happy this week! Spring semester is always a long one with lots of projects that students must complete and faculty must grade. We all need a break from one another and that time has arrived.

Saturday May 12 was graduation ceremonies for the University and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The RTIP grads celebrate and begin their new journey.

While the graduates begin their career or continue the job hunt, the other RTIP students are making their way to internship or summer jobs. A few get some time to visit family before their summer chores begin.

The faculty is now begining preparation for the textbook materials and projects for the fall semester as well as intense planning for the Global Symposium on Racing & Gaming.

Many people ask us what we do during the summer. I am always surprised how fast it goes by.  By the time we have finished making all the summer internship arrangements and grading finals this month is more than half over.  That leaves less than 3 months until classes start again in mid-August.  The faculty and staff spend many hours preparing for our annual symposium in December. Without that prior planning we are too busy teaching in the fall to tend to all the details of running a large conference in December without the pre-planning.   In addition the faculty must update most of our class materials as there are not formal text books in the racing classes that are so speciailized.  The way racing technology, regulation, issues etc constantly change, our material for class needs yearly updating. Of course, it is also the only time the faculty can take a little break and get a couple weeks vacation too!

This week the inquires for help from the incoming new students arriving in the fall semester has already started.  Unfortunately this week one of our new masters students informed me that the statistics course she was required to take was cancelled. Ugh! Now I need to search out for an alternative.  I hate when things out of my control come along.

Next week the faculty will be announcing a new event to be held as part of the Symposium. Hint: we changed our name to the Global Symposium on Racing & Gaming.