Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2022

O F F I C E O F T H E P R E S I D E N T Onward and Upward F THERE’S ONE THINGWEHAVE ALL LEARNED over the course of the last two years, it’s that nothing is certain. Two years ago, we were just learning about what scientists were then calling a novel coronavirus. One year ago, we were celebrating the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines. Today, we are emerging fromyet another wave of infections, this one caused by the most transmissible variant to date. I 6 SOUTHWESTERN President Trombley, left, enjoys the 2021 Homecoming festivities with (left to right) Gracie Huber '22, Taylor Williams '23, and Shilling Lecture guest speaker Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University. Yet despite theuncertainty and turmoil, we carry on.We carry on becausewemust—and becausewe can. At Southwestern,weknowour campus is a safe environment for living and learning. Our health and safety protocols, which includemasking, social distancing, washing hands frequently, and getting vaccinated, have proven extremely effective as we have completed three semesters of in-person classes, maintaining a lowpositivity rate the entire time. Our students, faculty, and staff continue to thrive in themost trying of times, a true testament to their character and commitment. With a handle on the present, we turn our eyes to the future. This issue of Southwestern highlights many of our plans to strengthen our foundation and advance ourmission in the coming years. Last summer we launched our 2021–2026 Tactical Plan, which you can read about in detail on pages 24–26. The Tactical Plan goes beyond simply establishing goals and objectives to outline the exact steps we need to take to achieve them. It’s not a wish list, but rather a set of clearly defined actions that will help us further our vision and goals.We are less than a year into the plan, but we havealreadymade tremendousprogress onmanyof our priorities. One of our tactics, for example, is to develop a newacademic advising programto better support student success and increase retention rates. To that end, we have hired six professional academic advisors who are helping our first-year students explore potential majors andminors and set academic goals. Another tactic is to increase funding to ensure every student has access to two high-impact experiences; throughgenerousphilan- thropic contributions and pledges, we have already raised more than $700,000 for this purpose.