The Annual Renewal

Universities are institutions that experience an annual lifecycle. Over the next few days, we are seeing the yearly rebirth.

The quiet, relatively empty campus of summer runs on a different daily schedule than that beginning in early fall. Of course, many faculty and staff continue their work, especially as the fall approaches. There are summer courses ongoing. There are high school programs and sports programs. But it’s quiet.

Very, very soon, the busyness jumps up dramatically. But, there have been many weeks of preparation. The grounds crew and operations staff have been working, power washing walkways and walls, sprucing up the plantings, painting areas that needed work. Like every vibrant university I know, there’s also construction on campus. All of these are building a better institution – a new residence hall on the site of Henle Village, and a large updating of heating and cooling conduits underground. That will complicate movement a bit, but it’s another sign of renewal.

This week at Georgetown is a long series of welcoming events for new members of the community. New faculty attend orientation sessions, learning about the research and teaching support services. New graduate students arrive and meet the program faculty who will become so important to their careers.

With each passing day, there is a growing current of parents and undergraduate students, who are moving into residence halls. Humans carrying heavy objects. Of course, the big events start tomorrow and through the weekend. There are scores and scores of existing students who come early to guide new students through the move-in process and assist with New Student Orientation (NSO), a multi-day affair, attempting to inform first-year and transfer students how things work at Georgetown. A big message, delivered by almost every speaker, is care for the whole person, dialogue across differences, people for others, and other Jesuit values that animate Georgetown.

One of the highlights is the scene of NSO students under an arch of blue and grey balloons, shouting welcomes loudly to new students and their parents as they drive in with their cars completely stuff with belongings.

On Saturday, the more formal new undergraduate student convocation, with intentional pomp and circumstance occurs. New students don their graduation robes (to the surprise of many) and recite the academic honor pledge, a symbolic note to their entrance into a scholarly community. Families, some teary eyed, all bursting with pride, witness the event.

Faculty return, busily finishing last minute preparations for their classes, meeting with other colleagues when necessary. Of course, many staff, especially those whose research uses campus facilities, have been toiling away all summer. For staff who have worked all summer, these days too are a renewal of energy in the unit, but also the harbinger of much more work. The processes of the academy are being fully engaged anew.

It’s hard to beat this feeling of a new beginning, a sense of renewal, another chance to get better, to try new ideas.

Of course, the most welcomed change in the atmosphere are the young people who transmit their energy, hopes, humor, and camaraderie to the formerly quiet places. Their presence reminds us why we do this work.