October finds me well into fulfilling a major objective: visiting our dispersed campus sites. These campus visits are proving even more informative than I had anticipated.

The opportunity to crawl through aging infrastructure, see the owner pride that results from high-quality self-help projects; to meet with students, faculty, governance and advisory groups; and to watch learning taking place in a highly commendable manner consistently from location to location…all these experiences are making important impressions on me about UA campus leadership, academic prowess, staff dedication and how well we join selflessly as a team for the purpose of helping students succeed.

I have asked to be shown “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” As the head resource guy in UA, I want to be sure that when we lock “affordability” into our next budget, it puts dollars where they’re most needed. Solving that equation means addressing multi-variables. For me, the very best way to validate these tough budget decisions is to have laid eyes on the problems, projects and programs, and to have shaken the hands of the great people who are dedicated to working them on behalf of our students, first and foremost.

If I haven’t met you yet, I will. In the meantime, keep up the academic excellence and great support for our many and diverse students. And to the gang at our Southeast campuses whom I just visited last week: I was impressed! Thanks for the hospitality and the great job that you are all doing.

-----Pat Gamble