Dear Willard College Faculty,

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Lester Caraway has been promoted from Interim Assistant Director of Faculty Enhancements to Interim Executive Director of Faculty Enhancements. Prior to serving as Interim Assistant Director, Dr. Caraway, who holds a PhD in Higher Education, held the position of Interim Associate Director Human Resources. Dr. Caraway will be sending out an announcement in the coming weeks about new and renewed initiatives designed to enhance faculty feelings of belonging and performance. Dr. Caraway is also chairing the Credit Reassessment Committee which is studying the possibility of the college offering micro-credit courses, including classes that would earn students anywhere from .1 – .9 credits.

Dr. Lusitania Glüm, PhD, Director of Marketing and Promotion

Dear Excited Colleagues, Dr. Unicornia Halloumi has studied the health benefits of kale for her entire career. A fitness and health “freak” (her words not ours!), Dr. Halloumi began experimenting with kale 17 years ago. According to her recent publication, she continued to increase the percentage of calories she took in from kale and kale by-products. She then tracked the correlation between increasing kale intake and her overall sense of well being, emotionally, socially, physically, and gastro-intestinally. Since she was the sole subject of her research, she was also the control group who received placebo kale.

Interim Assistant Director and Acting Director of Dining Services, Napoleon Meets has expressed interest in adding kale into the offerings at the Willard College dining facilities.

When you next see Dr. Halloumi, don’t forget to wish her well. Remember, we are a community that cares.

Louise de Guise, Public Safety and Animal Control Officer and Special Assistant to Provost Vandergrind, Dr. Pousse de Fauteuil

Dear Willard Folks,

At a time when we are all wondering where higher education is headed, I thought it was a good time to set the course for Willard moving forward. Please keep present during the work day, and when at home relaxing, that “Students are Our Why, Faculty are Our Yes, and Administrators are our Because.” This simple line, a mantra if you will, can keep you centered and focused on our work moving forward as we face another challenging and interesting academic year. Keep the negativity at bay. With this simple yet clear phrase.

This message has been approve by Dr. President Henry Cotton and the Board of Trustees who hold the president in the highest regard.

Dr. Lusitania Glüm, PhD, Director of Marketing and Promotion

Dear Louise de Guise, Public Safety and Animal Control Officer and Special Assistant to Provost Vandergrind, Dr. Pousse de Fauteuil,

Thanks for your prompt and useful response to my earlier query regarding the power outage. Sadly, the matter has grown a bit more complicated as we now are dealing with a broken water main which has paradoxically caused massive flooding in several buildings and has cut off water needed to clean up the chicken that could not be salvaged. I seem to recall that a few years ago, the Board of Trustees debated whether running water was needed on campus and various alternatives, including wells and cisterns were contemplated. The fact that not having running water on campus was even entertained is a reflection of the low priority given to the basic maintenance of campus facilities.

The flooding started just as power started back up which resulted in a new wave of power outages as shorts occurred in affected areas. Briefly, the efforts to rescue the chickens suffered a setback. What should I do now?

Interim Assistant Director and Acting Director of Dining Services, Napoleon Meets

Dear Louise de Guise, Public Safety and Animal Control Officer and Special Assistant to Provost Vandergrind, Dr. Pousse de Fauteuil,

As you learned from the emergency notification sent to the campus community last night, we suffered a massive and long-lasting power outage. We have restored power to the campus, which you will know because you are reading this email. Sadly, we did take a significant financial hit. You’ll recall that prior to retiring, Dr. Flanders Loon, former director of the Poultry Studies program, purchased a significant amount of chicken for pennies on the dollar. We had, upon his explicit directions, stored this supply of chicken in the dining hall freezer lockers. Dr. Loon estimated we had enough chicken to last dining services for nine years. Now we have nine years worth of chicken rotting in our freezers.

I’ll need some extra staff to help dispose of the lost poultry product and to clean the freezers.

Thanks,

Howard Syracuse, Director of Dining Services

Dear Campus Colleagues and Communities,

It is the end of an era. We have decided to sunset the Dental Studies Minor and its long-serving director, Dr. Utica Flosz. Dr. Flosz pioneered Dental Studies in the 1970s, and trained generations of students in the myriad subjects that fall under that disciplines umbrella: Insurance claims, billing, orthodontics and dental history, malpractice law, etc. Students currently in the program will complete the minor program remotely or at Pinecone College or through course waiver substitutions.

Sincerely sad, Dr. President Henry Cotton

Dearestingly Willard Community,

Yesterday, we were shocked to hear the news that Dr. Flanders Loon, Director of Poultry Studies, and a poultry scholar in his own right, has decided to leave the college ahead of the beginning of the Fall 2022 semester. In his 16 page letter to President Henry Cotton, Dr. Loon explained that he did not take the decision lightly but after 27 years of loyal service to the College and to Dr. Cotton, and to Dr. Cheryl Tina Fae Cotton who is a dear friend to Dr. Loon’s wife, Beryl Loon, he, and she, Beryl Loon, were ready to “explore other options in the exciting world of poultry.” He continued, in a letter that we would share in its entirety were it of a length appropriate to announcement, by citing a variety of different texts, sacred and profane.

Dr. Loon was no stranger to controversy. He was famous for ordering anyone who coughed or sniffled in his classes to drop his course and not return. More than one junior faculty lost tenure cases after coughing in his presence. He was fiercely loyal to the Cottons and helped root out a series of conspiracies against their reputations and operation of the institution. To that end, he was instrumental in helping the state attorney general indict then Provost Pillow after a shadow of suspicious in the case fell, unfairly, upon the person of Dr. Cotton.

What will the future hold for Dr. Flanders Loon. Time will tell. She always does.

Sincerely, Louise de Guise, Public Safety and Animal Control Officer and Special Assistant to Provost Vandergrind, Dr. Pousse de Fauteuil

It is mixed emotions, many of them sad, that I announce that Jefferson Kopek, Professor of Writing is (I cannot believe I’m going to write this) retiring. Mr. Kopek was a much beloved professor who was notable for having never published anything. And even more striking, Mr. Kopek had not written a single letter, much less a word, since the summer of 1982 when he penned an irate letter to the Sylvester County Chronicle entitled: “Why I don’t smoke too much pot.” Mr. Kopek is a local boy, having attend Sylvester County Unified School District from K-12, except for 11th grade. In 1970 Mr. Kopek graduated from Pinecone College with a degree in botany. He went on to pursue several advanced degrees, and obtained the title ABD from three different prestigious institutions, including Sylvester University.

Students at Willard College will miss his unorthodox pedagogy. He often would move class to undisclosed locations, including a yurt that he constructed on campus, an igloo, and various music festival in a 150 mile radius from the college. After 1990, he walked the five miles to campus every day. When not in his office, he could be found in a tree in front of Charcot Hall. His home, just off campus, was a favorite destination for students throughout the week.

Mr. Kopek will spend his retirement living his best life.

Thanks, Special Assistant to Provost Vandergrind, Dr. Pousse de Fauteuil