By John S. Pistole
We’re excited to welcome alumni and friends back to campus for Homecoming this year, with lots of activities, recognitions and fun events.
As I think about the significance of Homecoming, I think of the opportunities our outstanding faculty, staff and coaches provide for alumni to reconnect with “old” friends and mentors, whether classmates, teammates or soulmates.
So much of what we do at AU is about building and maintaining relationships, with God, with one another and in making new friends. Homecoming provides these opportunities and others, as we strive to be a Christian university which alumni and current and prospective students find distinctive, compelling and relevant.
The world of higher education is changing rapidly, perhaps more so than at any time in our nation’s history, according to some experts. As we navigate these strategic changes, including the sheer number of options high school graduates have to choose from, including whether they even consider college, how you as alumni and friends of the university engage with us is critical.
You are our unofficial representatives in your hometowns, your churches and your communities. Some of you represent us as ambassadors for good, recommending high school students you know to consider AU as their future alma mater.
Some of you invest your money in AU by providing scholarships for deserving students knowing that virtually all our students receive some type of financial aid.
Some of you pray for us on a regular basis, that we may be ambassadors for Christ for all the students who choose to attend AU, just as Kathy and I did years ago and as you may have.
Homecoming allows each of us the chance to hear the stories of transformed lives, perhaps from alumni who have made a real, meaningful and obvious difference in the world, or some completely behind the scenes so that literally only God knows their impact.
Each of us have the opportunity to renew old friendships, hear about the exciting transformation taking place across campus and discern how God may be calling you to invest in the life of AU.
You can learn about our new academic offerings of cybersecurity, national security, sports marketing and computer engineering, our new athletics with women’s and men’s lacrosse and swimming and diving, our No. 1 nursing program in the state of Indiana and hear more about our “classics” of Tri-S, Center for Public Service, Cultural Resource Center, Fall Into Dance and, well, you get the idea.
Thanks for being part of the AU family. God bless, go Ravens!
President John S. Pistole, ‘78