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Ted Hoef

This e-newsletter is coordinated by the Dean of Students office. Our web designer is Joshua Hirtz, a senior from Cedar Hill, Missouri, majoring in computer science. We obtain a number of our articles from PaperClip Communications, a firm which produces content for parent newsletters.

Student Involvement

New students have been very involved in campus activities and events. That’s great to see. On the first Friday of each month a couple hundred students gather on campus to enjoy the First Fridays program featuring student performers. On Thursday, September 18, we had an overflow crowd in the auditorium to hear Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State. This was a very lively program, moderated by former Governor Bob Holden. It was great to see our students ask some very intelligent questions. Students were able to ask questions in person or via the Internet, as the program was streamed live around the Webster worldwide network.

And the Student Government Association has had a very strong level of interest and involvement. Fall elections, which featured the largest ever number of candidates, resulted in first-year student Justin Raymundo, an international human rights and Spanish major from joining the SGA Senate, along with two sophomores (Quintenilla Merriweather and Steph DeHart) and one junior (Edana Dillard).

New students have also had a major impact on the sports scene. We are having a very successful fall sports season so far, with women’s soccer (8 first-year students), women’s volleyball (5 first-year students), and men’s soccer (3 first-year students) competing for the right to advance to the SLIAC conference tournament. The women’s soccer and volleyball teams were undefeated in conference play at the time I wrote this column. The women’s cross country team also features two first year students, while two freshmen are running in men’s cross country, and men’s golf has two first year students. The golf team won their Gorlok Invitational with freshman Patrick Ahlering carding the low score for the home team.

Fall Break Coming Soon

By the time you are reading this newsletter, your son or daughter will probably be six or seven weeks into their first semester of college. Time sure does go by quickly. Soon, they will be completing midterm exams. And then Fall Break will be right around the corner (October 20-24).

Campus Dining

I am happy to announce the Student Board of Directors for Campus Dining Services for 2008-09. Student Affairs, in conjunction with Campus Dining Services, has established a Student Board of Directors to act in an advisory capacity on decisions related to Campus Dining at Webster. The Board is comprised of 6 students representing a range of classifications (freshman-senior) and campus residency status (commuter & resident). It is our aim to use the Board as a "think tank" that assists in steering a Campus Dining program designed by students for students. The Student Board of Directors at Webster provides a forum for us to make improvements. The goal is to evaluate and validate decisions related to dining services and then on an on-going basis, act as a guide on food quality, program, and customer service.

Many qualified students applied for these highly sought-after positions. After a review of the applications and a round of interviews, the following six students were selected as the first members of the Student Board of Directors:

• Benny Roberts, senior sociology major from Saint Paul, Minnesota, WVA resident
• Kacey Hampton, sophomore management major from Fort Collins, Colorado, Maria Hall resident
• Patrick Vacek, senior computer science major from Olathe, KS, commuter
• Aubrey Gohl, freshman undeclared major from Chesterfield, West Hall resident
• Phil Diehl, junior video production major from Imperial, MO, resident of Maria Hall
• Crystal Lewis, senior art major from Grand Haven, MI, commuter

If your son or daughter has a suggestion or comment about Campus Dining Services, please encourage them to seek out one of these student representatives, or talk directly with the director of Campus Dining Services Brad Woodroffe. We will be conducting a customer satisfaction survey in all of our dining locations during the week of November 3-7.

Student Leadership Development

We will be sponsoring an Emerging Leaders retreat on January 24-25, 2009. If your son or daughter is an aspiring student leader at Webster encourage them to apply for this excellent opportunity. They can contact associate dean John Buck at buckjh@webster.edu or the Webster LEADS student assistants at leads@webster.edu for more information.

We hope to have another newsletter out to you in November. We’d love to get your suggestions for future articles.

Sincerely,

Comments and Suggestions

We hope to publish this Webster University Newsletter for Parents of First-Year Students at least once a semester. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future newsletters, please send them to hoeftl@webster.edu. We look forward to your comments and suggestions.

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