A YEAR AGO, MELINDA AND I WERE BUSY ACCLIMATING to Drury and Springfield as we launched on campus before the last academic year. While I’d already been in higher education for two decades, it was all new: chatting with students in the Mercy Science Center as they came in and out of lab; walking through the Hammons School of Architecture to sample the student design work; grabbing a cookie or two in the Commons; attending theatre performances in the Black Box and Wilhoit; and hearing any number of our musical groups take the stage in Spangler Concert Hall or Stone Chapel.
By late fall and into spring, the pool was alive with home meets, the pitch at Harrison had been home to great soccer seasons by both teams, and O’Reilly Family Event Center was rocking as we commemorated the 25th season of the Lady Panthers. Along the way, so many of our students earned academic, service, leadership, and athletic awards last year, proving yet again that a Drury education is a gateway to a life of meaning and accomplishment.
Our theme for this issue of the Drury Magazine is “campus,” which at our university is so much more than a series of buildings where one works toward a degree. The campus is a true home, not only to residential students but to those who commute here, work here, come back to visit, attend an event, or pass by from time to time to exhale and know that Drury has been a constant in the Ozarks for 152 years.
We still train, develop, empower, and graduate one extraordinary student at a time, a truism of our mission to provide personalized education. For many, this campus has been the place where they met the people who would bring hope and zest into their lives, find their calling, and collect the skills to live a life of meaning and accomplishment. Equally true for many from parts near and far, Drury remains their true “third place,” not home or work, but a placemaking location where a walk among the trees and ever-present squirrels brings fresh hope of connection to self, to others, and to believing in something larger than oneself. The campus is an oasis of learning, reflecting, connecting, and so much more.
Drury has had an excellent last 18 months, welcoming the largest class in a decade, ushering in new academic programs, reinvesting in our community, building connections across the region, state, and beyond, and reminding all that we are better together. And many of you believe fervently in Drury, sharing your time, talents, and treasure generously to help us make a difference in this complicated world. As I have said many times, when the rest of the world tells you to look down at your phone, Drury says to look up and have a conversation. I know that makes a difference.
The magic of the Drury mission and the soul of the university are flourishing. When we all pull together, we become #OneDrury, an unstoppable force grounded in individual and collective excellence.
Jeff Frederick, Ph.D.
