First Day of School
School is now in session! Today marks the first day of classes for Vanderbilt student. Campus was quiet and pastoral all summer; it’s wonderful to have this infusion of energy in town. Throughout the summer I told visiting families to come back for a visit this fall. So sign up for visit programs now! They fill up fast. If you have the opportunity to spend a Saturday here and attend a football game, do it! Sitting through an admissions information session can only get you so far. Afterwards, you need to get out into our student community and see if you feel at home. Fall is a period of frenzied activity and fanatic enthusiasm in the Commodore community.
Here are some random thoughts I’ve collected during this first week of school:
- Parking is a pain (freshmen cannot have cars on campus and afterwards you might not even want your car here, it can be more work than it’s worth); Nashville is a pedestrian-friendly town and we have great public transportation provided by the city and Vanderbilt.
- Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Rein is the Commons Reading this year; I’m just beginning the book and loving it!
- Student media is back. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong, but it’s always entertaining. If you want to keep your pulse on the student vibe at Vanderbilt, check out one of our many sources of student media.
- The Commons is one of the most amazing residential life experiences in America. Keep an eye out for my blog next week on the first-year experience.
August 26th, 2010
Hey OUA!!!!
Greetings from Hamilton, N.Y. I see you guys are still all smiles back in Nashville. Good luck with the start of a new admission cycle. I know you all will continue to recruit some of the best and brightest future leaders.
Great pic btw ;-)
T-hugg
August 29th, 2010
I have to read Three Cups of Tea as a summer reading requirement and I love it! Do the students have to read it so they can meet and discuss the book?
Hope everything at The Commons is going great!
August 29th, 2010
The book will be discussed in multiple ways throughout the year! Vanderbilt Visions, our core course for first year students, will discuss it and it will be apart of programming in the Commons. It’s a wonderful way for professors, students, and staff members to interact throughout the year. Check out Tony Brown’s response as a jumping off point! I was walking through the Commons this weekend and it looks as if our Class of 2014 settled in wonderfully!