Thanking Our College Friends This Christmas

By Bill Henk –  Although it’s that wonderful time of year for giving and receiving, I’m in a different mode – THANKING. 

It’s true that I should have been operating in this mode back around Thursday, November 24th or so.  But that didn’t happen for an important reason — I was honestly too busy to take time to be outwardly thankful.

You see, as the fall semester has been drawing to a close, I  find myself with far too much work and far too little time.  Being ridiculously busy hardly amounts to a new story for me.  But this time around it feels different, more overwhelming than I can remember at any point in my career.

How About Some Holiday Whine?

The fact of the matter is that my regular duties as a dean consume massive quantities of time on their own.  Just ask my wife and daughter who rarely see me.  But this semester I also took on LOTS of community service and taught a class for the first time in quite a while.   Both were what I’d call “joyous hardships.”

Oh, and did I mention blogging?  That’s been a longstanding joyous hardship for me, too.  I love the work, but struggle every week to find the time and energy to do it.  (Forgive me for whining about these oxymorons, but it’s 4:25 a.m., and my deadline for finishing this post is a mere 90 minutes away.  One of my massive cats ”thankfully” woke me up at 3:30 by pouncing on my stomach in the chair I had collapsed and fallen asleep in around midnight).  In other words, if this post is particularly bad, you now know why.

For the record, it hasn’t helped that I’ve been hobbling around in a surgical walking boot and going to physical therapy for the past nine weeks.  I’ve been trying to avoid surgery on my torn Achilles tendon that would have set me back another six months.  The good news is that I beat long odds and don’t need surgery (a pretty terrific Christmas present if you ask me).  The bad news is that I’m utterly exhausted.

Rising to the Occasion

But there’s one task on my to do list that has been surprisingly re-energizing.  In the homestretch of what has been a daunting semester, it turns out that another type of giving – giving thanks — is fueling me.

That’s because it’s also the time of year when the College gets the opportunity to thank our many friends one last time before the new year.  It’s not like what we do is “all that.”  We send holiday cards with heartfelt wishes for a peaceful, joyous, and blessed season, and I often include a personal note.

But when I look at the many large boxes of cards we will send, I’m somehow not overwhelmed by the enormous parcels of time and energy it’s going to take to sign them, write personalized notes, and get these small gestures of appreciation out the door.

The sheer volume of holiday cards serves to remind me just how many friends we enjoy in the College of Education, and equally important, how their generous giving of time, energy, effort, and money makes it possible for us to do our work.

Frankly, if it weren’t for our many friends both within the university and well beyond it, our impact would be narrow and shallow.   On the contrary, we’re able to do lots of great things, because of the extraordinary support we receive.

It’s this giving of our students, our Marquette colleagues, our alumni, our donors, and our community friends and partner organizations that I want to honor here.

Truth be told, I’d be remiss in not thanking the special donors whose generous contributions support our deeply deserving College of Education students.  These promising professionals are smart, hard-working, passionate and talented leaders who are literally going to Be The Difference in the world.  Their commitment to social justice is nothing short of remarkable.

So you know, it’s been heartbreaking for me to watch the devastating effects the economy has exerted on them and their families.  They’re doing everything possible to keep our students enrolled, but let’s face it — times are tough.  For me, there is a bottom line in this regrettable situation, and it goes like this.   Investing in our College of Education students qualifies as the proverbial gift that will keep on giving — in this case to society.     

A Final Word

Simply put, as Marquette’s newest college, we have needs.  Despite our 90-year history as an academic unit at the institution, our work is either enabled (or limited, depending on how you look at it), by the resources we have to be “game changers.”

In other words, our impact will be determined in large measure by the support we receive from those with an affinity for the field of Education.   My sincere hope is that over the next few years these individuals and organizations will step up regularly and in profound ways.  Only then can the College of Education achieve its vast potential.

As dean, I know that we will continue to require the unselfish help of our highly valued current friends and that we must earn new ones if we’re going to make the kind of impact that befits our time-honored Jesuit tradition.   That is, we seek resources not for our own benefit, but rather to fulfill our Ignatian calling of Magis — to do “the more.”

In closing, I’d like to draw on the “wisdom” of comedian Steve Martin, a long-time favorite of mine.  On one of his classic recordings, he tells the audience how great they are and that he’d like to “thank each and every one of you.”   For about a solid minute he goes on to say, in machine gun-like fashion, “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU…..”

Right now, as I ready myself for the formidable task of preparing the volumes of holiday cards staring back at me, that same sentiment is what I want to express to all of our current and future friends.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!