I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It’s a bit hard for me to confess, but the recent successes of one of our professors is driving me to tell the truth, whether it blows my cover or not.

Your “fearless” campus mascot is nothing more than a big ‘fraidy cat.

I know I come off as big and strong and brave, but truth be told, there are some creatures out there — the ones that go bump in the night — that give me the heebie jeebies.

You know the ones I mean — vampires, leeches, ticks, bed bugs — stuff made of fiction. But trust me, they are very real and no one knows more about them than our own professor of biology, Dr. Bill Schutt. For decades, Dr. Schutt, who also is a zoologist, has studied these creepy creatures — they are called sanguivores — what they do, how they evolved and get this — how they might be able to help medical science.

He’s so enamored by these beasts that he’s written a book — Dark Banquet — that puts you front in center in the world of these strange animals, explaining why they’ve been the target of our nightmares and horror stories (three guesses why) as well as sharing some cool scientific facts about them. (If I’m being honest here, I couldn’t finish it. Hey — I don’t have a roommate! You think I’m going to read this alone in my dorm room?)

Apparently though, I’m the only one who hasn’t read it. Not only did Dr. Schutt speak at the Museum of Natural History for a special Halloween event, he was profiled in The New York Times and is the author of the cover story for the November issue of Natural History magazine (http://nhmag.com/master.html?http://nhmag.com/1108/1108_feature.html). The book has been heartily endorsed by Alice Cooper on his syndicated radio show, “Nights With Alice Cooper,” reviewed in the Washington Post Book World, Newsday and countless other newspapers and magazines.

So I guess Dr. Schutt is on the right track. I mean he’s travelled the world — studying bats in Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Brazil, Trinidad, and now he’s this big deal author and speaker. I guess if he can do that, I can sit through a rerun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer without overing my eyes with my paws.

For more information, (if you dare) visit www.darkbanquet.com.

Oh, and I almost forgot (Can you blame me? I’m a bit creeped out over here!): if you get lost looking for the undergraduate admissions office these days, no worries. While the admissions building undergoing a renovation, the undergraduate admissions staff will be temporarily located in Lodge B, which is part of the residence hall complex, across the street from Brookville Hall. Any questions, give them at shout at (516) 299-2900. For a campus map, logon to http://www.cwpost.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/location/map/

OK, I know in my last blog post I said that the first day of school was my favorite day ever, but I think I need to change my answer. Now that school is in full swing and it seems like everyone is getting settled, it’s time for the fun to REALLY begin.

As you know, I’m the campus mascot, a job I take very seriously. So not only have I been busy with all my classes and helping all the students, my attention has been focused on one very important day — Homecoming!

All week long (October 13- October 18) we’ll be celebrating with interesting events and lectures including alcohol awareness speaker Paul Failla, comedian Jonny Walker, the Homecoming Talent Show and a big pep rally on Friday night to kick off the weekend.

This year’s festivities, held on Saturday, October 18, will feature fun, family and food. The party starts at 11 a.m., although the first of the games will begin with women’s alumni field hockey at 8 a.m. Other alumni games include men’s and women’s lacrosse, softball, baseball, volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball. The big football game, where we take on the Millersville University Marauders starts at noon.

If you are a student and haven’t had your friends or family visit the campus yet, this is a great day to bring them down, likewise if you are an alumni, be sure to stop by with your friends and family. There will be amusement park rides, ponies, a petting zoo and clowns.

For more information, visit http://www.cwpost.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/homecoming/index.html.

Welcome back everyone! Forget the winter holidays, this is the most wonderful time of year for this big cat. I love school supply shopping. I love moving into my dorm room. I love registering for classes. I love football and soccer and volleyball. I just love everything about the Fall Semester.

And just when I thought I couldn’t get more excited about starting another terrific year at C.W. Post, I come back from vacation to find that there are some big changes afoot that are designed to make our community and campus experience even better than ever!

First off, we have a new campus Provost. Dr. Paul Forestell, an internationally acclaimed research scientist and professor of psychology, was appointed this summer as chief administrator at C.W. Post. You may have read about him in Newsday and Long Island Business News. No stranger to C.W. Post or Long Island University, Dr. Forestell held academic and administrative positions at Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus and Southampton College before becoming Provost. Dr. Forestell is a wonderful educator and person and I know the campus is in great hands.

Second, we’ve instituted all sorts of new environmental initiatives, including “Trayless Thursdays.” In order to reduce the amount of energy, soap and water used in the dining halls, all of the lunch trays will be removed from the cafeteria. (To be honest, my paws are so big, I usually can carry what I need in one trip, but in case anyone needs any help, my tail makes a surprisingly good carrying platter. Come find me if you are having trouble!) And to live up to the lofty standards that our school colors of green and gold set, Dining Services has some other great measures in place, including purchasing locally grown produce, using china plates, glasses and flatware instead of paper and plastic and using Green Seal-certified cleaning agents.

Finally, there is our new web portal, “My LIU” that will give all students unprecedented ease of access to your grades, schedules, billing records and other information. For those of you still using the Student Information System, it will continue to function until the end of the semester.

So if you are one of the 1,000 new freshmen joining us or part of the 7,400 students who are returning, welcome! I’m glad you are here! And check back often for updates on all the goings-on around campus.

Hope everyone has been having a great summer! Summer sessions are in full swing at C.W. Post — there are lots of students on campus earning credits towards bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Many are taking classes to get a jump-start on the next semester.

I know I haven’t been blogging as often as I should — I’ve actually been on vacation. I went with some friends to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. I think breathtaking is a word that is often overused, but these mountains and vistas were truly spectacular. Here’s a photo so you can see for yourself!

I’ll be back soon with some great tips on preparing for our big September start — classes begin Tuesday, September 2. Whether you are brand new to the campus or an old pro like me, I think you will find my latest hints very helpful. Stay tuned!
- Lance

My primary job as the school mascot is to cheer on all the members of the C.W. Post community and draw everyone’s attention to a job well done. So I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about Norbert Krapf, a professor emeritus of English in the College of Liberal Arts of Sciences. A member of our community since 1970, Dr. Krapf just got the amazing news that he has been named the Poet Laureate for the state of Indiana. For the next two years, Dr. Krapf will help promote poetry in schools and libraries throughout the state.

Congratulations Dr. Krapf!

As an environmental science major, I like to practice what I learn. That’s why I was so excited to hear about some important initiatives that have been introduced on campus that are designed to help preserve our environment. Created by a team of faculty, staff and students, the programs are a big step forward in reducing our ecological footprint.

· If you are going to eat a lot, be ready to juggle your food. Under the new policy, there will be no trays on Thursdays at the Winnick Student Center. Not only does this diminish post-consumer waste, but without trays to wash and sanitize, chemical and water use is reduced. The dining halls are also selling reusable bags and mugs. Show your school spirit and save a tree!

· Start working on your sorting skills – nearly 200 recycling bins have been added throughout the campus. If you’ve got paper, plastics or aluminum – don’t use the trash cans, use the recycle bins!

· For those of you who live on campus – the recycling program has been expanded to four residence halls (Kings, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk) and a recycling program coordinator has been appointed to oversee the new program. Plus, we’ve designated a whole bunch of environmental assistants to create environmental educational programs in the residence halls.

· Got a favorite hall on campus? Show your love with the new Adopt-a-Building program.

· The Facilities Services Department is testing an electric vehicle for use by maintenance workers. The car is manufactured by Miles Electric Vehicles of Santa Monica, Calif., whose cars and trucks also are used in the fleets of Stanford and Yale universities, Queens College, UC Irvine, UC Davis and UCLA, as well as NASA, the U.S. Navy, the National Park Service, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. (Think they’ll let me drive it?)

But wait, there’s even more. One of our professors and a bunch of graduate students are also turning their attention to our bigger home – Long Island. In a new graduate-level course Matthew Cordaro, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Management and a 40-year veteran of the energy industry, is actually bringing in community leaders in the areas of energy and the environment to discuss Long Island’s ever growing energy needs and concerns. Topics will range from oil use to the legal ramifications of certain environmental actions. For a list of speakers, click here.

The senior graduate-level elective is part of the Master of Public Administration program, but is open to students in the Environmental Science program and members of the C.W. Post faculty and administration. It began in May and meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings through June 19. Dr. Cordaro said if there is a lecture you’d like to attend, send him a note — matthew.cordaro@liu.edu — and he’d love to have you. I know I plan on attending a few of them — I hope to see you there!

In honor of the big race at Belmont this weekend, I thought I would tell you a little about a special member of the C.W. Post campus community of the equine variety.

One of the campus’ more enduring residents, Snowball is a pony who lives at the North Shore Equestrian Center, which is located on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. A bit of a curmudgeon, Snowball doesn’t get along too well with other horses so he is by himself a lot.

Although Snowball doesn’t care for company much, he does have one favorite person on campus — Dr. Joan Digby, director of the Honors Program and professor of English here at Post.

“He’s a bit of a grouch, but the truth is he really is a good soul,” Dr. Digby laughed. “Snowball is quite a character.” Several times a week Dr. Digby takes Snowball for a walk and treats him to carrots, which tend to put him in a good mood. (Personally, when I’m cranky I’m more of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey type of cat, but to each his own.) Snowy also gets special attention from Jenny, one of the riding instructors.

Dr. Digby enjoys Snowball’s company so much, she’s written a poem about him.

WATCHING SNOWBALL GRAZE
By Joan Digby

Watching Snowball graze,

I catch the lazy rhythm

of his rumination.

Stepping through the field

he buries his soft nose in grass

tasting the menu of an August morning.

Dew still hovers on the clover,

most succulent of flowers in the field.

I think of landscape gardeners

with their “Weed-Be-Gone,”

poisoners of a horse’s richest fare.

They know nothing—he everything

about this pastoral land.

Tethered to his halter

I wander as his pupil,

learning to avoid the bitter plantain,

leave the blue cornflowers to adorn the fence

and bees to drink the roses.

Watching Snowball graze,

I catch the lazy rhythm

of sunlight spreading on the meadow,

feeling no urgency to leave this place

where the swishing of his long melodic tale

sings promise of a radiant day.

Well that would cheer me right up! Thanks for sharing Dr. Digby.

See you around campus everyone!

People think I have the best job because my summer lasts so long.

“Lance,” they say, “you are the coolest cat we know. Is it because you have off from May until September?”

Fact is, I AM the coolest cat that most people know, but not because I get four months off during the summer. Quite the opposite — I don’t get any time off! I live on a vibrant, hip college campus where there is always something going on and right now it’s time for summer school!

Now I know many of you are remembering summer school from your youth. A hot, dreary classroom where most of the kids would much rather go to the beach than learn something.

But summer school at C.W. Post is not the summer school of your youth. Trust me.

What if I told you that in five days you could earn the equivalent of three-graduate level classes? Or in five weeks or three weekends you could earn three or four undergraduate classes? (That’s less than half the time of a regular semester!)

For graduate students, more than 60 intensive institute courses will be offered this summer by the C.W. Post School of Education, School of Visual and Performing Arts and Palmer School of Library and Information Science. You can study things like school and mental health counseling, curriculum and instruction, literacy and special education, library administration and information science, art techniques, and music theory and history.

Last year, Elizabeth Rosenhauer of Long Beach, N.Y., an art teacher at Hicksville High School took a summer intensive institute art course in printmaking and papermaking with professor Richard Mills. She was pleased with the results.

“I teach those subjects in high school,” she told me. “What I learned in the summer institute I immediately implemented in September.”

She said she also liked the concentrated nature that the classes offered.

“As an artist I found that being able to work for a full day rather than shorter classes was very beneficial,” she said. “You’re able to produce a large amount of work in a short time. It was very intense. We worked straight through the entire day and because we were enjoying what we were doing so much, we didn’t even take our lunch break.”

Sounds awesome. For you undergrads, there are a whole host of courses available from core to elective. You can find them here.

And for those of you who are still in high school, summer is a great time to take a class at C.W. Post and find out what life is really like on a college campus. The High School Enrichment Program allows you to get a head start on your college education. With the approval of your guidance counselor (and the appropriate faculty member at C.W. Post in certain cases), you may enroll for one or more summer courses at C.W. Post while completing your high school studies. For further information, contact the Office of Admissions at (516) 299-2900.

For more information or to request the Summer ‘08 course bulletin, call the C.W. Post Office of Summer, Evening and Weekend Programs at (516) 299-2431, send an e-mail to study@cwpost.liu.edu or visit www.liu.edu/cwpsummer.

Think C.W. Post is exciting during traditional school times? Wait until you see what we have cooking this summer — taking classes isn’t even the half of it. We’ve got so many great things going so check back in to this blog often and I’ll give you the details.

Commencement is a bittersweet time of year for this furry guy.

As C.W. Post’s head cheerleader, I love that we get to show the world our best and brightest. Students win awards and earn top honors and the campus looks even more stunning than usual. We get a ton of visitors from all over the place and they all get to see for themselves what a great community we have here.

But Commencement, although a beginning for the over 2,500 students who graduated this year, is also a goodbye. I don’t like goodbyes.

And as it turns out, I’ve had to say goodbye to 100,000 C.W. Post students over the past 50 years. You read that right. Sunday was C.W. Post’s 50th commencement and where we graduated our 100,000 student. Amazing. Quite a far journey from our first commencement in 1958 when eight students walked across the rose arbor to the cheers of 500 guests.

Over 100,000 students! That’s quite a milestone. So who was the lucky graduate? Kevin Wilson of Selden, N.Y. and he’s a great guy.

Kevin earned his M.P.A. in health care administration. Currently he works as a dialysis social worker/supervisor at Central Suffolk Artificial Kidney Center in Port Jefferson, N.Y. and he also is an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, N.Y. Married with two young children, he wants to either become a full-time professor or a nursing home administrator.

He thinks this whole 100,000 alumni thing is pretty wild too. And at first, he didn’t believe anyone when they gave him the news. But can you blame him? Campus administrators called him on April 1!

Once that was sorted out Kevin said he was still stunned, but honored that he holds this place in C.W. Post history. He sat in the front row during the ceremonies and wore a sash that says, “I am the 100,000th alumni.” Did you get a chance to say hi?

(In case you didn’t recognize me, I was the one with tears in my eyes but a big smile on my face.)

To read some cool stories about some of your fellow Posties who graduated, visit www.cwpost.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/pr/press/comm_news08.html.

Congratulations to all the graduates!

Fun 100,000 Factoids:

· Barnes & Noble, the campus bookstore, estimates that over seven million books were read by the 100,000 students over the course of their college careers.

· If you line up the 100,000 C.W. Post alumni shoulder-to-shoulder, they will stretch about 38 miles – the distance of the world’s longest steep hill found in Haleakala National Park in eastern Maui.

· Post’s 100,000 alumni have taken over 4.3 million classes over the course of the campus’ 54-year history.

It’s called a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a reason. But for Maria Mitcha, lighting struck twice – at the same time.

Maria, the Valedictorian for C.W. Post’s graduating class of 2008, is a world-class athlete. She’s so amazing, she qualified to be part of the five-member U.S. team in the 23rd World Race Walking Cup on Mother’s Day, May 11. Pretty wild, huh?

But here’s the rub – and you don’t have to have Maria’s flawless 4.0 GPA to see the conflict.

Mother’s Day, May 11, is also Commencement at C.W. Post where the Valedictorian is traditionally the main student speaker. So what’s a super-bright, super-athlete to do?

“This was such a hard decision,” Maria said.

No kidding. For three-and-a-half years, she studied hard at C.W. Post to earn a B.S. in biology and has been interning at Brookhaven National Lab studying x-ray crystallography (please don’t ask me what that means). Last summer she worked there as a volunteer to gain additional laboratory experience and was able to directly tailor a research project – the structural composition of an antimicrobial cloth – to her senior undergraduate thesis (I don’t know what that means either). Maria also served as a tutor in physics, organic chemistry and biochemistry for fellow C.W. Post students and in chemistry and biology for high school students. A member of the Biophilia Club (still lost), she organized meetings and community service activities and arranged for local scientists to lecture as guest speakers. She also created her own Polish tutorial course that allowed her to learn Polish in a non-traditional manner while tracing her family’s heritage. In September, she will attend Mount Sinai School of Medicine to earn her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a concentration in microbiology. Whew!

Graduation was the reward for her hard work, her chance to really shine.

But she’s worked incredibly hard at race walking too and is now an Olympic hopeful. Not only did she qualify for the World Cup at the World Cup Trials held in Oregon at the end of March, last May she qualified for the Olympic Trials that will be held in Oregon this July. To top it off, last June, she set a personal best in the 20K race walk at the 2007 USATF Nationals with a time of 1:41:27.23 (that’s super-fast!).

So which would you choose? I get upset when I have to be at four different athletic contests at once. But at least I know there is always another game tomorrow!

Well, Maria did what any wise person would do – she talked to her mom and together they sorted it out.

“Graduation is a celebration and my reward for all my hard work,” Maria told me. “And apart from a few surprises, I know how that day will go. It would be a great moment of joy. But going to Russia is new and unknown. It’s a challenge. It’s a chance to do more. I thrive on challenge and know that I would always wonder, if I didn’t go, what would happen at the race in Russia?”

So with C.W. Post in her heart, Maria is off to Russia, off to walk in the race of her life. She will be on campus in spirit – she’ll videotape a brief address to be shown on the campus web site.

Keep your fingers crossed! Good luck Maria! We are rooting for you!