Just a thought

As I sit here allowing my tummy to settle down from Gwunch before I go work out, I want to share a quick something that has been on mind: I really appreciate Seattle Pacific University a lot and I have gained much respect for its staff, faculty and spudents.

I was first reminded of this after the presidential elections that occurred this past November when President Phil Eaton sent out a mass e-mail eloquently addressing the historical election and the hope he had for our campus preceding the inauguration of the new Commander and Chief, Barack Obama. After this my SPU-Appreciation-Radar was up and running. I have been noticing little things. For example, the creation of new majors that are dedicated to "Engaging the Culture, Changing the World", like Global Development Studies, or how the business program is determined to produce new business models which foster morality and integrity; or how many students will turn out to events that are about human trafficking or TOMS Shoes (TOMS Northwest Vagabond team sold the most shoes at SPU up until that point of their tour!).

And now, the other day at work we were told about SPU's plan to help out prospective students due to the current recession our economy is facing: SPU has made HUGE budget cuts in order to have a historically low tuition increase for the 2009-2010 school year and in order to funnel some much-needed money into financial aid. SPU's application numbers are not suffering. This is almost whole-hearted-ly in the best interest of the incoming spudents. Due to the fact that most public institutions are doing the exact opposite speaks loudly to me:

Seattle Pacific University really does want to be a university that stands apart from the crowd. Seattle Pacific may have its flaws, but shoot, it actually is engaging the culture and changing the world.

Plus, Phil-Dawg is pretty adorable.