Beginning to Blog/On the Eve of Departure for India

Hello everyone,

I am just beginning to learn how to blog and I am trying to hurry up with my learning so that I can share with you my trip to India with the State Department delegation of presidents. I will be traveling with five other college and university presidents from the US. We will accompany Karen Hughes, Under Secretary of State, and Tom Farrell, Deputy Assistant Secretary (among others from the Department of State)on a bridge-building visit with higher education leaders, government officials, business leaders, students and scholars in Mumbai and Delhi. I will be leaving on Saturday, March 24 when I travel to London/Heathrow to meet my fellow travelers. From there, we will board a 9 hour flight to Mumbai. By then it will be very late at night on Sunday, March 25. After a full day of meetings in Mumbai, we will fly to Delhi that evening. More on the itinerary to come.

It is after 6 p.m. on Friday and I have many things to do before I leave. I will miss being on campus to welcome our Skyway and Regional basketball champions back on Monday. I am so proud of all that they have accomplished this year as athletes and as students. They have modeled teamwork for all of us in so many ways--caring for and about each other on and off the basketball court. For the first time in Oakton's history, the men's basketball team competed in the community college version of March Madness. You can see the picture that is currently on the Athletics Home Page at Oakton. It was snapped after the Raiders' 109-85 trouncing of the College of Lake County on March 1, 2007. From left to right, Arnie Oudenhoven (Associate VP for Human Resources); Jerrod Tucker--a great power forward and Joi Smith's mentee; yours truly; and Steve Evans, a great defensive and offensive player as well as an excellent student and my mentee.

I am going to post this message just before leaving the office to go home and figure out what is goes into the suitcase and computer bag. I will try to keep up with this as I travel.