The cycle of the academic year is a fascinating thing. Events move at lightning speed during the school year and then screech to a halt following graduation in early June. While campus is hardly quiet during the summer months, there is a distinct energy students bring to campus that is missing during the summer months.

Sure, pickup soccer with local students, faculty, and others in the community has taken place Monday and Thursday nights. Of course, faculty, staff, students, and Gordon Research Conferees have put Sam Jaxtimer’s fire pit to work on warm summer evenings.

Dorms have been lived in as Proctor has hosted some of the world’s leading scientists during ten weeks of Gordon Research Conferences. Maintenance and housekeeping have been incredibly busy with projects around campus. The Canon Dining hall still serves three meals a day to conferees and the Business Office, Communications team, Development Office and Admissions Office have remained hubs of activity.

But it just isn’t the same without students.

Over the past week, however, faculty began filtering into their classrooms, new faculty successfully completed their orientation, and final details are being arranged for the arrival of early Orientation participants next Friday. The energy on campus is palpable. It is an energy filled with mixed emotions: anticipation, nervousness, and excitement about what lies ahead.

The start of the school year is here and with it brings the energy of more than 120 new students and fourteen new faculty members. As is the case each school year, the Proctor community is unique. On September 8 we will gather in the Wilkins Meeting House for our first assembly. Never has this group of individuals gathered together. And after this year, never will they again gather. The journey before us is wholly unique and that is what makes it so exciting.