hello to our coastal carolina university community i'm president david disenzo
and i'm here with your student government association president Austin
Nichols together we welcome you to CCU at the start of this new academic
year this has been such an exciting summer for coastal some media have even
called it
Shauna clear summer we had the great fortune to witness our baseball team
proved themselves day after day as they compete against some of the nation's top
ranking teams in the regionals the Super Regionals and then on 20 mahal in the
college world series together we held our collective breath as the shots
ascended rising to become the national champions we celebrated experiencing
together the surreal moments of the team arriving back home running out trophy in
hand to bring thousands of fans at the airport parading through main street
conway and then raising that trophy up high for cheering fans at springbrook
stadium we were reminded that our student-athletes our students first as
the NCAA honored them for achieving academic excellence with the highest
grade point average of any team competing in Omaha could it get any
better you bet our head baseball coach Gary Gilmore was recognized as a
national coach of the year by five different organizations and while I
sonenclar name was becoming a household word across America and beyond to of our
alumni make global headlines doesn't johnson won the US Open and bridgestone
pga golf tournaments and amber Campbell our hammer throw star qualified for the
third time
joining team USA competing in the Rio summer olympic games on the national
scene Bailey coca Myrtle Beach resident of New York native and coastal carolina
graduate on her first New York State Women's Amateur Golf Championship while
we celebrated we also grieve for the loss of lives due to violent acts in our
communities across America and in cities around the globe this way is very heavy
on our minds not a week goes by without news of horrific violence images of
senseless killing and we don't want to believe that this could become the new
dorm president disenzo and I want to share with you how we've been working
through the impacts of these tragic events and leading in our respective
areas to build an even stronger till nation we want to start by talking with
you about three main themes inclusion safety and change a university is a
place to be challenged with different ideas we may not all agree with some of
these ideas but are teal nation is grounded in the principles of accepting
differences and engaging in relevant dialogues that promote healing and
positive solutions right now this campus people are feeling and experiencing a
lot of different emotions we are providing opportunities for difficult
dialogues to occur these productive discussions can spark change both
responsive and proactive our staff from campus life and student engagement has
been leading the training of faculty and staff and how to facilitate difficult
dialogues during the past several months they've put that training to use leading
discussions with students who needed a healthy way to process the tragic events
CCU's training and development office is also rolling out new inclusion and
diversity training for all faculty and staff and the university's executive
leaders are committed to the road extensive training in this area so they
can lead cultural growth of CCU by living the example very soon achieve
diversity and inclusion officer will be appointed and with that a council for
inclusion and diversity will be established this team will work with
university leaders to ensure our community is free of barriers are
student clubs and organizations are working together to establish
opportunities for improving how we share information how we bring together our
minds our energy and our focus for identifying needs and concerns so that
positive changes can result i'm working alongside the president of course
activities board any hairs to create a student organization team will become a
way for our clubs and organizations to share information
in representing diverse demographics of our student population the creation of
this team will build better networking for promoting collaborative thinking and
relevant work helps us to share information zero in on student needs and
solve issues the student organization team will also develop events on campus
that are focused on inclusion and diversity events are already in place
for the fall i am fully committed to working with student leaders and
university staff to evaluate how student complaints received and process so that
improvements are made to ensure your voices are heard and recognized and
improvements continue to be made like me you may wonder well I'd be safe here
well I be respected here well be represented here at CCU my answer is
this we as students share the responsibility of creating ensuring and
upholding a safe CCU there are many opportunities presented to us now and
throughout the year about how to approach our campus lives with safety
strategies in the forefront of our minds the world is constantly changing and
that's why he'll nation will have to constantly evolve new threats require
new approaches and our public safety professionals work diligently to stay on
top of the latest safety advancements training and procedures to maintain a
safe environment state-of-the-art technologies the highest train public
safety and emergency personnel combined with our own commitment as faculty staff
and students results in the safest CCU possible we are teal nation this is what
we are all about our expectation Austin's in mind is that we are going to
live up to the teal nation principle of inclusion we hold each other and
ourselves personally responsible for defining today and the future of CCU
much of what we have talked about today continues from what we started last year
however we need you to keep it going strong
we need to be hearing your voice and we need you to work alongside us processing
the issues we face we need your engagement to actively present and
implement solutions please be paying attention and looking out for your
chance to play an active role when you see an opportunity that resonates
you plug in we will continue to pursue challenging topics even and especially
when these discussions are out of our comfort zone when we do this we can only
become stronger and better for it
thank you for listening and for dedicating all that you are able to
these initiatives together we can determine how the future on vote for
coastal carolina university we look forward to sharing this experience with
you
welcome to tell nation go shows