We were getting close to graduation. It was Thursday before graduation and there were a lot of last minute details to tend to. One of the more exciting things is that we would be awarding a posthumous degree to Silas Hunt. We learned that a large number of very excited people were coming from Texarkana to be a part of that honor. His cousin, Precious Hunt Williams, will receive the degree, but one of his high school friends as well as the pastor of the church in which he was raised as a young man and several members of the Silas H. Hunt Community Development Corporation will be coming as well. Part of the day was spent making sure that we had proper preparations for their visit.

I met that morning with Prof. Ann Killenbeck who is working on an interesting project concerning how to process student information. She will also be presenting a paper on diversity at the SEALS conference late this summer. Lunch was a can of hearty Campbell soup eaten at my desk. It is again (I said this before I know) a very busy time of year right before graduation, so I worked with Michele, Teri and Malcolm to make sure we had everything prepared for graduation.

At 4:30 p.m. I met with Prof. Ewelukwa. It was very, very interesting. For those of you who don’t know it, she actually has founded a non-profit that focuses on women’s and children’s issues in Nigeria and she’s written several very thoughtful essays or commentaries for the Guardian newspaper there, which is the main newspaper of Nigeria. She is working on some interesting scholarship including Sino-African relations and trade.

That evening, I met Professors Schneider and Goforth for a relaxing dinner and chit-chat. I appreciated them very much for pulling me away from my desk and for a lovely, relaxing evening.