things off to Susan Barger. Go ahead, Susan. Hi, everyone. I want to welcome you back. And I have a few slides, and then I'll turn this over to Rachel. There's one more session for this course. And it's June 5, so you have a month to catch up on things if you're not caught up. Right now, it looks like maybe 40 to 60 of you are hoping to get a badge. Remember, if you get the credit badge, you have to listen to all the webinars and do the assignments. And you don't have to listen to the webinars live, and I will get that stuff. So if you have any problems, you can contact me. This is my email address. And if you have a query about the course, content use the Discussion tab in the Education website. To keep in contact with what's going on with connecting to Collections Care, you should join the Connecting to Collections Care community. And you can find the instructions on how to join in on our website. And you can join us on Facebook or Twitter. There are Mayday prizes going on all throughout the end of the week, so check those out. I mean, the end of the month. Tomorrow, we're going to have a really interesting free webinar on our barrier. So if you have time, you might check that out. And in July, we're going to have another course on making the most of assessments. So look forward to that. You can register for it now. And if you need help with Collections, and you're in the United States, and you have an emergency, this is the 24-hour hotline for help from the AIC. And with that, I'm going to turn this over to Rachel. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much, Susan. I am going to jump into things quickly and seem to be having trouble advancing. There we go. OK. As Mike said, today is the fifth webinar out of six in our re-org online course. And today, you're going to be hearing from me, Susan Timolovich, who is the executive director of the New London Maritime Society. And then we're going to throw it all back to Simon Lambert, who is going to take us on. But I wanted to review the objectives by the end of the sixth webinar, the one that will take place after our on-site day working with the New London Maritime Society. You who are doing this in your own institutions, along with us, will have developed a basic re-org plan to improve collections access and care in one of your storage rooms. So the goal is to have you be walking through this process and feel comfortable starting off on a re-org of your own. So today's objective for our fifth webinar is we're going to be looking at the New London Maritime Society as a re-org angel's case study. And we're going to review the re-org phases. Simon will help anticipate some of the bottlenecks that we might foresee for our work next week on site. And we're going to recognize the steps required in preparing a re-org project chart. So that's the focus for today. I want to remind you, if you haven't already, please do go onto the re-org website on Ikram's website and download the workbook, the worksheets, and the additional resources. They really do complement and sort of underpin everything that we've been doing here online. And I think actually they make really easy, clear reading. We also want to remind you that if you have carried out a re-org project in your institution and you're interested in working with others, that there is an opportunity to be trained more fully in the re-org methodology. That program that will be occurring in August in India has an application form that is available online for you to check out. So let's do a short recap of last week's webinar. Last week, we looked at some of the questions that you need to answer as you develop your re-org plan. Questions like, what are you storing? What materials do you have available or can acquire? Can you standardize or simplify some of your storage solutions? What skills do you or your staff have? And these address the checklist items that are part of the phase one and phase two of the re-org methodology. So that would be, there we go. So we've sort of, again, not fully covered everything that you will see in the workbooks. But the material that we've covered in the past several webinars really focuses in on phase one and phase two. The next thing that we covered last week was Rebecca reviewed re-org's 12 categories for classifying objects. And she shared some tips for each of these categories. We also suggested that you can use the re-org Tumblr site and the stash C website to browse ideas for each of these collection types. We stress that there is never only one solution for storage and re-housing, the best solution will be both practical and safe for your circumstances. And that your re-org project may allow you to go back and address additional risks or needs over time once you've created space and have better access to your collection. So re-org isn't necessarily the end of the process of what you might need to do in storage, but it should be a glorious new beginning. We discussed a range of materials that are optimal for long-term storage. We also recommended using your best materials on the most sensitive collections as well as some cheaper substitutes for tight budgets. So today we're gonna focus on how to translate all the worksheets and plans that are recommended in phase one and phase two into an action plan for phase three. We will use as our case study the planning that we have done for our many re-org projects that will take place next week at the New London Maritime Society. So this is also a reminder that if you're in the Connecticut area and want to join us on Monday the 13th, please let Ruth Seiler in the AIC office know by tomorrow so she can add you to the list. The Foundation for Advancement and Conservation, known as FAIC, which is the foundation associated with the American Institute for Conservation, sponsors a volunteer project each year in conjunction with the annual meeting. These one-day community service events have been called ANGELS projects, although a name change is under evaluation for the future. We thought that using re-org as a framework for this year's project would allow us to see the methodology put into action and foster collaboration and linkages between the re-org and stash these sites. That was sort of the basis for the idea of this course and our ANGELS project day. After discussing our goals for a re-org and FAIC community service collaboration with several institutions in the Connecticut area where AIC's 2019 meeting will be held next week, we determined that the new London Maritime Society provided the best fit. I'd like to introduce now the Society's director, Susan Tamilovich, to give a brief overview of her institution and then after that I'll discuss a bit about what I saw during my brief site visit during our initial planning stage and then Simon will discuss our subsequent planning for the re-org day next week. So Susan, please take it away and tell us more about the new London Maritime Society. Well, first I'd like to say how thrilled I am that we were selected for this project. It's a very small, you know, it's a custom house which is run by the customs, now customs and border patrol. It is a building that was designed in 1833 by the country's first American trained architect. He studied with Thomas Jefferson, Robert Mills. So it's, I would say, the most significant architectural building in the area. It's a beautiful little building and it's been run as a custom house all of this time. My picture, oh well, yeah, it's a, that's where we're located. I guess this was put in to show you exactly where we are. We're on the waterfront Long Island Sound. Oh, actually, we're in, this is not correct. We're in Connecticut on Long Island Sound. I don't know why that's that way, but there is another custom house Maritime. Use them in Newburyport, so that must be what that is showing. The three, there are three custom houses, one in Newport, one in New Bedford, one in Newburyport and one in New London. They were all built with versions of the same plan by Robert Mills in 1833. So here's an early picture of our building. It actually opened in 1835. And we have all the letters for the construction process. And in 1836, they wrote a letter saying that water was coming in from the roof in buckets. So it has had a serious leakage problem all these years, that's almost 200 years. In 1983, New London, which had been the second busiest whaling port in the world for several decades, including when it was built in 1835, was now a little bit of a backwater. And customs wasn't very busy, so they decided to sell this building. The citizens rallied. They formed the New London Maritime Society and took over the building and made it into a maritime museum. So customs said, well, since you're going to keep the building open, we'll keep an office. So in fact, we're the longest continuously operating customs house in the country. And after all these years, last year, we finally fixed the four interior gutters. If you look at the, there's a gutter coming right down on the corner next to that plaster. And it actually snakes inside the gutter where it is packed in concrete and granite. And it turns out that the copper gutter inside the granite and concrete had been freezing and thawing with ice for almost 200 years. And the stairs had big cracks in them, and we were getting a lot of leaks. So we finally fixed that last year, which is quite a terrific thing. So we do a lot of restoration here. The building is certainly not perfect. And do what we can. When I got here 11 years ago, there had been no director for quite some time. It's a community museum. We're trying to be serious, but it was founded pretty much as a community museum. We're pretty lively. We have programs for all agents. It's a nonprofit historic site. And in the last six years, over the last six years, we have also taken on ownership of three local lighthouses. So that's a big deal. And you can imagine, if your collections are about the waterfront, and you take on three lighthouses that meant every two years for the last six years, we've taken on a whole other subject that we have to present. We also preserve these lighthouses. And this one in particular, the first one which we took on in 2009, the neighbors sued us for four years to stop tours, to keep it private. And this March, we actually won the lawsuit. And now we're able to give tours again. Because like I said, we're a community museum. We feel these are public properties, and everybody has the right to enjoy them. The oldest and the tallest lighthouse on Long Island found. So here is the display where we talk about the lighthouses. You can see models of the three. But I want to note that when the museum started 36 years ago, there were no collections at all. We relied completely on donations from the community. The lens is a loan from the US Coast Guard. But everything else is donated from the community. Our largest exhibit is about whaling is a big story. But the actual most significant story that happened here is this is where the Amistad ship came in in 1839, when our building was just opened for four years. It was a brand new building. And the Amistad captives, about 53 Africans who had been kidnapped and brought to Cuba overthrew the captain on their ship and managed their way up the coast of the United States. When they were intercepted and brought into a port, they were brought into New London. And they continued their battle for their campaign for freedom. And they eventually won it in about a year and a half. Because they came into New London and one of the supporting players was a local grocer who was an abolitionist, the whole story is quite wonderful. And it's our most popular one. So that's our largest permanent exhibit. We have special exhibits from time to time right now. We're working on one about the sailor influence, nautical influence on children's clothing, toys, and entertainment, which is one of my favorite, one of the most evocative collection is in our hallway. And it's collections from two of our members who are professional divers. We also have a library and a library archive. The letters I mentioned from when this building was constructed are all up there. And oops, sorry, I didn't turn this. There's a delay, I'm sorry. The library is run by the two former head librarians and also special collection librarians from Connecticut College. So I have to say they have no reorg problems. They are very much on it. And everything is in acid-free papers and catalog and tremendous. But the rest of the stuff that we have is not. We're a community museum. We say small, authentic, friendly, telling the stories of the waterfront. We just do the best we can. I'm the only employee. We fix what we can. And we paint it if it looks best and just keep going. London itself is a depressed community. All the children get free lunches because of the high poverty rate. So we don't have a lot of people walking into our museum, although we do work a lot with the schools. So we have a very diversified revenue stream. And in fact, our museum shop makes more money than the museum does itself. And there's a legacy to all this water, which we've just, we're actually working on a plan to replace the roof. But this was just a month ago when we had some US Coast Guard cadets come in. They're in the same corner that you saw in the Amistad room. They've moved everything out. And they're just scraping down the paint and the plaster calcification that was on the walls, because it's kind of unhealthy and looks pretty bad. So we're battling on many fronts at the same time. But one of our big successes was last year. We actually managed to open up the lower level, which is where my office and the collections room is. But we also created, well, we revamped our kitchen and created a ship model gallery and replaced all the windows, which were rather punky. And some even had termites with new historically accurate windows, which actually have the wavy glass in them. So we're doing restoration all the time. And it's just part of the way we do things here. The mission of the New London Maritime Society is to protect and to preserve New London's custom house and the three area lighthouses to promote, interpret, and celebrate the maritime life and history of the port of New London and the surrounding region with exhibitions, educational programs, and preservation initiatives. So take a look at our website. Like I said, there's only one employee. And there's only been one employee for 11 years. And before that, there were none, except for maybe a few years before that. So we do our best. And we're very, very, very grateful for the help we're going to get from this course and this project. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. I think Susan's introduction provided a nice overview of the strengths of the institution. They have a beautiful building. They have a lot of community buy-in and interest with some devoted volunteers in addition to Susan's devotion. They've got some really cool stuff. But they also have some real challenges in terms of maintaining the building. And as you see here, this is the self-assessment tool that we asked Susan to fill out as part of the selection process for the institutions that were under consideration for the Reorg FIC Angel's collaboration. And that's what Simon has discussed in previous webinars. The scores certainly show that they're, for the most part, in this orange band of you need a Reorg project. And the category that they scored best on is the furniture and small equipment. As they introduce the storage space, you'll see why. I have to say that when I looked at the scoring of this, though, I think this is a best case scenario. But the great thing for our purposes is that we saw in Susan's institution a really good case study and the kinds of problems that we see so often in small institutions of similar size and resource level. So here's a little bit more about the sort of snapshot that Susan put together in terms of when she mentioned one staff member serving a good number of visitors and schoolchildren, a nice core group of volunteers, a collection of about 800 pieces, but most of which are not catalogued.  So I think this kind of thing should show many of you that you were not alone if you were facing similar kinds of issues. So this is a floor plan of the basement of the Customs House building. And the storage area that we're going to be focusing on today is this E2 space. I took a quick trip up there. The storage building is in the building's lower level. And you access it from this fairly narrow staircase. And so you have a quick turn there. And there also is access out this back door to the areas that I think what you saw before that Susan showed, the sort of nice painted piece with the volunteers sitting on the billboard doors is the rear of the institution and the ramp that leads out to this backyard where there is a tent for outdoor event spaces. And hopefully we're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather on Monday so we can use that as a swing space. The B1 room is Susan's office. B4 is the kitchen that she mentioned. That was recently renovated. And B3 is this other space that she talked about with the ship models during my visit. We sort of were calling it the man cave. And the hope that it will be is for other kinds of community events. So during our Reorg Day, one of the advantages to Susan's institution was that there's actually a lot of good swing space for us to move around and do our mini project. Mike and Susan, can we show the short video here? Maybe let's see if we can hold that off. Maybe I'll show a few more slides and then we'll, it might make the video a little bit easier to understand. When you come down from the staircase and then you would sort of turn right, the slide here on the left is the corridor that leads to the storage room. This is what you could see. So you have all this brickwork, these vaulted ceilings, and a lot of material here in the hallway. And on the right, this is the door to the storage space. There's material that sort of makes it challenging even to get in. And this floor plan is the society's main storage room and the first of the type of floor plans that we've discussed in the previous webinar. So again, this is the space that's going to be the focus of our discussion today and our work next week. So when you first open the door, this is sort of your initial view. You can see it, you know, pretty full. And then if you're standing sort of right inside the doorway, the slide on the left is your view if you look towards the left wall. And the slide on the right is your view if you're looking at the right wall. The arch ceilings here make the space a little challenging. We don't have a fixtures floor plan, which is the second plan we've discussed in these webinars, but you can see that there's not a lot of pipes or wires going on overhead. The main issues overhead is the fact that there's been some previous water damage as Susan alluded to, and so that's resulted in some areas of a fluorescence or some powdery brick dust. But hopefully that has been resolved with all the maintenance that has recently been done. Here are a few views of the various types of storage furniture that are in use in the room. You can see a lot of these sort of slotted structures. There is some steel shelving sort of in the middle of the space, up on this middle side. And then on the right you're seeing some of these cabinets that also have these slots and Susan's been able to use those for some boxes with small artifacts. The museum actually has a lot of storage furniture that has been donated or given away by other institutions like a local school and Yale University. A lot of it has been squeezed into the storage room, but there's also a sub-basement which isn't great for collections as it's below grade and there's potential for water intake, which did happen during Superstorm Sandy. But a space like this would be appropriate for non-collection items that maybe don't need to be in storage because for the most part this is dry and safe. So what you're seeing here are some of the additional storage pieces that the museum has access to that are currently in the lower level. So here's the fourth type of floor plan that Simon drew up showing the general placement of the pieces of storage furniture as they're currently situated in storage. So it seems like this is a fairly reasonable layout given the space, but it doesn't really in practice seem to be working as well as one might hope. You can see from these images that there are things on the floor, there's a lot of overcrowding. In fact, I think the image on the right is material that is outside of the storage room in the hallway. And so here is Simon's occupation plan. I think it's a little, it's artistic, but an accurate head depiction of the fact that there are collections sort of all over the place making it difficult to access anything, especially the pieces that are on either side in those storage cabinets. Okay, let's see if we can get the video clip going. My husband is a TV news producer, and he would be very upset with my production skills on this, so you'll have to forgive me. But here's Susan is entering the storage space and a little buffering, but we're continuing on. So there's this sort of center block where the steel storage is. We've got boxes of things. I think there's a large frame piece or mirror. And there's a textile or costume piece on a sort of half mannequin. There's a bunch of plexi bonnets. Things are stored in a variety of boxes and carrier bags. In the back there you're seeing some oversized wall paintings and a number of other kinds of rolled pieces, some papers on canvas. Here Susan is going into these units of the doors and showing that some pieces have been nicely rehoused with tissue and labeled. She's tried to use as much available space with additional units on top. But as you can see, many of these things are sort of stacked one on top of each other, making it difficult to extract a piece that you might be looking for. Susan's also storing some of her archival materials that she has here in storage. And I think we've discussed that this is very common, but ideally we'd love to see collections and other valuable pieces in storage, and given that Susan does have a lot of space, that maybe we can move some of those other materials out. And I think we're pretty much what we wanted to show from that. That's perfect. Thank you, Mike and Susan. Okay. So in our discussions with Susan, we identified that they have collections in nine out of the 12 New York object categories that Rebecca went over with us last week. A few of them, like these long-world wall paintings, are number two would be considered outliers, things that don't form the bulk of the collection. And sort of reviewing again the self-evaluation and the things that we saw, there are some strengths but the key issues that we're going to really be focusing in is that like many institutions, Susan is fighting the good fight on her own but she doesn't have enough resources even if she knows what needs to be done. She's wearing many caps. The building has a good amount of usable space but it's not always apportioned in a way that would maximize safety for the collections items and access to non-collection pieces. The collection is partially catalogued. Some items have been entered into a past perfect database but Susan doesn't currently have access to the file. So right now there's no tracking system. That's an advantage for us, for our real estate because we're going to be pretty much moving everything out and moving it back in. So the fact that we don't have to worry about you know sort of shelf-level tracking makes our project easier and I think we feel that despite the fact that it looked awfully crowded that there is a lot that can be done with that amount of space. There's a lot of storage furniture but it isn't necessarily well suited to the size and type of collections that the society has. We'd love to get things off the floor and make sure that the things that are fragile and do have some definite risk factors, the kinds of things that are at risk for both chemical aging or corrosion and tarnishing are protected. So now I'm going to turn things back over to Simon who's going to talk about how we take all that information we have and craft it into a storage action plan. Thank you Rachel and thank you Susan. So this is the hard part. So we have over the past few weeks we've looked at how to analyze the situation using various lenses, using various tools to enable us to extract what are the key issues that we're facing in our storage areas. And so now it's like what do we do to turn that into a work plan and to address some of these issues. So if you look on the right side of your screen what I'm pointing at right now is the Reorg project chart that we're going to be aiming to create at the end of this session. So you too will create one of these or something similar for your own project if you are following along in a storage area as you're taking this course. So, and I apologize for this scribble but it's hard to actually draw little objects in PowerPoint which is what I made these plans in. And so this is the occupation plan for number four so what you see in red is non-collection and I have to confess that I have not been in the space yet so that's an additional challenge for myself. Rachel is the one with the knowledge of Susan as well of the space but I am going off of what I saw in the pictures and the videos and all throughout our various discussions. So this is just an indication to suggest that there are various collection and non-collection items in the space but just don't take the scribble and kind of judgment about how they're being stored. I mentioned that I made these plans in PowerPoint and that might be something that you might want to do as well. I did find that I could do that quite easily if I click on a shape that I've created like a rectangle and I go into the picture tools tab in the format section and then you can adjust the height and width of those shapes and you can just... So I said that basically 0.26 was going to be 26 inches and 0.62 was going to be 62 inches so I used that in order to create a floor plan from measurements that we had from Susan that was to scale. So this is very simple, like you don't need very complicated software in order to create floor plans that work and that enable you to play with the various storage units in the space to develop a layout of your own. So I know most of you will have already done this because this was part of the assignment for week one or two. I think we do. So just a reminder of what Rachel said in the space we have a lot of collections and non-collection items that are mixed together so this is going to be one of the key things. We're going to try to focus on in this reorg just some various views from various perspectives. So we can see a little bit of what's in there. Floor plan as Rachel presented it for the basement. This is our storage area and as Rachel mentioned we have all these different areas that can be used as swing spaces in our project and we also have these stairs to the outside that lead into this area where there will be a tent set up and so if the weather is nice we can use that area outside as a swing space maybe for some non-collection materials or other things that we decide that we need some extra room for because ultimately we will be emptying most of what is in this room out in order to reconfigure the space to optimize and provide some better storage solutions for the various types of objects. What we're going to be focusing on for this one day reorg is going to be what we call the physical reorganization and that's usually the reorg as you know from the various sessions we've had so far is not only about reorganizing the space it's also about the management component there's all the issues related to you know, the collection vulnerability and value that also come into the equation but in order to do all of that stuff and to do all the fine detailed work that might happen later down the line we need to get access to the collection again and as you've seen in some of these slides that Rachel showed right now it's really hard to access the actual collection and so our primary goal for this one day is going to be to reestablish a safe access to the collection and then there's a whole other thing that can happen after that access is reestablished. So if we look at the ten criteria for functional storage we can see that there is one qualified member of staff who's in charge and key policies and procedures exist and are applied. The building provides adequate protection and every object is free from active deterioration that we know of and we are going to be focusing on these issues here which all have to do actually with the physical reorganization. So we're going to be looking at removing all the non-collection items from the space and finding a space for them that's not in the collections room. We're going to see if it's possible to create some spaces in the semi basement and the sub basement in order to store some of the storage equipment and some of the packing equipment that is currently in storage in an area, a work area that could be better meet Susan's needs. And we're going to make sure that no object is placed directly on the floor although I saw that Susan had elevated a lot of the objects onto tables or other pieces of furniture in the moment so we're just going to make sure that at the end there were some pieces directly on the floor but we will make sure that by the end of the day no object will be placed directly on the floor. Every object will have a designated location in storage and we will make sure that every object can be accessed without moving more than two others and we're going to be arranging objects by category. So our priorities for this one-day reorg are going to be to relocate and discard non-collection items to develop storage systems that are better adapted to the collection's needs. Like I said, no object directly on the floor and to create a new location system for Susan so that she's able to find anything in the collection once she's been able to do her inventory. She'll be able to find any object within three minutes. We're going to start by focusing on number two, which is to create storage systems that are better adapted for the collection's needs. The reason why we're starting with this is because a lot of these questions are going to determine what we need in terms of equipment and supplies for the reorg. So we're kind of jumping ahead and seeing how we want to store things in the finished product because that's going to help us come up with a budget and a list of things that we need in order for this to happen.  And so you need to be able to kind of define in broad terms what you'll be needing in order to implement your projects even before you start actually moving things. So what we've done is we've used the categories, the object categories, which are there just for your information. But we're focusing here on the object types within those categories because it helps us to think about how we want to store them. And so we identify that there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine different types of objects that we're going to be working with that we need to find storage solutions for. And some of them we don't know how many we have yet. So we'll be finding that out when we start doing the work. Some of them, which required maybe more specialized storage solutions like if the flags, we needed to count them ahead of time because we needed to know how many boxes we were going to be needing. We needed to know how many tubes we would be needing to roll the flags. We needed to know how many boxes we would need for the uniforms and as what size. We know that we have two different sizes of uniforms. We have the large and the small. So we needed to know how many boxes we needed of each type. So this is kind of, you will have recognized this a little bit. It's like the worksheet six that I introduced, but it's a very light version of it which helps us just get our supplies list defined so that we can make sure that we have what we need on the day that we're doing our rework. So if we go object type by object type, we can see here in the storage area that Rachel showed us that we have some framed works and they're about three feet or a meter high at the most and most of them are actually in shelving units at the moment. But we do want to revisit the way that they're stored at the moment and some of the units for example that are here on the right. We want to see if we can flip that unit on its side so that we're able to have the frames not stacked on top of one another as some of them are. And so we want to find a way to improve this system but using the existing shelving that's there because it's actually quite good for this kind of object. And so we want to just improve it and make it a bit safer for the collections, especially when there's more than one frame in the slots. So we consider this as a minor problem because we do have a solution that we are going to work with which is to use these units. We have some flags which are going to be boxed and that's because they are of a size that fits very nicely in a box. So we have ten of those and I think these are most of them are here. And then we have some flags that will be rolled that are currently sometimes, I'm not sure if these are the ones, but they are larger and will not fit easily in a box so we want to try to roll them onto tubes and get a solution for that rolled system. So we've already identified that we have eleven and ten of those. And then we have some maps and I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is the only image I could find from the video. So we have some maps that are rolled and I suspect there's some maps also that belong to the collection that are not in the storage area and that will need to be brought back into the storage area and we have 30 of these. So I think our solution for this is going to be to wrap them into tissue, acid-free tissue, to find some sort of slotted unit that we can put them safely in until there's time to process them and to perhaps package them a little bit better. We do have one day to do all of this and so we have to be really careful about to not go too far down their route and try to do something that's maybe too elaborate. That would be really great for that kind of object but maybe too elaborate that we end up having to abandon the project half done, so we have to really make sure that we finish everything in that one day. So that's our challenge for next Monday. The uniforms, we have some that are small. As you see here, some of them are on display and these are children's uniforms and then we have some that are maybe larger and I suspect this is one of them and so we have six or four and six of each. There's approximately 12 of them, 10 or 12 of them and so these are going to be ones that we will box because they often are part of a... they're kind of an ensemble, so you might have the jacket with the pants, with the hat, with the gloves and so we want to make sure all of that stuff is kept together which will make it easier for Susan and her team, well, her staff of one, and her volunteers to retrieve things from storage and use them for exhibitions. If everything is kept together, it will be easier and since we don't have that many, it won't be taking up much more space than if we were to separate them into different storage solutions. So that's the reasoning behind us wanting to box them together. And then we have painting, we have these large paintings that are, you know, over 18 feet, I'm not sure, they're very, very long and they're quite... so they're rolled paintings and we're not sure exactly how many there are and how many are rolled together. This would require a lot of careful work and a large surface to work with and I think we have decided collectively that we want to wrap them to protect them from dust but we will not be unrolling these because it might just be a little bit too extensive for the time that we have. It might require a conservator to be involved in kind of more extensive projects to do that. So we're going to find a surface where we can, you know, wrap these paintings to protect them from the dust and leave them on the surface where they're out of the way and they're not at risk of damage but we're not going to be unrolling them or rolling them onto another support for that day. Then we have object types. We have objects that are small that can be carried in two hands which will be stored on shelves and we also have objects that are smaller that can be carried in one hand that will be also stored on shelves. So we don't know yet the quantities because it's hard to access some of these units at the moment and so as we start to work in the space we'll be able to actually empty the storage area and group the objects by type and by size as we're taking them out and that will then give us a better sense of how much shelf space we need for each type. So we're going with the strategy that I talked about in webinar two which is to use more of an intuitive visual estimation method and measuring every single object and that works usually pretty well. This kind of collection size I have to say. Larger collection than that might be. So what we're doing here is all of us who are coordinating this workshop that's happening next Monday is we've come up with a list of many projects which are basically the same list that I just showed you but what we're doing is we're looking at what is the quantity of each type which we already have, some of them. We're detailing a little bit much what kind of storage solution we want to use for those kinds of objects. We're starting to list what the required materials would be to implement this solution and then we have a column here which is any questions that we need to clarify with Susan and we have had a few meetings with her on the phone after how many flags of this size you have or how many uniforms do you have or are those flags that we're seeing are those part of the collection or not? And so this is what we're using as a communications pool between us to plan the workshop. So you can see it's taking all of the different types that we just talked about but just expanding a little bit more on them to kind of come up our ultimate thing we had to do last week was to define what our list of materials was going to be because we need to ask, we need to find those materials and so if we're getting some materials donated we need to know exactly what we need. So one of the big questions that gets asked is how far do we go with this physical reorganization? And I think there's a tendency to think that after this reorg everything will be perfect, everything will be ideal, everything will be stored optimally and we will make a huge improvement, I expect, but so collections right now before the physical reorg are not safely accessible, it's possible to get through the space so that's the situation right now and we can't really, in those conditions it's very, very difficult to do an inventory. So what we're going to work towards after our physical reorg is that collections as a whole can be safely accessed. So we're going to be able to actually see and see our collection in order to be able to do things and we'll avoid the main hazards and now we can do the inventory. So afterwards, after our one-day reorg there is other stuff that can happen after, of course. We're going to make sure that everything is space but then there's detailed work like, oh, maybe those maps instead of just putting them on the shelves, wrapped in tissue paper, it would really be nice if they had individual boxes or things like that. So those kinds of things which will cost the New London Maritime Society money to do and so those things can happen afterwards but we want to leave the space at least so Susan can access her collection safely and she can do her inventory, which should be the two things that happen afterwards. So where do we stop is we want to stop right here. So there's a bus where we're used to working with collections. There's a tendency to want to do everything kind of in a real state. We'll have to really check ourselves and make sure that we don't launch into something that we can't finish. So again, here are our priorities for the day. So if I have to ask you now, so if we think about our project chart that we want to end up at the end of this webinar, so we have a sense of our space. We have a sense of our priorities. We have a sense of our mini projects. So I want to ask you in the comments box what do you think should be the next step? What do you think we should do next in order to arrive at our project chart? But he wants to discard the non-collection items. It actually brings up an interesting point is that when you're working in your own institution, we are working kind of with the host institution and Rachel and I are not part of that institution's staff. And so we're doing this at a distance and so we're having to plan without really being that familiar with the institution. So we're relying heavily on Susan.  And so I'm glad people are saying this because that is actually correct in most cases is that you do end up having to take out that stuff that you know doesn't belong there first. And then you can really see what you have left. But what we're going to do because we are not part of this institution is that we're going to... See? First thing. We're going to actually to get to our project chart, we're going to have to define what the various things that we need to do are. So we want to get to the project chart, which is a tool that will help us to plan our work for that day. To get to that chart, we need to understand what needs to happen. So here is a list of priorities. But it really doesn't tell us what the different people in the workshop group are going to be doing. It just tells us generally where we want to end up at the end of the day. But so if we take our first part, everyone said correctly that it's going to be to get rid of the non-collection item. So there will be collection items that will be probably relocated if they still have some use. And some non-collection items which are going to be discarded. So what I'd like to do right now is to take you through the process of how we are planning this in the background. How we're planning our workshop. And maybe you can use some of these tools in order to plan your own reorg. So by taking our priorities, I'm starting to think about, well, what needs to happen if I relocate and discard non-collection items? What needs to happen? So the first thing is where do I put them? So maybe I need to set up a space for the non-collection items in the semi-basement or in the sub-basement. I need to set up a space where those things will go. One thing that needs to happen. Maybe I need to designate an area where I put all the rubbish.  Or recycled. And so I need to designate where is the stuff that is not collection that we are not keeping, where is that going? That includes also things that maybe Susan wants to donate. Then we want to probably designate an area where we're going to put all the things that we are not sure what they are. So some of the items in that storage area might be clearly collection. Some of them might be clearly non-collection. And some of them are, hmm, I don't know what they are. And so we might need to dig a little bit deeper into the documentation to clarify what the status of those objects is. And so we don't want to do that during our workshop, but we do want to identify what these objects are and to put them somewhere where they can be addressed later. So that's going to be our designation, our area for unknowns. Then we probably at some point need to relocate the non-collection, including the rubbish, through the semi-basement, sorry, the rubbish will go into the area for rubbish, but to relocate the non-collection items into the semi-basement. Oh, and probably we'll need to identify first, actually this probably needs to happen before anything else, we'll need to identify what is collection, what is non-collection, and what are the unknowns. So some of this will be happening when we're taking things out, but there's definitely some things that can be done beforehand. And we've asked Susan to go through her storage area and to start tagging things that she knows to be non-collection. So she's not touching them, she's not removing them, but she's identifying them so it'll make it easier next Monday to work in the collection with people that are not familiar with the space to know exactly, oh, this one we know, non-collection, but we'll figure that out. And so this probably needs to happen at the beginning. So let's move on to our second priority, which is to create storage systems that are better adapted to the collection's needs. This is our before. Let's take away all the stuff that's on the floor, or not in units. I want to show you what the configuration of the ceiling is. It's a groin vault, two barrel vaults that intersect at the center, right? So this is kind of how the ceiling is structured. And so this is an additional challenge for us because we can't put things, we have to make sure that whatever we decide to put in the center, we might not be able to put it here. So we have to really be mindful of the height of the ceiling in various locations. So this is our current situation, and this is where the vaults are more or less the same ceiling height. But after here, in this area, it starts to drop. For here, in this area, it starts to drop. So we basically have this kind of cross shape where the ceiling height is more or less consistent. So we have to be mindful that this is where we can use the vertical space in the space most efficiently to actually remove several of the units that are in there right now that are not ideal for the types of objects that are in the space. So perhaps the slotted units are great for things that need to be stored flat, but they're not ideal for the types of 3D objects, the textiles, all the different types of objects that we have. They're not ideal for those kinds of objects. So what we're proposing is to actually add some metal shelving in the middle here, and this you'll remember the ceiling height is at its highest, so we can get the most out of the space if we install it this way. And these are the two units that are already in the space right now, which we'll be keeping because they are perfectly fine. And then we're going to be keeping a few units because those can be used to store the frames that we have leaving a donation. So if we're thinking about what needs to happen for us to implement this plan, we will need to adapt those units that we're keeping, these ones here, needing to adapt those for the framed units, so we said that some of them we might want to flip on their side in order to be storing things vertically. We might want to pad some of the bottoms of those units to protect the frames. And so this is all adapting those units, but we're keeping them. Also, we're going to be removing all of the collections in that space and sorting them by type and category as I mentioned, so we'll be doing that while we're taking things out. We're going to be also setting some temporary storage locations which are probably going to have to happen before this happens. So we're going to have to decide what are temporary storage locations for flags, temporary storage locations for uniforms, temporary storage locations for frames. We have to identify what those are and to set them up before we start removing our collection. So this is all part of the brainstorming kind of thing that happens when you're trying to figure out what needs to happen. Just putting things down. I use sticky notes or post-it notes to do this. So that's why they're not really in order right now. Oh, we're getting storage units donated, so we need to assemble those at some point. So those need to be assembled. We're going to relocate all the unwanted units that are great but not for this collection. We're going to be relocating them to the semi or the subbasement. And then we need to prepare all the various object pipes for storage. So that's the flags, the frameworks, the uniforms. All of those need to be packaged or rehoused and prepared for storage. So that also needs to happen at some point. Probably the units that we're keeping in the space we might want to give them a quick wipe down to remove dust. There is probably also vacuuming in the space. When you remove everything from a room that's been filled with collections, there's usually a little vacuuming to do so we might want to do that as well. For the third priority, which was to have no objects directly on the floor, there's nothing really to do for that. It's just keep in mind that anything we do, we have to make sure that no objects will be stored on the floor. Number four, create a location system. So this is to enable to find any object within three minutes at the end once the locations have been recorded. So for this we'll need to write our location codes on the units and shelves. Probably want to draw a final storage furniture layout with the codes written on them so you can know exactly which locations are where. So that might be something to do. So I can't really think of anything else right now. There might be other things that are involved in this but for the moment that's sufficient.  Perhaps I'm using table or big flip chart paper so I just kind of stick them on there and start thinking about perhaps sometimes what happens is that you have this big thing, this big task which is actually maybe a bunch of small tasks that need to be unpacked. So preparing various object types for storage is quite a large task. That's most of what we need to do on that day. So maybe I want to separate that into smaller tasks. So what I'm going to do now is well we want to roll the flags we want to box some flags we want to box some smaller uniforms we want to wrap some maps we want to box some large uniforms we want to place 3D objects on the shelves. Then I can get rid of that one and have my smaller tasks that are broken down into smaller chunks. That's good enough I think for now. So I'm going to start by showing you what comes next. Which is this is all nice but we need to know what we have to start with what we need to do first and what we need to do last and maybe there's some things that can happen at the same time and maybe there's some things that need to happen before other things can happen so like dependencies so I absolutely have to do this before I can do this. So the ones that I'm giving a spot on this table or this piece of paper can probably come blue. So we've already said that one of the first things that we want to ask Susan to do even before we get there is to identify what is collection what is non-collection and what are the unknowns. We are asking her just to focus on the non-collection because those will be easier than to start the beginning now. Probably designating an area for rubbish can happen at the beginning doesn't need to we can also designate an area for unknowns probably at the beginning we can set up a space for non-collection in the semi-basement or sub-basement I think that can happen fairly at the beginning we can probably relocate non-collection to the semi-basement locate non-collection to the semi-basement we need areas that are actually in the second column because these have to be done before these can happen this is why they're being stacked in the second column like remove all collections and sort by type or category before we remove the collections we need to have identified areas where the collections are going temporary locations as I'm going through the different notes or the different sticky notes then I'm putting them in the right column depending on when they need to happen removing rubbish where should that go that can happen probably after we've designated area for the rubbish putting the new storage units to place it in the first column because I think that can happen at the very beginning while other people are working on designating the areas for different types of collections that can happen at the beginning a one team can be working on that so it doesn't really need anything before nothing really needs to happen before that locating unwanted units at the point as we happen after need to remove what's in the units or we relocate the empty units at the point according to what they're here I'm just going to explain this one so boxing large uniforms and boxing small uniforms not that different of a task they're just different sizes uniforms but they can probably be the same task so we're just going to call it flags and we're going to be drawing our storage furniture layout with the station codes and writing the location codes on the units this is more or less what our day is going to look like but we're not going to end there because at the end we need to celebrate as well so we need to make a little room for that but basically this is what the order of the tasks is going to start to look like and where I have the lines here indicates where there are kind of hard the hard lines mean that in that column can't happen before whatever is in the previous column happens we're going to start also to assign colors to them just to give you an idea when you start grouping the tasks that are kind of similar or that can be done by the same team together the identifying collection and non-collection thing at the beginning because that's what Susan's going to do for us assigning colors to the things that are kind of similar I think can be done by the same team so as you can see we already have starting to form an orange team a green team, a yellow team and a pink team task together here I remove the line because I figured that we don't really need, once we've removed all of the objects from storage all of these different object type tasks can happen it doesn't need to wait we don't need to wait so because all the things have been removed and they've been placed in the temporary storage locations and so someone can start working on those right away, we don't need to wait so I've removed a line there to show you that sometimes you have to re-examine your side based on your own situation what kind of tasks can be sort of grouped together as one group's work we end up with this kind of thing but this is still not a project chart because we don't know exactly it's not a very user friendly format and so we can convert those little posted notes into this format you'll notice that I've put some sample new storage units and I've given it two sections because I think that can take some time sometimes so it might be a longer task so if we remove those lines it's starting to look like what we call a Gantt chart if you're familiar with that so it's kind of a project chart that shows all the tasks that can happen at the same time and then all the tasks that happen afterwards for our workshop what we like to do is create this but make it into this format so basically we're taking all the content that's in these trying a list here using this different columns create these empty going to do that for all four groups that allows us to do is when we have our four groups working simultaneously it might be useful sometimes for group green to know what group orange is up to because they're kind of waiting they're here but they need this to happen before and so it allows us we ask the participants to fill in the bars, the progress bars as they complete a task in order to inform the other groups what they're up to and what needs to be done we use this as a kind of communication tool during our workshops and you might find that in your own projects this might be a good way to track your progress and it's kind of encouraging to fill in the progress bars so that's what we like to do so this is how we're using it in the workshops and I think some people some participants who have then implemented their own projects and their own institutions have used the same kind of charts in their own projects also do a chart using Excel so that's another way if you're familiar with Microsoft Excel or something similar, spreadsheet program you can use that to do your own chart as a computer form what we want to do now is to look at what could go wrong because a lot of things can go wrong and we won't plan for everything but it's useful to anticipate some of the things so to kind of do a risk assessment for our project because sometimes things can be prevented or we can plan ahead so some things we have already addressed so earlier this week we were not sure that we were going to be getting these shelving units and so one thing that could go wrong is we have no shelving units so can we adapt some of the existing units that we have in the space can we find other sources of funding these are all options that we've explored we weren't sure that we were going to have all the packing materials or re-housing materials so what materials does the museum have and what temporary solutions so these are kinds of things that we would have checked before some tasks may take longer than expected if you have to dismantle storage units in your project these tasks often take longer than you think because there's always that one screw or that one bolt that ends up taking you an hour to unscrew and that kind of throws everything off and so we will be ready for that to happen by anticipating that some of the object re-housing tasks might need to be simplified a little bit we might get fewer people than expected this is a volunteer project and maybe people had other commitments that on the day they weren't able to attend so again I think we'll be ready to scale down some of the project of the object re-housing tasks if we need to and then we might run out of swing space because when you empty a room you need space to bring those objects into and so one of the questions was will we have that outdoor tent and Susan has confirmed that we will so that's great and then maybe there's other areas in the building that we'll be looking at and if there's any shelving units that are empty somewhere that we can use as temporary shelving that would be also useful so we'll be looking at all of those options maybe could go wrong and there might be others but this is the first list and then what are the possible bottlenecks bottlenecks, what's a bottleneck well it's when there's a task that is actually blocking other tasks to happen from happening so you're all waiting you're all waiting for something to be complete before you can start working and this is one of the signs that there's a bottleneck where people are just kind of idle and standing there not sure what to do because you're just waiting for that one thing to happen so in our plan what we will do with, you know, there's like three things that possibly could be bottlenecks so one of them designated an area for unknowns actually looking at unknowns and trying to determine whether or not it's collection or it's an unknown might take some time sometimes, longer than we think depending on how many unknowns there are which we do not know so it is unknown how many unknowns there are and that can take longer than we think and so we just have to be mindful of that, that that can take more time assembling the new storage units depending on how user friendly these storage units are and not all of them are as user friendly and so that might take a bit longer than we think and that if people are waiting for the storage units to be assembled because the objects are ready to go back in then that can be a bottleneck and so we'll need to make sure that we have sufficient people who have the sufficient have the required skills to assemble storage units working on that from the very beginning and then adapting units for the framed works depending on what we decide to do with that if we start to you know those are the kinds of tasks where adapting furniture I just put that as an example there could be some things that take longer than expected and so we don't want to be having people waiting for that so we have to be ready to simplify if we need to are there others well there might be and so I think when we meet with the team next Sunday a day before the workshop we'll be going through the plan maybe kind of revising this and trying to figure out if there are objects that could take longer than we think and might block the progress and we also when you're working on your own project we don't want you to forget that you know these issues that we discussed in Webinar 3 about the relative value and the vulnerability and exposure to agents of deterioration also factor into your issues so although you developed your issues for your project it's important to look at your plans that you drew and this is an example from one of the participants so this is showing the location of the value items and this is showing the mapping of the agents of deterioration so it's important to take this into consideration when you're planning your reorg so also incorporating that analysis into your final task list and priorities list for your project the finish is my part for today thank you so much for being with us today our assignments for the next Webinar which is actually a month or so from now which will be the final Webinar I will ask you to develop your own reorg project chart but for the physical reorg only and then I will ask you to list at least three things that could go wrong with your plan and how you will address these and then I will ask you also to identify the possible bottlenecks in your plan if there are any so do exactly what we've been talking about today and the next Webinar which is the last Webinar you'll be able to see it's nice to do all of this nice planning but in practice what happens if we needed to adapt our plan if we needed to change our strategy you'll get to see that so looking forward to that final Webinar so thanks everyone for joining in today okay so the next Webinar is going to be June 5th so you have a lot of time to get caught up on the homework remember if you're going to get the credly badge you need to listen either live or the recording of all the Webinars and you need to do the assignments so if you have any trouble let me know if you have trouble with the course content put it in the discussions and other than that I think we're fine thank you very much thank you Susan thank you Simon and Rachel thank you Mike and we'll see you next time bye bye any questions please leave them in the discussion thread and we'll answer them yeah so okay audio


What is it about that one teacher we remember so strongly that makes us feel either immense warmth and admiration or sheer dread when remembering how we learned about how to find the area of a triangle? I came across a really powerful statement a number of years ago by Dr. Hame Gino that has completely changed the way that I walk into a classroom. I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. The student teacher relationship is profoundly important in how students learn. When the classroom is characterized by emotionally engaged teachers there is a much greater chance that students will be actively engaged and deep learning will take place. Meta analyses by John Hattie indicate that the student teacher relationship is absolutely paramount. The school context is a major source of social and cultural learning and the quality of the relationship that a student has with his or her teacher is an important factor in that student's well-being and learning outcomes. The teacher smiles, some laughter, a relaxed but structured atmosphere. Students are respectful of a teacher's knowledge about a subject. Students feel comfortable sharing opinions. Students know and accept teacher expectations and teachers treat students with respect. Cornelius White in 2007 conducted a meta-analysis of 119 studies to identify these teacher-student relational variables. The emotional connectivity of the teacher with the student, the student with the student and the teacher with the teacher optimizes the classroom for positive learning experiences and outcomes. Emotions drive our engagement with the world around us. They influence our decisions, how we interpret experience and how we create memories. As educators it is imperative to leverage this emotional drive in our students if we want to impact student motivation for deep learning. Relationships are a crucial pathway for doing so. Cooperative group learning and peer mentoring have been linked to positive social and academic outcomes relative to individual or competitive tasks. Social emotions such as empathy, admiration, love and compassion meet our basic human need to belong. So providing opportunities for students to work together and for teachers to work together can have really important positive outcomes in schools. Some fascinating research about empathy by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang has shown us that being able to empathize with others actually increases neural activity in the brain. What her research shows us is that by engaging social emotions such as empathy, where students experience meaningful learning and connect socially with others, they're actually using more brain processing capacity, enabling them to connect ideas, to remember these experiences longer term and to make meaning of their life experiences. The Mindful Practice for Teachers program was developed with teachers for teachers. It provides an opportunity for teachers to work together on their own well-being and experience social emotions such as empathy. This program combines relaxation skills, self-awareness, mindful movement and background knowledge about the effects of stress on the body and brain to assist teachers to self-regulate their emotions in the classroom. Teachers have found some really positive impacts on their daily teaching practice and their relationships with their students. We know positive relationships are crucial to learning, but what steps can we take to build an environment where positive teacher student relationships flourish? First, we must look after our teachers. Teachers need opportunities to plan together, to debrief, to make professional decisions and to learn about emotions. Teachers need to be aware of the enduring effects that their own presence, empathy and emotional states have on their students. Secondly, we then need to create relaxed and respectful classrooms where students and teachers can engage meaningfully with each other for deep learning. And thirdly, we must find the balance between helping students to find their strengths and challenging them to broaden their minds and build the capacity to think creatively about new and exciting concepts. Emphasizing the importance of competition and performance outcomes such as how much an exam is worth might encourage the students to work hard, but it may also produce negative emotions. Activities that promote interest, challenge thinking and provide opportunities for success for all students, whether individually or collaboratively, are more emotionally engaging longer term. So once we establish that emotionally positive educational climate, there are a number of strategies that we can use to build positive student teacher relationships. For example, we can explicitly teach social and emotional skills for working together. For example, managing emotions or social problem solving or how emotions in the brain work together. We can provide opportunities for students to work meaningfully together towards self set goals. Periodically, we could check in and see if the presentation can be made more creative or enjoyable. We can smile. We can provide a sense of predictability in the classroom to heighten students perception of control. We can clearly communicate expectations and performance demands. We can create a learner centered classroom where learning is separate from testing. We can encourage students to become intrinsically motivated and self regulated learners and we can provide a degree of student choice in authentic learning tasks. If we focus on building positive teacher student relationships using these strategies, perhaps we will become that one amazing teacher that somebody conjures up and remembers when reflecting back on what they've learned at school.


Members of the Board of Trustees, Presidents Von Arks and Bavington, Bishop Cagiano, Assistant Provincial Maracchi and other religious and community leaders, Congressman Himes and other elected officials, fellow presidents and their delegates, members of the Fairfield Jesuit community, faculty and staff of Fairfield University, students of Fairfield University, alumni, friends and family. It is a great and humbling honor to welcome you all to our campus and our community. As I now have the chance to reciprocate the amazingly warm and supportive reception, Susie, our four children, Alex, Teddy, Phillip and Kit and I have received from this wonderful place. In addition to welcoming you, I would like to begin by offering a reflection on Fairfield's past as a springboard for a broader conversation about our future. As a university's ninth Ignatian but first lay leader, I am called to serve as steward of this institution with a sense of awesome responsibility. Awesome in the sense of being in awe, but also as someone who grew up in Southern California in the early 80s, awesome in the sense of being utmost excited at the prospect. A tangible sense of awe and excitement might be true for any new president, but to be asked to lead this institution at this time is truly a privilege. 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of Fairfield's founding. While any diamond jubilee is an occasion to celebrate, I would politely suggest ours is particularly unique. For when we pause a moment to reflect on Fairfield's founding date of 1942, we are struck by the audacity of our founders. Think about it. To establish an institution of learning in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, when both college-age students and building materials would be in short supply speaks to a deep and unceasing faith in the dignifying power of education. This faith was soon rewarded as the passage of the GI Bill greatly expanded access to higher education and allowed the fledgling Fairfield University to grow rapidly in response to many first-generation students from the region. Starting with our first college graduates in the class of 1951, we quickly expanded and developed in keeping with our founding vision as a comprehensive institution serving undergraduate and graduate populations. Recognizing the need to evolve 20 years after that first graduating class, Fairfield accepted our first class of women in 1971. Building upon this legacy and buoyed by a remarkable and dedicated community, the last 40 years have seen Fairfield on an exceptional trajectory of continued growth and enhanced impact as we seek to further serve the Northeast United States and beyond. As someone who has been described in one publication as an historically-minded political scientist, I offer this context not simply as an exercise in nostalgia, but rather as a frame for thinking about our future. I also offer it with a civilian recognition of the power and significance of civic institutions to the American experiment and to a belief that our universities have been an essential, if not arguably, the essential civic institution to the relative success of that experiment. However, currently we are at an inflection point, a point at which the long-term prospects for the American democratic experiment are by no means guaranteed, and the role of higher education as the formational, intellectual, social, and cultural institution for its citizenry is under scrutiny, as not only our relevance, but the fundamental good of our work is being questioned. Though daunting, our prospects are not bleak. In fact, I would suggest that just as the pains of the Civil War and Reconstruction and the upheaval, the late 1800s forged the 20th century university, a model which has served us for the last 125 years or so, our current environment presents us with a chance to define the next 125 years of higher education. What will the next 75, 100, 125 years look like? I won't pretend to offer an answer, let alone hazard a guess. I do, however, wish to use this occasion as a platform to begin this conversation. The world needs the work we do, but we must also, as my predecessor has stated, meet the world as it is. We must be committed to remain relevant. For Fairfield, this is a unique opportunity, an opportunity to be a model for 21st century higher education, an opportunity to be the modern Jesuit Catholic University. Thankfully, our legacy, the amazing work and dedication of previous generations of students, faculty, staff, and Jesuits means we are poised for this moment. For while I do not know what the next 75 years holds, I do know that values-based, student-centric, outcomes-focused education, the kind of education that Fairfield offers is what will define the modern university. Before I share some thoughts on the characteristics and parameters of the modern Jesuit Catholic University, let me stress, this is not a call for radical change, but rather a call for deliberate evolution. And like any organic and organizational evolution, it is about taking aspects of our being and adapting them to a changing environment. Our mission remains clear. The formation of men and women for others with the desire they pursue social justice and productive citizenship. To ensure we are most effective in this purpose, I would ask we be more deliberate about three particular characteristics of our effort and cognizant of three parameters of our work. Our efforts to be the modern Jesuit Catholic University will be defined by three characteristics. A commitment to lifelong learning, a commitment to holistic formation, and a commitment to extensive and expansive partnership. Allow me a few moments to further illuminate each and to begin by emphasizing we will embrace all three with mages, a dedication to excellence in all things. First, we must continue to recognize that we are not simply training men and women for their first job or next stage of education. Rather, we are forming them for a lifetime of learning. The world is at a remarkable moment. Advances in wellness and healthcare mean for the first time in human history the number of people over the age of 65 is greater than the number of people under the age of five. We also know that many of the bodies of knowledge and disciplines, let alone careers which will shape the next century, have yet to be developed. Practically, for Fairfield, these phenomenon mean we need to ensure all our students are not simply taught skills, but rather are instilled with a capacity that serves them for their lifetime. Additionally, it means we need to be continually growing and developing graduate and professional programs which serve students over the course of their lives. Fairfield's founding purpose as a comprehensive institution means we have always recognized this characteristic. We must now deliberately bring it to the forefront. Second, the modern Jesuit Catholic University must be committed to forming well-rounded men and women, educating them through a commitment to core personalities, caring for the mind, caring for the body, and caring for the spirit. Some might rightfully ask how modern such a concept really is, as it stems from an almost 500-year tradition of Ignatian spirituality. However, cura personalis has a uniquely modern resonance as scholars of neuroscience have begun to appreciate how the body knows its mind. In other words, learning is enhanced, education is more impactful when we recognize the connection between physicality and cognition. In recent years, we have affirmed Fairfield's commitment not just to the mind, but also the body and the spirit of our students, and must continue to do so in the years ahead. Third, to be a model for 21st century higher education, we must be expansive in efforts and extensive in outreach. Looking beyond our disciplines and our schools, we must continue to foster a multidisciplinarity which is more than simple collaborations across faculty, but rather a mindset which encourages faculty and students to pursue knowledge through a systematic inquiry which perfectly reaches for frameworks of analysis outside of one's home, discipline, and field. Again, I share these characteristics not as a suggestion to pivot from our past, but rather as a call to be deliberate about our future. In being deliberate, I ask we focus not just on the characteristics of our work, but on its parameters. For if we are to be modern, if we are to be the modern Jesuit Catholic University, we must also be national in scope, global in outlook, and unbounded in approach. Fairfield's location as a gateway to both New England and the tri-state region and our origins as an institution serving local students are two attributes of which we're justifiably proud. At the same time, however, shifting demographics, a decline in the Northeast college age population, suggests we will not be able to maintain the quality of student or scale of enrollment we desire by simply focusing where we always have. I've been asked if I'm worried that being national in scope will mean we lose something unique about Fairfield. I would propose the opposite. I fear that if we stay regionally focused, we will have to compromise on our values and on our quality. Being national in approach is essential if we are to maintain and enhance inclusive excellence. Regardless of from where our students, faculty, and staff join, to be a modern Jesuit Catholic University, we must ensure we are forming men and women with the broadest possible outlook. For while we recognize that we are an institution molded by the great advance of American higher education over these last 125 years, we are also part of a Jesuit tradition that from its very outset look beyond home nation and are part of the 21st century where excellence demands a global habit of mind. Having sat almost exactly two years ago to this day interviewing prospective graduate students in the beautiful Indo-Gothic courtyard of the Jesuit Saint Xavier's College Autonomous of the University of Mumbai, I can attest to how a setting might be foreign but our values can be so shared and so familiar. It is owing to these same values that we must also be unbounded in approach. As a Jesuit Catholic University, we are called to educate ever broader populations in ever more innovative ways. As a modern institution, we recognize that formation is not limited to the classroom. Co and extracurricular experiences are as fundamental to our overall work as seminars and lectures. Additionally, as a 21st century educational enterprise, we are blessed with tools of the digital age which offer unfathomable opportunities for impact and inclusion but which simultaneously can literally be weapons of societal decay. However, the dark side of the internet should never turn us away from its potential. Our mission demands we are continually seeking to expand our impact. We must use every resource at our disposal. Or to put it simply, I have hypothesized that none of the Jesuit community here at Fairfield have disagreed. If the internet were available in Saint Ignatius Loyola's day, you know he would have used it. You may have noticed the three characteristics and three parameters I described are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I believe they are inextricably linked. Dare I say unified. And it is with this thought that I want to close by reflecting on what it means for Fairfield to be a modern university in opposition to the postmodern multiversity. To be a university we must always celebrate and embrace the truth. Fundamental to this pursuit of truth is civil discourse and disagreement. As Robert George and Cornel West have jointly written, quote, the pursuit of knowledge and the maintenance of a free and democratic society require the cultivation and practice of the virtues of intellectual humility, openness of mind, and above all, love of truth. These virtues will manifest themselves and be strengthened by one's willingness to listen attentively and respectively to intelligent people who challenge one's belief and who represent causes one disagrees with and points of view one does not share. None of us is infallible. All of us should be willing, even eager, to engage with anyone who is prepared to do business in the currency of truth-seeking discourse by offering reasons, marshalling evidence, and making arguments. The more important the subject under discussion, the more willing we should be to listen and engage, especially if the person with whom we are in conversation will challenge or deeply held even our most cherished and identity-forming beliefs. End quote. While a statement for the modern context, George and West are also reflecting two fundamental Ignatian values, contemplation and discernment, an ability to pause, an ability to listen, an ability to think. As steward of this great university, this is my one ask, my one prayer for us all. That we as an institution, we as a community, we as a family continue to uphold our core values and commitments while embracing the challenge of being a model for the 21st century. So we may make the most of our blessings, so we may continue our rise, and so we may do so all for the greater glory of God. Thank you very much.