Issue 02 Summer 2020
Dear Colleagues, Students, Alumni and Friends of the Romain College of Business,
It’s almost here. The day that we have been working towards since mid-March. The day when students return to USI. We are excited to welcome back students and faculty who have been physically away from campus throughout the summer. We have reworked the Fall 2020 schedule in such a way as to provide students with a variety of learning options, including online, hybrid, and face-to-face classes. We have been busy preparing the classrooms following the appropriate social distancing guidelines and incorporating new technologies allowing us to accommodate students via multiple delivery mediums. The safety of our faculty, staff and students has been at the forefront of all our planning efforts.
A virus invades the world. And students at USI learn what it means to adapt to the world's bizarre, new normal.
If the words "summer camp" bring to mind sleeping bags, cookouts and the ever-present threat of mosquitoes and ticks, think again. The bytes in this summer camp were anything but painful. In fact, they were downright fun.
"Excellence" Has a Name and a Face
If you want to see quality in education, look at the educators who do the work. We do so every year—and are pleased to recognize these four faculty members.
When you pop the top off your favorite beverage and take a nice, big swig, you know there's nothing else like it in the world. The experience is distinctive—just as the experience of those who partake of an education from Romain College of Business should be.
Try to measure their contributions, and you can't. What they gave is the sum of nearly 100 years. Or the countless hours of lecturing, grading, listening and mentoring. Perhaps the best way to estimate these emeritus/emerita educators is to listen as Drs. Ernest Nolan and Jennifer Williams look back.
Pandemic... with a Side of Cold Turkey
When life gives you lemons, you can feel squeezed. Students and teachers felt as much when classrooms shuttered in the Spring, causing an abrupt shift in modes of learning. People adapted by necessity. Some even found ways to make lemonade.
Spotlight: Nikki Roser, Alumna and Member of the Romain College Accounting Circle
As president of First Bank in Carmi, Illinois, Nikki Roser is responsible for the operations of the bank and its subsidiaries in five Illiana counties. The thing that really gets her going in the morning... the idea of economic development—especially with one particular group of people.
