Letter to the Editor: Loving my time at Castleton and excited about the future

As we end this year at Castleton and say goodbye to many of our friends for the summer who are going out into the world on their own and say hello to the new students arriving for the fall semester, we at Castleton must remember we are a beacon of hope and will continue to do great things for all who come to learn and be great. Though the Castleton community has faced great adversities, we finish up the school year standing strong and ready for new opportunities. In this letter, I wish to show you just what Castleton has accomplished and how we should be optimistic about our future.

I recently sat with President Scolforo and have been in constant communication with her for the whole spring semester to learn about the changes being made here. What I learned can only be called progress. Firstly, concerning the deficit the school faced at the beginning of the year: We are on the path to completing the deficit plan, which will bring the university’s budget back to a healthy status.

Secondly, there are new initiatives that have never been done before: new scholarships, brand new courses (like new summer classes), expanded club teams, three new out-of-state articulation agreements and recruiting more athletes for our sports teams.

And finally, as you might have guessed from the many students on campus tours, there has been much interest in our humble university and we may hope to see a large group of new and interesting people joining our wonderful community this fall.

With all of these positive changes, we must keep in mind as Castleton students and faculty that in this life we will run into difficult times, but with hard work, they can and will be overcome. We must remember too that we are a beacon of hope for the people of Vermont, even surrounding states and other countries as well. I call Maine home, but I discovered this university and have not regretted a single day here. When speaking with the international students who come to study here, I have heard from each that they love the adventure of being here, all of the friends that they have made and primarily how pleasantly surprised they were by how kind everyone was.

We Spartans are members of a community that strives for excellence in both academics and humanity. As we go forward into the summer and into the new year, we should all remember just what faculties we have to offer, what good each of us can do on a given day, week, month, or year and that with our individual and group efforts, we make Castleton University a better place. 

– Mary Franks

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