Oracle Online

This phenomenon isn’t limited to the student body, either. It hasn’t escaped our attention that the faculty seem to have had a fatiguing semester as well. Papers seem to be coming back later and later, grey hairs and worry lines are more prominent, and Skip Messenger looks to be hitting his pipe hard these days.
What is it about fall semester ’04? Has the ebb and flow of this year’s spiteful and spiritually taxing presidential campaign sent stress waves through Hamline’s psychic ocean? Or maybe it’s all those negative stories the biased media keeps returning out of Iraq. Where’s the life-affirming feature story on the folks not getting blown up each day?

These are all legitimate possibilities, but we think the source of our campus anxiety lies in the approaching departure of the venerable President Osnes. When Osnes departs, he will have been president of Hamline for 17 years. That’s a long time to be with one university, and his departure is a little like the end of a long-term relationship. You both know it’s over, and you both fantasize about all the exciting things you could do when you’re single, but you don’t know how to give the cop car that is your relationship the final shove that will flip it over and set it ablaze.

Right now, we are all anticipating the future of Hamline and anxious to start the transition that Linda
Hanson’s administration will bring. It seems like real change at Hamline is so close that we could stick our tongues out and lick it č but we still have another whole semester of Osnes. So calm down, Hamline.

Don’t get too anxious for Linda’s arrival. All those big changes and starry-eyed dreams will have a chance to come to the surface soon enough.