Welcome to Missouri State University.

If you are new to campus, I look forward to connecting with you. Feel free to tweet at me (my Twitter handle is @clifsmart) or stop me on the sidewalk and introduce yourself.

I hope you were able to enjoy some of our Welcome Weekend activities as students moved into residence halls and began forming lifelong relationships with one another. I was particularly impressed by this year’s New Student Convocation presentation by Amaka Agugua-Hamilton (Coach Mox), our Lady Bears basketball coach.

The next several weeks will provide many opportunities to be engaged on campus:

• We will host a Multicultural Networking Reception at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 26 in the Davis-Harrington Welcome Center.
• We will greet our new students with House Calls at 5:15 p.m. Sept. 1. You may sign up on the residence life, housing and dining services webpage.
• We will cheer on our Bears at the first home football game on Sept. 11. Tailgating in Bearfest Village will start around 5 p.m. The game is scheduled for kickoff at 7 p.m.

Other campus events can be found on the calendar of events.

COVID-19 update

I hope you were able to join us for our Virtual Town Hall last Wednesday. If you were not able to participate, you can find the slides and a recording of the meeting online.

At the town hall David Hall and I updated faculty and staff on the status of COVID-19 on campus and in our community. COVID-19 case numbers continue to decline and vaccination rates continue to increase in Greene County.

We have updated the university’s COVID-19 Information Center and dashboard so you can keep up to date with the status of COVID-19 on our campus.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!