Welcome back to a new academic year! I am pleased to welcome back to campus all you who are returning from last year. I hope you had a productive but also rejuvenating summer break. I am especially pleased to welcome all of our new transfer, freshmen, and new graduate students. WT is your new home away from home.
This is a very special year in the history of WT. One hundred years ago, on 20 September 1910, West Texas State Normal College opened its doors for the first classes of this newly established college on the Texas High Plains. Those students starting in 1910 had “Hearts as bold as western breezes, Souls as pure and free!” As we start our second 100 years, I am confident you are just like your predecessors.
Freshmen, Class of 2014! You are a unique group. You represent the first new class of the second 100 years of WT. That is a truly distinctive designation. Your task now is to take all of your God-given talents, learn all that you can, AND graduate from WT in four years.
As you walk around campus, you will notice a tremendous amount of new construction and renovation activity. The new facilities include Buffalo Sports Park, a new residence hall, and a new parking lot on 23rd Street. We are also renovating the science laboratories and classroom spaces in the ANS building, the Activities Center, and the Palo Duro Research Center, and we are converting the old science building into a new engineering building. We are essentially building for the next 100 years, and YOU are very much a part of that building process.
Welcome Back and Go Buffs!
Dr. J. Patrick O’Brien
WTAMU President
