"Are you serious?”

“I know you lyin’!”

“They found what, under where?”

“You have got to be kidding me!?”

“Good grief.”

“I’m so over it.”

“Let me get my stuff and get outta here.”

“Can we just get a break…please?”

“……*sigh*”

“🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬”

Tell me you haven’t had one or more of these thoughts, or said one or more of these things (or all of the above), since last week. Prairie State is nothing if not…interesting. Can we all just take a pause to recognize and honor the shared trauma of our collective story these past four years? COVID, leadership transitions, power failures, bomb threats, weather emergencies, students lost and lost students, and asbestos (to name a few). Oh and cicadas. So...many...cicadas. Maybe you can find some humor in it all. Perhaps some anger. Probably a little teeny tiny bit of exhaustion. 

I have felt all of these things. I have said all of these things. But you do know this is just part of our story, right? Keep reading. 

Enrollment has been going up since fall 2022, which is the first time in at least 10 years we have seen this trending in the right direction.

Our students have won national, regional, and state awards and championships in everything from soccer, to speech, to PTK, to Model Illinois Government.

Our students (more than one) have been awarded prestigious awards like the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship, and continue to transfer to top-tier universities all over the country.

We launched a new strategic plan, vision, mission, and values. 

We have strengthened our brand and media presence.

We have continued to recruit incredible new employees to our college.

We achieved a successful HLC mid-cycle visit, and a successful ICCB Five-Year Recognition.

We now have tools and policies to more seamlessly pivot to virtual operations.

We continued traditions like the annual Jazz Fest, or created new ones like Homecoming Week.

We launched new programs, expanded existing ones, and earned accreditation for others. 

We have sufficient facilities and resources to be able to close our main building and still stay operational. 

We have renovated, and are renovating, main campus spaces for the first time in decades.

We talk about and access data like never before - with much more to come.

We continue to see improvements in student satisfaction (*spoiler alert!*) 

We continue to bring in millions of dollars in state and federal grants.

We continue to raise record amounts through Foundation events and donor giving. 

We continue to negotiate competitive contracts for our employees. 

We have talented leaders, staff, and faculty who are just built differently (as the kids say), because we have “been there, done that.” 

We continue to have the privilege of serving some of the most resilient students on the planet.

See? 

When you read our whole story; it doesn’t look all that bad. We are not perfect, but we are progressing. And when I remember that I’m not alone in this, things actually start to look pretty good. 

Thank you to those who, through it all, choose kindness, patience, flexibility, persistence, and collegiality. If you haven’t chosen this, then I hope you will try. Your community needs you, and we need each other. 

Hang in there Pioneers. Take care of yourself and have some fun on your Fridays off. Give each other some appreciation and grace at every opportunity you can, and trust that the best part of our story is yet to be written. 

#WeArePSC