The President's Pulse

I've listened to students, faculty and staff. I've met with community and business leaders across Ohio. And I've had the chance to sit down with many of our alumni, hear their Muskingum stories, and see how Muskingum remains woven into their lives long after their student days in New Concord.

Some of my favorite evenings have been the alumni gatherings hosted by Greg and Eileen Adams in New Concord, Dennis and Dawn Swit in the Cleveland area, and Gene Folden and Bob Burns in Columbus. Wherever we gathered, the same threads ran through the conversations. We talked about professors who changed lives, friendships that have lasted a lifetime, and shared a little good-natured nostalgia. But the conversations rarely stayed in the past. Again and again, they turned toward Muskingum's future.

Those evenings have reinforced something I've come to believe pretty strongly.

Our alumni are not Muskingum's past tense.

They are Muskingum, carried forward.

Universities endure because one generation keeps handing something of value to the next. Our alumni are an essential part of that handoff. They can help a prospective student imagine themselves here. They can open a door to an internship or a first job. They can mentor a student, introduce us to a community or business partner, support a program they care about, and tell Muskingum's story in ways no brochure ever could.

Alumni also carry Muskingum's memory. They remember the people, traditions, and experiences that shaped them here, and through them the University remembers itself. That memory is part of Muskingum's institutional life. It tells us what has endured, what has mattered, and what is worth handing on. By staying connected, alumni preserve that inheritance even as they help shape what comes next.

We have important work ahead of us. We need to grow enrollment, strengthen our academic programs, invest wisely in our campus, and make sure a Muskingum education remains both distinctive and valuable. I'm optimistic about that work because I keep meeting people who still see Muskingum as something they have a hand in building.

I've come to think of the Long Magenta Line not as a line stretching back through our history, but as one extending forward, generation after generation.

So, if we haven't met yet, I hope we will.

Muskingum is rooted in New Concord, but it doesn't stop at the edge of campus. It lives wherever Muskies do.

Flav Lilly
President, Muskingum University