You know how much I love red, but I am excited to go green tomorrow. After nearly three years of enrollment declines, I am so excited to share that our spring 2024 enrollment is finally in the green, meaning it is up from spring 2023. It took so many people in our campus community to make this enrollment gain happen, and I am incredibly thankful for all their hard work. To celebrate, instead of our traditional Red Fridays, we are having Green Friday tomorrow. I encourage all faculty, staff, and students to wear green to celebrate our enrollment increase, and to meet Blaze and me by the Front Lawn fountain tomorrow at 11 a.m. for a green team photo. We did this together, and now it is time to celebrate together!

Congratulations to the Department of Art and Design and The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts for the success of this year’s DRAWPROJECT fundraiser. The $8,265 raised goes to create student scholarships for VSU students next year. The support of those who purchased pieces is crucial to supporting the academic careers of our students. The auction was exciting as always, and we are so thankful for the community support.

Congratulations to our Lady Blazers basketball team. After an incredible regular season, they are ranked in the top five nationally and own a national-best 24 game win streak. They advanced to the semi-finals of the Gulf South Conference tournament this weekend in Birmingham and are looking for a conference championship to match their regular season title. Their next game is Saturday at 2 p.m. against Auburn Montgomery.

Spring Commencement on May 3-4 will be here before we know it. This is such a special time for our seniors, and there are many events coming up to prepare them for their big day and beyond. Please check our main Commencement page for career events, free grad photo opportunities on our beautiful campus, and information about both our graduate and undergraduate ceremonies. I look forward to celebrating with our graduates and families in two short months.