CONTACT - Volume 9, Number 2
Message from Judith A. Balcerski

With this issue of Contact I take my leave of the Division of Nursing that, for 33 years, has been a most important part of my adult life. The Division of Nursing and I have grown together in many ways. In those years I have watched the school grow from 90 to nearly 500 students; from a white female student body to a very ethnically, racially, culturally, and gender diverse body; from seven full-time faculty members to 28 full-time and 30 part-time faculty members; from one generic BSN curriculum to a number of multifaceted bachelor, master's, and doctoral programs. I have been to more than 150 commencements, cappings, pinnings, and nursing convocations. But these are only the numbers.

Beneath these changing numbers are the constant values. Throughout all of these years, I have watched women and men come to the program eager but hesitant, qualified but nervous, caring but uncertain, directed but uninformed. Then year after year I have seen these same students cross the stage and walk into professional and advanced nursing practice confident, competent, informed, and more certain of their future. Watching this butterfly metamorphosis of you, our students and now our alumni, has been my greatest reward. If I have contributed in some small measure to your unfolding, I will have met every measure of success I could have imagined. Thanks to each of you for making these years the very best they could have been for me.