Thank You Dr. Storm – You Deserve a Pat on the Back! Job Well Done!

Before I begin, I would like to congratulate our new president, Michael A.L. Balboni. I think he’s gonna be a good fit at Adelphi. I’m looking forward to working with him! I am sure all of us together will continue to make Adelphi one of the best universities in the world!

But today, I wanna share my opinion on the job that Dr. Storm did as the interim president of the university. What a hard job?!?! And he was the right person at the right time.

To Dr. Storm: “Man, I am so proud of you dude!”

About a year ago, Dr Storm took over as interim president. It had to be difficult. You don’t get to select your team. There’s no planning. One day you are doing your job over here and then the next you are on the hook for everything. It’s hard to explain to the outsider, but the university was going through “a thing”. I’ve been around long enough to know that this happens from time to time no matter where you work. What usually happens is that “the thing” festers and infects more things, until it becomes a problem. But then Dr. Storm calmly took over the office and addressed the concerns facing the university. He fixed “the thing” before it was a thing.

How did he do it? He did all the little things right. He listened. He came to lunch at the UC. One morning he was walking his dog and somebody asked him for directions, he handed me the dog’s leash and started giving a tour to the people and helping them to their destination. (Don’t worry, he came back for the dog. hehe.) He was 100% committed to Adelphi.

I work really really hard to stay out of all the big strategic stuff on campus – I already got too much to do. So who knows what was happening in all the VIP meetings. All I know is what I saw. I saw a president who was doing the little things right. He connected with the community, the faculty, the staff, and most importantly the students. When your uberboss is doing everything right it makes you want to do everything right. It is very motivating.

It’s been a tough year for me personally and I know the university has had a tough year – it is the enrollment cliff time. But as we step forward into this new chapter with a new awesome president, we are doing so with optimism and hope. Our university is much stronger today than it was a year ago! And while I hate the notion that the University president should have that much influence over the day-to-day operations, I think Dr. Storm has made such a positive impact on all of us that he’s actually done that.

So while we welcome our new president and we get excited about his new term, I just want to say thank you to a dear friend for a job well done. Thank you, Dr. Chris Storm.