Exciting Times in West Texas

I had trouble falling asleep last night. Too many thoughts were racing through my head. Things are happening at Texas Tech University, and I am extremely excited to be here.

We have five new faculty members starting in the college of mass communications this year, and each adds an interesting piece to our mix. I have most closely worked with Harsha Gangadharbatla, the other new assistant professor in advertising. Harsha is a great hire, and I look forward to coming up through the ranks with him.

With the addition of Harsha, I am extremely excited about the department. Harsha and I add to the talented and student-friendly faculty of Don Jugenheimer, Shannon Bichard, and Alex Ortiz. This truly is a great place to be an advertising student.

There is a lot of room to grow in West Texas, and I hope to need all of that room. I honestly believe that it is going to be easy to recruit to here. To my knowledge, we have three faculty vacancies this year, and I think that we will recruit another great group.

Texas Tech also represents an amazing opportunity for would-be graduate students. I am very excited about this faculty and the newly minted Ph.D. program. I received notification today of my membership on the graduate faculty, and I am ready to roll up my sleeves and help build this graduate program.

We do have a talented group of faculty members, but that is not what makes Tech so special to me. Instead, I am most impressed with the atmosphere. This is perhaps the most collegial faculty I have ever been around, and it is a lot of fun to come to work each day. That means a lot.

Tech's slogan is, "From here, it's possible." Indeed it is.