When the first edition of About Campus hit mailboxes in March of 1996, I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona, serving in my first higher education role feeling truly, all about campus. Now twenty years have passed, and it’s time to celebrate. 

Important anniversaries like this one help us remember where we’ve been, who we’ve become, and how we’ve been shaped on the roads we’ve traveled. For every season worth marking, the incremental and the exponential effects are the often hidden, but most valuable gems. It’s the who, the why, and the how over time that lodges seemingly isolated moments, decisions, and people into broader contexts we call legacy.  Whether you find yourself reading this note from the beginning, mid-point or the twilight years of your professional work, you likely sense you’re lodged in this very legacy—you probably know you’re both a benefactor and a recipient of something much larger than yourself. It’s this something—this legacy—that About Campus has been marking, celebrating, and even creating story by seemingly isolated story for more than two decades.

What moments helped you become who you are today? What is the larger story at work in your daily living? A little reflection this direction, I suspect, helps us be mindful of the potential brilliance found in the ordinary daily grind. In the hustle and bustle that often defines our lives and our work, perhaps we too often fail to realize the story-writing-legacy-making at work in higher education.

To be almost too blunt, someone reading the 20th anniversary edition of About Campus is likely on the path to serve as Executive Editor one day. But for this legacy to be realized, there has to be a you—a real educator—someone willing to lean into the life of the dreamy young professional who can’t wait to be “all about campus” in the passionate field of higher education. I know this to be true—it happened to me.

As we tackle the next twenty years, I hope you enjoy several new directions for About Campus, including a redesigned look, the launching of an annual About Campus Writer’s Retreat, and the transition to on-line submissions. We’re learning—students are learning—and the grand story truly is worth celebrating.

With hope,

Frank Shushok, Jr.
Executive Editor

Note:  The 20th Anniversary Issue of About Campus will hit mailboxes in late April.