I'm not sure if everyone is on the same boat as I am, but I am blown away by the fact that we've reached mid-June already. It's hard to believe that we're at that halfway point between spring semester's finals and the beginning of the fall semester.
This is my first summer in D.C. Needless to say, it's a far cry from the slow, suburban summers I'd spent in New Jersey for the last 20 years. But what I find the most interesting is - and excuse my obvious statement - life goes on at AU over the summer.
Of course, it's far more low-key. I can't get a cup of coffee at the Eagle's Nest at 9 p.m. like I can during the year, and I'm often the only breathing soul in MGC. But AU looks different than it did since the beginning of May. Landscaping in front of the new Kogod building is done - and it really makes the Massachusetts Avenue entrance look like a real college campus. The new School of International Service building is actually starting to take form, too.
That being said, AU is really a shell of itself without its 6,000 students every day. Walking out of MGC late at night and not seeing anyone in the Market Place or around the Quad is actually extremely disarming. Of course, there are plenty of people working in New Student Programs, as well as a few people taking summer courses and interns staying on campus. But having the LA quad completely abandoned on a Saturday afternoon, or seeing no circles of hookah smokers on the beach next to McKinley on a sunny day really leads me to actually miss AU-as-usual.
At the very least, I have The Eagle to keep me occupied - and we've got a whole lot going on over here. Aside from cleaning our dungeon of an office this summer, the staff is working on a total redesign of our Web site. Through the hard work of our Web team, we've got a few great ideas that we're excited to unveil in the fall.
With this, we plan on increasing our Web presence. We've been working on a few blogs to launch with our new site, and we hope that you'll be able to read fresh stories on The Eagle's site, rather than waiting for our Monday and Thursday release dates.
That being said, I encourage all of you to stop by our summer blog once in a while. If something happens over at AU, we'll be writing about it. We've also got a few Eagle Rants up there - and I know how many of you feel about Eagle Rants (which we're still accepting throughout the summer, by the way). We'll do our best to keep you current on what's going on here.
Stay safe, and enjoy what's left of your summer.
Jen Calantone Editor-in-Chief
