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Dear alumni and friends of LAS,

It’s hard to believe, but the fall 2014 semester is already well underway. A record 34,732 students are now attending Iowa State University, and 8,126 of them call LAS their academic home. This is the largest enrollment in our programs since 1986, and in those days, some 1,600 pre-business majors were still counted as part of LAS.

To support these students, we recruited the largest cohort of new faculty since the 2008-09 recession. We welcomed 27 new tenure-track faculty and 10 new full-time lecturers to the college, along with numerous new academic advisers and other student support professionals. The energy of all these new faculty and students is palpable, and we are excited about the new ideas and creativity they will bring to campus.

You may find this issue of Link a bit different. My team and I have thought very carefully about how we engage with you, our alumni, and which stories you might find most compelling and worth reading. We will continue to share student and faculty stories with you; at the same time, you will discover more alumni-related content, such as profiles of some of our most notable alumni, stories and photos from alumni events, as well as viewpoints and letters contributed directly by our alumni. Please help make this magazine successful and fun by sending us ideas for stories. Share your feedback via Facebook, Twitter, or by e-mailing las@iastate.edu. The first 25 alumni who tweet or email what makes you proud to be an LAS alum will receive a gift and be recognized in the next issue!

Every day, you are making a difference, and I cannot thank you enough. You are making a difference when you tell someone how much you value your LAS education, when you support a student scholarship, when you hire one of our students as an intern or an employee, and when you help us recruit and retain our top faculty by establishing named faculty positions or contributing to a building project which provides quality teaching and research spaces. Your support encourages our students and our faculty every day of every week. Thank you.

– Beate Schmittmann
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
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