Dr. Batista and USI Students,

It is not always easy being a student at this university. Sometimes you barely find time to study, sometimes you wish you could just crawl up into a ball and cry and sometimes you don’t have enough money for food. It was the summer of 2013: payday was two weeks away and my bank account had roughly $3 dollars in it. The ramen noodle wrappers began to pile up and I had just made my way up from the UC East lower-level hoping that I would be able to find real food for roughly $3 dollars. As I stood looking at the menu of Cyclone Salad counting the amount money that I had and the selection of food that they had, an almost random person approached me. It was Dr. Batista. Dr. Batista casually asked me what I was thinking about getting. I remember stating that I didn’t think I had enough money for anything when out of nowhere she offered to buy me lunch. What at the time seemed like an immeasurable amount of kindness was really just Dr. Batista being herself – a kind, joyous and wonderful human being. While my time to truly get to know Dr. Batista has been short, I have learned some things from her, for which I am eternally grateful. Thank you, Dr. Batista, for being a champion of the students, a role model, a leader and an inspiration. Hopefully I can speak for more than just myself when I say you will be missed and that we wish you well.

Luke Williams

President, Activities Programming Board