A quote from the coming-of-age comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” has gained traction on social media. The quote comes from the main character, Ferris Bueller, and it goes like this: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Ferris repeats this quote at different points throughout the film, expressing the importance of appreciating the present moment and not getting so caught up in life that you forget to actually live in the moment.
As a student, it’s easy to get caught up with classes, assignments, exams, extracurriculars, jobs, internships and all of your other commitments and relationships outside of school. Staying busy can make everything go by in a flash. One moment, you’re in week two of the fall semester completing an assignment for your psychology course, and the next, it’s week 11 of the spring semester, and you’re 4 weeks away from finals. When I stop and reflect, I feel that this quote embodies my opinion on the 2024-2025 academic year and my time as social media editor.
In just one academic year, our campus has achieved great accomplishments and made many changes and advancements, showing just how much can change in nine months.
To kick off the school year, the College of Nursing and Health Professions received five million dollars in federal funding to renew the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program.
Total enrollment (undergraduate, graduate and dual credit included) increased for the second year in a row. As of Sept. 2024, total enrollment was 9,489, which is up 2.2% from Fall 2023.
In mid-October, the Health Professions Center, which includes the Kinney College of Nursing and Health Professions, began a $49 million renovation. The renovation will add over 48,000 square feet, which will be used for classrooms and updated labs.
Then came a notable gift for the university. On Oct. 31, 2024, the University of Southern Indiana announced that Liberty Federal Credit Union gave a $10 million gift to the University of Southern Indiana Foundation for USI Athletics. This gift marked the largest donation in USI history. As a result of this gift, the arena formerly known as the Screaming Eagles Arena was renamed Liberty Arena.
Looking outside of our campus, the 2024 Presidential Election is something we should talk about. The 2024 Presidential Election resulted in the re-election of Donald J. Trump. The new presidential administration has brought uncertainties to many topics, including the state of journalism. While we’ve seen the bad and the ugly, we’ve also seen the good people coming together to voice their opinions and advocate for change.
On Feb. 17, 2025, The Romain College of Business announced that it is expanding its Master of Business Administration (MBA) online program to include a concentration in Artificial Intelligence (AI) beginning in Fall 2025.
We also welcomed new campus leadership on April 2, 2025. Steven J. Bridges was announced to serve as the University of Southern Indiana’s fifth President. Bridges has served as Interim President since July 20, 2024. He is the first USI alum to serve as President of the University. Bridges’s journey is inspiring as it shows how far USI students can go.
The events I mentioned above are just a small slice of this school year’s whole pie. There were many other achievements, challenges, stories and celebrations that defined the 2024-2025 school year.
As social media editor, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to draw attention to these moments with the help of our staff writers, editors, photographers, graphic designers and fellow social media content creators. I’ve seen firsthand how quickly information spreads, new trends begin, old trends resurface and how students perceive and react to this information. Social media is something that can create a community that is well-educated and well-informed on current events. It can establish connections that might not have existed without it.
With social media’s nature of thousands of new posts every minute, it mirrors the real world and how fast it can change. Staying informed and keeping others informed is something that I take pride in, but being behind a screen constantly isn’t always the answer to life’s bigger picture. Sometimes, you have to unplug and take life for what it is.
Life does move pretty fast. Instead of watching it go by in a flash, let’s stop and live in the moment more often.
To the 2024-2025 academic year,
