100 days are in the books.
I am so grateful for how this amazing community has welcomed my wife, Renee, and our children, Kennedy and James. We truly appreciate how the Eastern family has warmly received us first and foremost as people, not just because of my position as Director of Athletics. Your hospitality does not go unnoticed.
Many of you have heard me say that on my walk to Showalter Hall for a meeting on day one, I saw firsthand how beautiful our university is. Since then, in my first 100 days, I’ve learned how much our university matters. Eastern matters to our students, to our city of Cheney, to Spokane County, to our region, to our state and beyond.
More specifically, here’s what I learned:
- 3/4 of Eastern graduates stay in our state; and nearly half of our alumni stay in Spokane.
- Nearly half of the teachers in our region are Eags!
- Our faculty are transforming the lives of students every day.
- Our staff are supporting a diverse student body with unique needs.
- Our university powers the region – from the economy to arts and culture.
We really are the region’s team, the region’s university. Our Eags matter.
Our responsibility as an Athletics department is to act as a catalyst to celebrate our university. So far, we have welcomed over 22,500 visitors to campus for fall athletics events, highlighted by a weekend win in front of over 7,500 fans at Roos Field during our 100th anniversary of Homecoming. (Thank you to our amazing campus partners who put on an entire week of spirit activities!) What I’ve learned from our fans is that Saturday’s crowd was special because we weren’t dependent on a visiting team to fill the stadium.
Many people ask, “what happens after Day 100?” I can promise you this: our Department of Athletics will own the responsibility that our university shoulders, to enhance access to higher education and support student success through student engagement. We will represent our university with our heads high knowing how much our Eags matter to our state and beyond.
We continue to frame our work in three areas of service: 1) our student-athletes, 2) our campus and 3) our community.
Serving our Student-Athletes
We serve our student-athletes in some amazing ways. And a testament to our student-athletes’ efforts, they have earned over a 3.0 GPA for 48 straight quarters. From here, we have to expand how we serve them in personal development, career preparation and nutrition.
Serving our Campus
We will continue to serve our campus by recruiting, retaining and graduating Eagles who contribute to our community. Now, we need to leverage our strengths in Athletics to better affirm our campus partnerships. For example, in the last 100 days, our social media channels have earned 2.8 million impressions, reaching 250,000 accounts. What I’ve learned is that over 25% of those accounts belong to 13-17 year old social media users. Those are prospective students for Eastern!
Serving our Community
Beyond the thousands of hours that our student-athletes provide in community service, I’ve witnessed firsthand how our student-athletes really serve our community: by setting and living up to a standard of excellence, to an academic outcome that forges a path for continued and generational upward mobility.
In closing, Eastern Athletics will continue to be active and engaged in the university’s strategic planning process, using it to shape our path moving forward, together as Eags. The values and goals that come from our strategic plan will allow us to be aspirational as we serve our student-athletes, our campus and community.
The fact remains now, and will be strengthened moving forward: our Eags matter.
We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming athletic competition, because you matter to us!
Visit goeags.com to view our upcoming event calendar. If you're ready to answer the call and support your Eagle student-athletes, join the Eagle Athletic Fund at goeags.com/eaf today.
Go Eags!
Tim Collins
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics
Eastern Washington University
