Dear E-Cornerstone List,

I'm writing because I haven't written in a while. Here at UTS we have had a series of conferences over the summer. We housed the staff of the Terrapin Group, which held an outdoor weekend rock concert on a nearby farm. That went well and was a learning experience. The concert . . . ? It's interesting. Some went and were totally delighted. Others were totally grossed out. You would hardly know that the two sides were speaking of one and the same event.

In addition to Terrapin, we had two CARP conferences, two NY Region ministers workshops, one Christian Brothers reunion, and today we begin the STF workshop. So it has been a slow take off of the conference center, but a take off nonetheless. Especially the Christian Brothers were enthusiastically happy with our service--we had two members serving as waiters with hors d'ouvres for a very nice reception.

We are also starting up a structured fundraising activity to build a scholarship fund for needy foreign students. Mr. Erich Scharf has nobly volunteered to forego his first year as a seminarian and instead serve as team captain. We are grateful to Erich and the three young members who are joining with him. We expect many more to come.

National or Regional leaders, please contact us if you desire information. Through this means, which True Father encouraged the seminary to do years ago, we can help needy students gain a seminary degree in the shortest possible time. And we are installing a placement policy in line with Father's clear direction given in 1998 and again this spring: graduating students return to their home country.

Back to the details: we've also carried out some needed restoration. We finished the area behind the large meeting room in the Messina House, we're shampooing carpets and scraping decades of built-up wax off of floors (the dining room is next!), the library office, formerly the IRF office, which was wrecked by water damage and left to sit for years, is nearly restored; we moved the post office to the library wing, we've installed air conditioning in the main lecture rooms (one of them thanks to the generous grant of the New York Region--thank you, Rev. Dong Woo Kim!); we closed off one of the never-used alcoves on the library wing for library storage, and will move the reference room into the library proper, so that the reserve room staff can also serve as the library receptionist. The former reserve room will become a second language instruction classroom, as we expect a good number of students whose first task will be to sharpen their English skills. Also, with gratitude to the graduating class who donated toward this purpose, we are researching high-speed internet carefully, with the goal of providing high-speed access to students, faculty and staff as soon as possible.

Under the leadership of Mr. In Sung Moon, who is the incoming student body president, a good deal of restoration was carried out in the Messina House, by student volunteers. He is striving to instill a sense of voluntarism among all the students this fall.

Dr. Kathy Winings has been improving and expanding the classrooms and library of the Extension Site at 43rd Street, including setting up a storefront window. Dr. Wilson and she have set up an excellent set of classes for Barrytown and New York for the fall term.

We are awaiting the arrival of the banner artist, Norman Laliberte, this September to assist with the hanging of the major banner in the chapel. In the meantime, the twelve banners we hung for the graduation look more beautiful every day. We are also awaiting insurance coverage for the exploded cross--these things take time. In its place, I would like to install statues of TP, because I like the Mormon statues of the angel with the trumpet. Any other ideas?

Best wishes to everyone, and we hope to see you sometime.

ITN, Tyler Hendricks

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