\n<\/p>\n
We\u2019re approaching the end of a year that was at various times frightening, difficult and downright ridiculous. We hope that, despite the struggles higher education faced this year, you can still find something to be thankful for this holiday season, whether it\u2019s generous donors making big differences for small campuses, colleges striving to improve cost transparency, or institutions supporting their communities through tough times.<\/p>\n
If not, maybe you can take some inspiration from the videos below. <\/p>\n
Here are Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s favorite holiday greetings, from the wacky to the artsy to the classy, showcasing the talents and holiday spirit of students, staff and faculty across the country. <\/p>\n This slapstick sketch depicts Quinnipiac\u2019s mascot, Boomer the Bobcat, messily preparing to welcome community members to his abode for Christmas dinner. Despite mishaps like spilling a bowl of assorted vegetables all over the floor and whisking what looks like mashed potatoes so feverishly they go flying, Boomer ends up putting out a beautiful spread\u2014roast turkey, green beans, deviled eggs and more\u2014for his delighted guests.<\/p>\n The ULM Chamber Singers bring us a stirring adaptation of the 12 Days of Christmas entitled, no surprise, the 12 Days of Finals. Among the listed gifts is \u201cten paddlers paddling,\u201d referring to the campus\u2019s unique access to Bayou DeSiard, where students can borrow a kayak for free and paddle around to their heart\u2019s delight. <\/p>\n Salt Lake Community College brings us another musical video, this time in the form of a tribute to Mister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood<\/em>. President Greg Peterson takes on the titular role, singing: \u201cWe\u2019ve made the most of this beautiful year, full of big hopes and holiday cheer. It\u2019s education for you\u2014it\u2019s SLCC.edu. Will you join us next year?\u201d Fuzzy video filters take the viewer back to old-school PBS, making the homage all the more nostalgic. <\/p>\n This video highlights an annual tradition in an animation business development course at UT Dallas. The students are asked to design a holiday card and their peers then vote on the 10 best cards in the class. The winners\u2019 cards are then printed and sold to fundraise for the school\u2019s Student Emergency Fund. \u201cI\u2019m glad that our class is helping people have the reassurance that they need that they\u2019re safe on campus and that somebody\u2019s looking out for them if something does happen,\u201d one of this year\u2019s participants said.<\/p>\n College holiday greetings love to get a little bit meta. In this greeting, Gonzaga president Katia Passerini realizes she has forgotten to write a poem for this year\u2019s holiday video. Luckily, student Alexis Sandoval just so happens to have a Christmas poem prepared, saving the day. Different members from the campus community, from a security leader to the university chaplain, recite the poem, bidding viewers to \u201crejoice in faith, carry peace and love into a happy New Year.\u201d <\/p>\n In this feel-good sketch, President Pamela Haney tries to bake a sweet treat for the college\u2019s leadership team, but is missing a few key ingredients, including kindness and dedication. Luckily, teams from across the campus come to the rescue, bringing Haney everything she needs to finish making the cake. As one administrator says, \u201cit\u2019s amazing what we can do when we all work together.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, the women\u2019s liberal arts college celebrated 150 years since it welcomed its first class in 1875. As part of that celebration, the holiday video this year compiled archival footage and images submitted by alumni of winters on campus over the past century-and-a-half. The video, which features students sledding, ice skating, skiing and playing in the snow, is set over a song composed for the Class of 1948\u2019s junior class show, which bemoans leaving Wellesley\u2019s campus behind.<\/p>\n \u201cMy Favorite Things\u201d from The Sound of Music<\/em> is everyone\u2019s favorite non-Christmas Christmas song. Why has it entered the holiday songs zeitgeist? Who can say for sure, but I think we\u2019re all glad it has. This particular rendition by CCP students and faculty sets the classic tune against a hip-hop beat and features a sick guitar solo.<\/p>\n Uh-oh\u2014President Peter Mohler is supposed to be helping write Christmas cards, but he\u2019s nowhere to be found! This cheeky sketch shows that he\u2019s shirking his responsibilities to do much cooler and more fun things, like play video games with students or shoot hoops with Big Al, the institution\u2019s elephant mascot. Luckily, when his colleagues finally find him, he\u2019s already finished the holiday cards. Crisis averted!<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s one Tulane memory you hope never melts away?\u201d this video asks a gaggle of sweater-clad Tulane students. More than one note a once-in-a-lifetime Gulf Coast blizzard that shocked and delighted Tulane students this past January, with one saying it was \u201clike a dream.\u201d Others mention friends, sports championships and exploring the city of New Orleans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re approaching the end of a year that was at various times frightening, difficult and downright ridiculous. We hope that, despite the struggles higher education faced this year, you can still find something to be thankful for this holiday season, whether it\u2019s generous donors making big differences for small campuses, colleges striving to improve cost<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[3191,4448,1993,1403,334,10140,2359],"class_list":{"0":"post-38420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-annual","9":"tag-bring","10":"tag-holiday","11":"tag-joy","12":"tag-school","13":"tag-spirit","14":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
University of Louisiana at Monroe<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
The University of Texas, Dallas\u2019s Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Gonzaga University, Spokane, Wash.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, Ill.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Community College of Philadelphia<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n