Author, poet, actress, teacher, playwright and civil rights activist Maya Angelou traveled across the country by bus to speak to the Georgia Tech community on Nov. 15 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

"Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia, is a fair step on a bus. When I say I'm glad to be here, I mean it," said Angelou to the laughter and applause of the more than 4,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and guests who had gathered for the speech. Angelou, who prefers the privacy of her own bus, has not boarded an airplane for nearly eight years.

Angelou's address served as the finale to the Finding Common Ground program, a student-led initiative designed to create a civil dialogue and discussion among Georgia Tech students with various backgrounds and perspectives.

"I'm happy to be in the presence of composers," Angelou said, "at an institution of higher education, which in its deepest, most profound dream means to be a composer. Composing possibilities and promises for young men and women. Making promises and possibilities for our country and for the world. That is what Georgia Tech is. And that's what you are."

Angelou urged students to not only become composers of their own lives but also to develop the courage to make an impact on the lives of others.

"Take that trip. See what can happen when you decide to become, take the responsibility of, becoming a composer. Having the courage to compose your lives so that you can be an inspiration. You can create the light and shine on people who may not be like you. Who may call God a different name, if they call a god at all. Who might eat the same foods but prepared differently. Just imagine."

John Stein has officially replaced Gail DiSabatino as assistant vice president and dean of students.

Stein, who came to Tech in 2002 as the director of Success Programs, had been serving as interim dean for more than six months while a job search was conducted after DiSabatino's departure from the Institute.

"I see it as my mission to carry on the historical legacy and good work the former deans have done over time," says Stein. "Floyd Field focused on the Greeks, (George) Griffin established the fund to help students who were experiencing some crisis or emergency and needed help to get them through it, (James) Dull worked on integration and DiSabatino helped Tech meet the needs of women."

One area of need that Stein is working to meet is that of Tech's second-year students.

"We need to place more focus on the sophomore year," he says. "We do a great job with the freshman experience, but sophomore year is a transition year. They're low on the totem pole: last to get housing, last to get courses, not as much support from the administration. Sophomores say that the second year is the first time they have to navigate Tech on their own."

Stein also is focused on promoting intellectual discussion outside of the classroom.

"Tech students are the brightest population of students I've worked with and they have tremendous potential to transform Tech and the world beyond. But if something is absent on this campus it's dialogue," he says. "We have such a multifaceted student body that at times the students don't know how to talk to each other and don't know how to talk with people who are different from them."