The holidays have always been a time for people to say what they are thankful for. The appreciation begins with the arrival of Thanksgiving and continues through December festivities. Gratitude is thick in the air.

So, what should we be thankful for at Suffolk? For one thing, we should be thankful that President Norman Smith is working to make our degrees worth more. One of his main goals is to make sure that within the next three, four, or five years, when we tell someone our degree is from Suffolk that they are impressed we went to a great university.

That kind of name recognition will be valuable as we chip away at our student debt.

But what does this mean for our university right now? Sometimes it feels like that much attention given to the future could mean the day-to-day operations are getting the slip. Is that something to feel thankful for?

The students who are graduating this month and in May won’t see any of the payoff of Smith’s work until a few years into their careers — or a few years into their job search. They might be thankful then, but in the first months of the real world the payoff might seem far away.

Perhaps Smith is putting all his energy into the future because he believes Suffolk is running well the way it is now. If that’s the case, then we all should be giving thanks.

While Smith’s work will be visible and appreciated in the future, the students of this university won’t see a president that is focused on what is happening in the classroom day-to-day until Smith’s successor. That could be any time in the next one to three years.

Suffolk is at a crucial point right now. The payoff will likely be huge in the near future, but the present is a time of change. Remember how thankful we should be through this holiday season, and try and hold on to that gratitude through loan payments — if you can.