Professor Dustin Cowell officially retired yesterday, after 43 years of meritorious service to our department as Arabic faculty, director of our Arabic language program, and three-time chair of the department (a total of nine years!). Please join us in thanking him for all of us for his absolutely exemplary dedication and immense contributions to where we are today. In Spring 2018, we will be doing a big conference on half a century of Arabic language studies in the department, an opportunity to properly celebrate Dustin—the key figure in that history.