From the Dean: End-of-semester message

As I reflect on the academic year coming to a close, I want to extend my gratitude to all members of our College community for your contributions to a successful academic year. We began the year with a theme of community and belonging–celebrating what each person and unit brings to the College that makes us who we are. We are also committed to an intentional effort to ensure that each person can bring their full, authentic self to our work. I’m so proud of the ways our Student Ambassadors and other organizations engaged their peers, the ways staff members collaborated across units, and the ways faculty members worked across disciplinary boundaries to enhance teaching, research, and service endeavors, and how we engaged our community and valued partners.

This year has presented challenges, some externally imposed and some internally created. An African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Although I am usually on “team go far,” I made some decisions this year that put me on “team go fast,” particularly the decisions about program and graduate coordinator compensation. I recognize that the lack of faculty involvement in identifying solutions was problematic. Looking back, I would have approached the situation differently by providing you with more details about our financial realities, actively soliciting your input, and transparently outlining the decision-making process I employed when determining the necessary actions. There will undoubtedly be decisions in the future that call for quick administrative action, but I pledge to return to “team go far” and the collaborative problem solving process that has been at the core of my leadership style.

This year has also been marked by local, national, and global violence and tragedy, making our commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging more important than ever. I appreciate the ways members of our College community have supported one another in processing, responding to, and learning from these multiple, horrific events. I look forward to new DEI leadership for our College that will help us chart our course forward in a manner that affirms our historical commitments while also responding to the current needs of our students, staff, and faculty.

As we celebrate the culmination of another academic year, let us take a moment to reflect on our achievements, celebrate our successes, and renew our collective commitment to crafting a brighter future for all. I look forward to continuing our journey together with the values of cooperation and inclusivity at the heart of future endeavors.

Denise Spangler
Dean