Dear Faculty and Staff,
As we reach the end of Week 9 of this semester-unlike-any-other, I wanted to share brief words of encouragement and thanks. With the end of the semester in sight, I know the hard work underway all across campus continues, testing all of us in unprecedented ways. Your efforts matter profoundly for our students.
This semester, you and our students have shown remarkable resilience, innovation, adaptation and creativity. Even amidst pressing new demands, you are finding ways large and small to preserve the experience of community on campus. Someday soon enough, many of these adaptations forged in the pandemic we will happily leave behind. Some, from classroom innovations to campus fire-pits and Adirondack chairs, will carry on and strengthen our community even on the other side of this crisis.
Looking ahead through this semester and into next, one of our most important challenges will be to continue this work – to find ways to nurture the human connections that form our community, both for ourselves and for our students. If we continue doing so, Longwood and our students will come through with real strength. With our history, camaraderie, mission, and people, I believe more firmly than ever we are as well positioned as any institution could be for that challenge.
It remains a difficult time for higher education, for the nation, and for many families. But I see great good underway here today, and have great hope for the future. I am grateful and proud. Thank you.
TR