Message From the Dean
Dean Kenneth A. Gould
Dear School of Humanities and Social Sciences Community,
Congratulations on making it through this strange and challenging semester. All of you—faculty, staff, and students—went above and beyond to hold our school together, and to keep pursuing our shared vision. I am proud to work with and for such an extraordinary group of people, who are dedicated to the promise of education to make our world a better place.
So much of this semester is a blur to me, as I am sure it is to you. It is hard to recall the taken-for-granted normalcy of February on campus, followed by the increasingly anxious anticipation of quarantine in early March, the shoulders to the wheel collective push to move our entire curriculum online in late March, and then April with the screaming ambulances, the fear, the awkward adjustment to life and work inside, and the tragic loss of so many we hold dear. And here we are in May, making it through to the semester's finish, exhausted, exhilarated by the thrill of completion, desperate to take a break from Zoom.
Although the uncertainty of the future looms large, I encourage you all to take a moment to fully feel a deep sense of accomplishment for having gotten yourselves, your families, your departments and programs, our college, and each other through the first wave of this crisis. It was an enormous undertaking with little time to prepare, and if everyone had not pulled their own weight and more, we would never have made it work. This may have been both our worst semester and our finest hour. For sure, there are multiple crises ahead as we face economic challenges, second waves, and the monumental task of establishing a new, more humane normal. We will face those challenges head on together, but let us first give each other some appropriately socially distanced pats on the back for a job well done.
If you are teaching or taking classes with us this summer, we will be better prepared to deliver a quality online experience. We have all learned a lot about how distance learning works this spring, and we all have a much better idea of what to expect. If we won't see you again until the fall (on Zoom or on campus), have a safe and healthy summer. And if you are graduating, know that your senior experience was unique, to say the least, and that the Class of 2020 shares a bond with graduating seniors across the globe who found they had to run an obstacle course just as they approached the finish line. We are in awe of your perseverance. Congratulations!
Ken Gould, Dean
Back to Critical Thinking — May 2020
