Welcome back everyone!

I am Deborah Huntley, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.  It is my pleasure to welcome all of you back to SVSU.  This fall promises to be quite a ride!  Sometimes, it feels like we are rafting on a class 5 river in the dark! Without lifejackets.

 But, since I have never done that, I guess I wouldn’t really know.

 It is hard to talk about 2020 without slipping into language which has been rendered cliched. 

 Difficult

Challenging

Unexpected

Uncharted

Unprecedented

 Our world has changed, there is no doubt.  The other night I dreamed I was in a meeting, which is not unusual, except that in my dream, I was meeting with a pixelated guy on a computer screen whose voice was breaking up.  Yes, folks, I had a TEAMS Dream.  I am dreaming in teams.  This is not to be confused with a dream team! 

 But we go forth bravely.

 We all read the news.  We see the issues that other universities are facing.  We see other universities moving to fully online instruction.   We see things shifting everyday.  And we see  these challenges playing out across the nation.

We have spent the last 5 months putting in place many, many processes, procedures and protocols to minimize risk and optimize safety while doing what we do best, offering outstanding educational opportunities for our students.

 We know it won’t be easy.  We know there will be ups and downs.  We know that with all the safety precautions we have put in place, our biggest risks come from students’ behaviors OFF campus and we are doing everything we can think of to educate and influence them to do the right things to keep the campus safe and operating as normally as possible We understand and we need to help them understand that it will take the actions of each of us to protect the health of all of us.

 Today is our traditional opening day and  I am really disappointed that we won’t be gathering in person as we would in ‘normal’ times.  It is one of my favorite days of the year.  There is always so much energy, so much enthusiasm for the year ahead.  A faculty lunch, college meetings and then after the President’s Welcome back address, we head out to Owsly Grove where the marching band greets us.  We catch up with each other and find out “what we did on our summer vacations.”  We marvel at how much everyone’s kids have grown.  We enjoy a relaxing evening of good food, good company and friendship.  We are reminded of what a remarkable community we have here at SVSU.  We know one another.  We care about one another.  We share a commitment to education.

 So, yes, this year will be different.  Our classes are 30% online- compared to about 10% in typical year.  55% are face-to-face, but more than half of those have some hybrid character to them.  I have watched in awe and gratitude as faculty rose to the challenges of building flexibility into their courses, planning for the unknown and learning new pedagogies and new technologies. But, despite these changes in delivery, our commitment to education has not changed and will not change.  We do these things to benefit our students because we know how important it is.  It is personal for us. 

 My undergraduate years at the University of Connecticut shifted the very earth beneath my feet.  I entered college in 1975,  waaayyyyy back in the last millennium, as an unsure, geeky 17- year old freshman who had little idea of who I was, what I wanted to do, or what I was capable of doing. I left four years later, an unsure, geeky 21-year old senior bound for graduate school and believing that maybe.. just maybe… I had something to offer the world.  And why?  Because of Dr. Gatta, Dr. Bailey, Dr. Stock,  Dr. Bobbit, Dr. Zito, Dr. Maker, Dr. Edwards, Dr. Hurley. I did not necessarily know it at the time, but these professors taught me so much- much more than just chemistry, literature, music, or math.  They laid the foundations for a life of learning and a deep and abiding respect for intellectual integrity.  My guess is that no matter how long ago you graduated from college you could name a handful of professors that changed your lives too.  And I ask you to think of them. To honor them by saying their names.  Because their work made a difference.  And the work we do makes a difference too.

 In big and small ways, we change lives every day. We show students who they are and we show them vistas that they cannot yet see,  just like those professors did for me, waaayyyy back in the last millennium.

A few years ago at one of our welcome back lunches, I ended my remarks with these words.  They apply today even more than when I first wrote them.

 We live in a world where

being loud substitutes for being right.

Being right is more important than doing right

Where opinions are deemed equivalent to facts

Assertions are confused with evidence.

And Personality with character.

We live in a world

Where prejudices and magical thinking are validated and opposing views are dismissed, denigrated, and ignored.

Where opinions, stated often enough and loudly enough, become truth.

 But against this cacophony, we teach.  We teach our students how to think, how assess information and understand what constitutes knowledge, to communicate ideas, to think critically and reason logically.  We teach students perspective, aesthetics, empathy, compassion.    I can think of few things more important to our future than what we… YOU… do everyday.

 And I for that I thank you.  This is a tough row you hoe, a Herculean  --or maybe Sisyphean--  task, but please keep it up. 

 Our work is so important.   We can’t let a “little” thing like a global pandemic stop us now.

 So thank you.  I hope you have a rewarding semester.  And most of all, I hope I can see you (for real)  real soon.  Be well, friends. Be well.