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The below email was sent by President Cassidy on August 31, 2023.

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:
 
On Tuesday, September 5, we launch the College’s 138^th academic year. During the past three weeks, it has been wonderful to see more and more people on campus and to feel the increase of energy and anticipation about the coming months. 
 
This fall, the College welcomes 364 members of the class of 2027, 12 new transfer, McBride, and guest students, 80 new graduate students, 68 postbac students, 12 new tenure-track faculty and several visiting faculty, and many new members of the College’s staff. We are excited to welcome you to the ����������� community, and we look forward to getting to know you better. Everyone is invited to join me for Convocation and our annual community picnic on 9/5 at 4:30 p.m.
 
Among those new community members is Dean of the Undergraduate College Karlene Burrell-McCrae, who joined the College on July 3, along with several new team members throughout the rest of the summer. Among our new colleagues in the Dean’s office are Director of Counseling Luci McNamara; Dean of Student Life Tomiko Jenkins; and Candice Love, Director of the Impact Center for Community, Equity, and Understanding (formerly the Pensby Center), who will work closely with Associate Dean AT Ortíz. These new colleagues and others bring a wealth of experience to ����������� that promises great synergies with the dedicated staff in the Dean’s division. Students living on campus will now find Residential Life and Student Engagement offices on the second floor of the Campus Center, and on the first floor is the Office of Academic Success.

The undergraduate dean’s division is also welcoming an entirely new office! In July, Campus Safety became part of the Undergraduate Dean’s division. The goals of this reorganization are to re-imagine safety and support and enhance relationships with students while continuing to provide safety services for the entire campus. A new Campus Safety Liaison Rose Miller has also joined the staff. The Liaison will provide training and mediation necessary to resolve student conflicts; conduct wellness checks; and respond to calls from students who are experiencing duress to connect them with needed resources.

We are gearing up to have an exciting academic year for our students. For example:

• Many of our faculty and students have returned from research trips around the globe, while others have been hard at work this summer on campus in labs and in the library. We had 60 students participate in our Summer Science Research program who were mentored by 24 faculty members from eight departments. Don’t miss their upcoming poster session in the Park Science Atrium on September 22 at 10:30 a.m.
• Seventeen departments will offer 23 courses this fall that fulfill the new "Power, Inequity, and Justice" requirement, and more will be offered in the spring.
• Tri-Co in the City program will be back in full swing, and students will find an amazing array of courses on topics ranging from public art and commemoration to environmental justice to Literature in and of Philadelphia up to 1865.
• The 360° Program will offer six course-clusters on topics from the origins of freedom to energy afterlives, with participants pursuing field study in Alaska, Nicaragua, France, Belize, Germany, and Missouri.  
• With this new academic year comes an exciting array of new courses and research opportunities for ����������� students. We are also looking forward to hearing from Marc Schultz and Janet Shapiro about their research as part of the endowed chair faculty lecture series this year.
• All graduate and post-doctoral students seeking to enhance their teaching abilities and enrich their pedagogical experiences are invited to participate in the Dean’s Certificate in Pedagogy program administered by the Dean of Graduate Studies, Professor Xuemei May Cheng. 

While there were fewer people on campus this summer, there was a great deal of work taking place. The Facilities Department launched a new phase of the Park Science Building renovation, and I am grateful to the faculty for their flexibility and patience in moving to temporary office spaces and negotiating renovations. Work on the new artificial turf field has begun, and staff anticipate that this project will be completed in the early winter. Significant updates were done in Radnor Hall, including a fully renovated space for transfer and McBride students that has been named “The Burrow.” The College’s plan to rebuild the Rhoads patio and to make the space ADA-accessible was slowed due to the township’s objections to portions of the design, but we will continue to pursue a successful path to this project in the coming months. A new EV-charging station was installed in anticipation of the delivery of our first e-powered Blue Bus. Finally, a significant renovation of Wyndham Alumnae House is beginning. Please note that the Wyndham restaurant will remain open most of the time during this renovation, but that the Ely Room and guest rooms will be offline for the academic year. 
 
In June, the College published the 2022-2023 annual report on actions taken to advance our goals for diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism. I hope you will take the opportunity to review the report, as well as the 2023-2024 action plan that was posted recently. Among new initiatives this year is the pilot of an Intercultural Living and Learning Center in Rhoads South that provides additional affinity housing and will serve as a hub for community building and learning within the Center and for the whole campus. Among �����������’s ongoing commitments, I want to note two specific projects:

• During the spring semester we launched an ongoing process to reclaim Old Library. This summer, Facilities oversaw the removal of M. Carey Thomas’ name from above the main entrance of Old Library; the entrance is now returned to its original appearance. In response to community suggestions gathered at spring events, new large-format posters will soon be installed in Great Hall that celebrate the students, faculty, and staff of today’s �����������.
• The ARCH Project continues this year with research, additional design work, and fabrication of elements of Nekisha Durrett’s public artwork, Don’t Forget to Remember (Me). Mark your calendars for September 28 at 4:15 p.m. to hear from Nekisha and members of the ARCH team about the project and share your ideas about the community you want to build.

The fall events calendar will be busy—as usual. In addition to the ARCH Project event, I hope you will consider attending:

• One or more of the 2023 Flexner Lectures and affiliated symposia, most of which will take place in November. Our Lecturer this year is Mindy Fullilove, MD, Professor of Urban Studies and Health at the New School (and an alumna). Dr. Fullilove is a social psychiatrist who studies cities and in particular issues of displacement, urban mental health, and collective consciousness. In her Flexner Lectures, she considers issues of displacement in 20^th and 21^st-century South Korea, particularly through the lens of K-drama.
• My November 8 conversation with Drew Faust, ����������� Class of 1968, and President Emerita of Harvard University. The first woman to lead Harvard, President Faust will be talking about her recently published memoir  (note the cover photo of her on Merion Green!).
• A new twist on our signature fall community events this year will be Owls Fest, now combining the traditions of Homecoming, Volunteer Summit, and Family & Friends Weekend October 27-28.
• The search for the next president of ����������� has begun, and the search committee has reached out to the campus  to gather community members’ input. The committee will also be offering listening sessions this fall for each campus constituency, and I encourage you to participate and share your thoughts about priorities, opportunities, and challenges.
• And stay tuned for details on our forthcoming Inclusive Excellence event bringing national leaders to campus to share their wisdom with the ����������� community.

During the coming year, we will continue to build the groundwork for the College’s next strategic plan. This fall I will circulate a document that synthesizes some of the key themes of the four working group reports submitted in May as the basis for discussions with the community. Last year’s information-gathering process also suggested some more immediate actions that can be undertaken more quickly, and we will share more about these actions as they unfold. By the end of this academic year, we should have a strong foundation on which the new president can build their vision and goals. I am deeply grateful to the working groups and to everyone who provided thoughtful input for this work.
 
I look forward to our work together this year and to many moments of community-building and joy.
 
With best wishes,

Kim Cassidy
President