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As the pandemic impacts our friends, families, and the world, we must work to protect the health and safety of our campus and the surrounding communities. We understand that this new way of living, learning, and engaging is not what you had hoped or envisioned for your higher education experience. Your strength of character and resilience have been profound in navigating this time of disappointment, challenges, and fear.

We are wholly committed to providing our students with a meaningful hybrid curricular and co-curricular experience that includes living on campus and in nearby University-run housing. A critical part of our plan is #³Ô¹Ï´ó±¾ÓªYourPart, a campaign that provides clear guidelines for healthy and safe behaviors on and off campus, including the requirement that our students agree to comply with state, local and University guidelines.

Our commitment to pay equity takes on even greater importance as we navigate both the impacts of COVID-19 and our growing awareness that many people on our campus are experiencing inequity and marginalization in a variety of ways.

We’re delighted to announce that we have formally adopted an inclusive teaching practices initiative, the Faculty Institute for Inclusive Teaching (FIIT), developed as the result of collaboration between the Faculty Senate, the chancellor, the provost, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI).

To be successful, we must closely monitor any potential spread of the Coronavirus within our community, and decision-makers must communicate clearly, quickly and effectively.

I’m very pleased to welcome Todd Adams to the ³Ô¹Ï´ó±¾Óª community as our new vice chancellor for student affairs.ÌýTodd comes to ³Ô¹Ï´ó±¾Óª from Northwestern University, where he has served as associate vice president and dean of students since 2013.

In the spring, we temporarily paused the search for our new vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and inclusion (VCDEI) after receiving helpful feedback on what our faculty, students, and staff truly want from this role. We learned that ³Ô¹Ï´ó±¾Óª yearns for a VCDEI that can speak to and represent the breadth of our community. As such, we changed the position description to more accurately reflect this shared goal.Ìý