Dear members of our Stanford community,
I hope you will share all of the great feelings of energy and renewal I feel as we enter the fall quarter and our community begins to regroup.
Many of you have recently returned to campus, or are in the process of coming this week. Students are entering homes, the faculty will begin physical courses this fall, and more researchers will return to their labs. It’s exciting to see our community replenish our beautiful campus with so much life – and I can’t wait to see more of you in person in the coming days and weeks.
When I returned, I knew that many of you were worried about your health. I admire the anxiety that many feel when we return to work and education. I want to emphasize that we are fortunate to have a very vaccinated community, and effective masks, tests and other health and safety measures to identify and identify issues and prevent transmission from the community. You have heard about these steps in other actions, and we will keep you informed of any changes.
Obviously, the situation is improving. I want you to know that we are committed to supporting our community’s continued health in the fall quarter and beyond, using these steps and everything we have learned from our 18 months of experience with COVID-19. Doing so requires that we take responsibility for each other’s well-being over the next few weeks and months.
The epidemic reveals how deeply we are all connected. Over the past year, members of our community have dedicated themselves to supporting each other – and by doing so, they have shed light on who we are. Faculty members have developed innovative ways to promote course learning remotely so that students can work together even more. Students volunteered at food banks, created sanitation facilities for the needy, and educated vulnerable communities. Both on-campus and off-campus staff, our teaching and research mission has survived in a very challenging time. And Stanford Medical Clinics and staff were at the forefront of providing care for the communities around us.
Now, on our return to campus, we have the opportunity to rebuild our Stanford community to reflect the creativity, perseverance and generosity that all of you have shown over the past 18 months.
One of the ways I urge you to do this is through the grace and compassion of each other, and because of the many different experiences each of us experienced during the plague. Some struggle with stigma, while others feel overwhelmed by family responsibilities. While some have not been on campus since March 2020, others have been working on the campus every day during the epidemic. Regardless of your personal situation, we have all suffered losses over the past year. As we come together from so many different experiences, we meet in a compassionate way.
I ask all of us to extend that grace and compassion to our broader interactions. This is a very memorable year for the humanity and vulnerability of each of us. When we come back, let’s respect each other in ways we communicate with each other around eyes, eyes, opinions, and deep-seated beliefs. Let us seize this opportunity to rebuild a learning community that supports a high level of communication – even when we are discussing controversial issues that are man-made, patient, guided by a love of learning and the search for truth, and an opportunity for all of us to learn from each other.
As we renew the bonds of our communities and rebuild our work with renewed energy, the University will host “We Are Stanford.” These include a reception at the Frost Amphitheater on September 27. A spring festival that offers ceremonial, artistic, memorial and holiday programs to describe all of our past 18 months; And opportunities to honor and honor Stanford heroes. I hope you will join us.
I would like to close by thanking all those who have organized our campus so that many more members of our community can return safely. I would like to thank all those who have worked on and off the campus over the past 18 months to continue our research and education mission.
I am grateful for your continued commitment to your community, your hard work, perseverance, and the well-being of our community.
your sincerely ,
Mark Tesser-Lavin