A Message from the Dean: April 2021

Martin Hershock
Martin Hershock

As I was rereading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden for the umpteenth time, I happened upon a passage that took on new meaning for me in this strangest of academic years. “As every season seems best to us in its turn,” Thoreau wrote, “so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.”

It is hard to believe that we have all lived through a full year of this pandemic. Just as winter gives way to spring, however, so too can we look to the future with some degree of hope for warmer, brighter, cheerier days; for the creation of “Cosmos out of Chaos.” Certainly, the pandemic winter has not fully relinquished its grip over us but, if one looks carefully, there are signs that a new, more optimistic, season is taking hold: many within our campus community have been vaccinated against COVID; we are hearing very positive things from our students relative to the support they’ve received from the campus (thanks to all of you); we are gearing up for a live, in-person commencement, and we are planning for a post-COVID fall academic term that will look much more like what we knew prior to the pandemic, a term where we will welcome students back to campus in person.

Moreover, the college is busily engaged in conversations around the question of its identity and what a practice-based focus might mean for the college and its students. In short, our little corner of the universe seems poised for renewal and rebirth. Thank you all for all of your efforts to keep our community safe, healthy, and moving forward during the long COVID winter.

Welcome Spring!

Martin Hershock, Dean