Dear Graduate Student Community These are difficult times for our whole campus community and this past week has been particularly exhausting for me. Traumatic events, including the Atlanta and Indianapolis shootings, the abominable police killings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo, and the Chauvin trial, are having an impact on every aspect of life, on top of the stress of coping with COVID. We have encouraged faculty and instructors to be particularly flexible and accommodating to students during this time. I encourage you to visit the recalibrate website, for one-click access to many health, wellness, and support resources on campus. In this message, I also want to draw your attention to two important announcements. One is the welcoming of our new associate dean, Brandi Wilkins Catanese, who is replacing our incredible current associate dean, Eric Falci on July 1. Professor Catanese brings an immense wealth of experience in teaching, advising, and mentoring graduate students, and will share this expertise as the Graduate Division continues to expand its funding, wellness and professional development resources. We are excited to have her join our team. We also would like to express our thanks to Professor Falci for all the hard work he has done for graduate students during his tenure as associate dean. The other announcement is that we will hold a Graduate Student Town Hall on Thursday, April 29 from 4-5:30 p.m. on the topic of returning to campus this fall. We recognize that our graduate student community is experiencing significant anxiety surrounding what the fall semester will look like, and we hope we can provide answers to many of your questions and guidance for when to expect answers in yet-to-be-determined areas. Please RSVP and submit questions for the Graduate Student Town Hall using this Google Form. We will follow up with the Zoom link. These challenging times make clear what is most important — the need to care for ourselves and to sustain our connections with those we love most. As we finish out the semester, please remember to take the time to do both.
Dear Graduate Student Community These are difficult times for our whole campus community and this past week has been particularly exhausting for me. Traumatic events, including the Atlanta and Indianapolis shootings, the abominable police killings of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo, and the Chauvin trial, are having an impact on every aspect of life, on top of the stress of coping with COVID. We have encouraged faculty and instructors to be particularly flexible and accommodating to students during this time. I encourage you to visit the recalibrate website, for one-click access to many health, wellness, and support resources on campus. In this message, I also want to draw your attention to two important announcements. One is the welcoming of our new associate dean, Brandi Wilkins Catanese, who is replacing our incredible current associate dean, Eric Falci on July 1. Professor Catanese brings an immense wealth of experience in teaching, advising, and mentoring graduate students, and will share this expertise as the Graduate Division continues to expand its funding, wellness and professional development resources. We are excited to have her join our team. We also would like to express our thanks to Professor Falci for all the hard work he has done for graduate students during his tenure as associate dean. The other announcement is that we will hold a Graduate Student Town Hall on Thursday, April 29 from 4-5:30 p.m. on the topic of returning to campus this fall. We recognize that our graduate student community is experiencing significant anxiety surrounding what the fall semester will look like, and we hope we can provide answers to many of your questions and guidance for when to expect answers in yet-to-be-determined areas. Please RSVP and submit questions for the Graduate Student Town Hall using this Google Form. We will follow up with the Zoom link. These challenging times make clear what is most important — the need to care for ourselves and to sustain our connections with those we love most. As we finish out the semester, please remember to take the time to do both.