End of Week Update from Dean Slaughter
November 20, 2020
Dear Members of the Tuck Community,
Next Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States. The American poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once reflected, “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” In that spirit of this season, I am writing to express my ongoing thanks to everyone – faculty, staff, and especially our students – for their efforts and accomplishments thus far in this historic academic year.
Faculty colleagues, thank you for maintaining excellence in your teaching and your research. You continue to engage and inspire students, even as you embrace new technologies to maintain the renowned rigor and relevance of our classes. And you are still pushing the frontiers of knowledge, conducting your research and delivering virtual seminars and conference presentations that continue to project Tuck’s collective impact around the world.
Staff colleagues, thank you for your creative partnership in helping deliver our School’s mission. So many of you have embraced new roles, have troubleshot and solved new problems, and have identified and pursued new opportunities. And you have accomplished all this often working from home and while caring for family, and all amidst unprecedented adjustments needed to enhance Tuck’s financial resilience.
Students, my biggest thanks is to you. Thank you for the grit and grace that animate your investment with us faculty and staff. None of you envisioned that your Tuck experience would be amidst a global pandemic. And yet, all of you are building resilience to see that even a pandemic cannot take away the people and programs that have always been – and still are – the heart of the Tuck MBA experience that is personal, connected, and transformative.
To everyone, let me also add a thanks for playing your part to maintain public health. Our vigilant adherence to public-health guidelines have helped allow us to introduce and expand our hybrid and in-person offerings, initial steps in our transition back to our distinct in-person learning community. The current rise of coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad is sobering. But I am confident that our Tuck community can continue playing our vigilant part to work against these trends.
In recent weeks, the Deans’ Office has been convening the fall meetings of our School’s advisory boards and councils. To a person, these alumni are so impressed with all that we are accomplishing. They know that so many other organizations, confronted with the same challenges, are falling short. When our alumni voice their thanks for all of this, I always reply that the thanks properly goes to the entire Tuck community – students, staff, and faculty.
So, to everyone: thank you, for all we have done thus far and all we are still going to do. Please enjoy a restful and safe Thanksgiving next week.
Dartmouth has formed a high-level task force to plan for and manage possible disruptions related to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, monitor federal and state recommendations, implement guidance, and communicate with our community.