President Elam sent the following message to students prior to the winter break.
While you are finishing out the semester and beginning winter break, I want to share some thoughts and well wishes for the new year.
As you all know too well, this has been a most difficult semester, given what is transpiring in the world and on campus. For many, the crisis in Israel and Palestine has been deeply personal. I understand that it can be almost impossible to study when your heart is breaking or you feel outrage at all the human suffering. Especially disturbing for me, students from across the ideological spectrum have confided that they have, at times, felt unsafe on the campus.
As president, I have been and will continue listening to you. In addition, it is my pledge to work to ensure your safety, to move us toward strengthening the campus climate, to provide education on these difficult issues and eventually, hopefully, to enable some healing. We will find more spaces for community engagement, for coming together with good will, and for enabling difficult dialogues. In doing so, it is essential that we remember and cherish our common humanity.
I so hope that over this Winter Break, you give yourself time and space to rest, reflect, and allow for experiences of joy and communion. These restorative moments are all the more important during such trying times.
Sincerely,
President Elam