A Message from Dean Coleman
I have never been more proud, grateful, and humbled to be the dean of this great college than I have been in the past three months. The COVID-19 pandemic is a historic challenge—one that our students, staff, faculty, friends, and alumni have met with the kind of excellence, ingenuity, and determination that make CLA an outstanding college, with numerous departments and programs ranked among the best in the world. As one alum wrote to us, “I graduated with a BA from SLA (the former CLA) in 1961. Your collective response to this dilemma is extraordinary. It would have been considered science fiction in 1960.”
As we wrap up this semester like no other, I want to thank you for your support, your encouragement, your commitment to your alma mater. Within hours of the stay-at-home order, alumni reached out and asked how they could help. Many of you have given to the CLA Student Emergency Support Fund. And our recent virtual COVID-19 Town Hall saw hundreds of you logging on and asking deeply insightful questions.
In the weeks since the Town Hall, many of you have asked how and when we expect CLA to “get back to normal."
We now know that Minnesota’s shelter-at-home order will expire on May 18, but the peacetime emergency status was extended through June 12. The University has established a Sunrise Plan to move back toward more normal operations. The first phase of the plan is restoration of some campus-based research activity. The second phase will include some return to offices. And the third phase, as yet undetermined, will be campus operations for the fall semester.
These are unusual times. And unusual times often get us thinking a little bit differently. Our roots and foundation are as a residential, in-person college, and the pandemic does not change that. So we will “get back to normal” in that way. But the pandemic also has us living out the ethos of the liberal arts of lifelong learning, and we are learning much as well. Where we choose to do online or distance or blended in-person/online instruction, we will be better at it after going through this intensive learning experience. Instructors are discovering instructional tools today that will enhance the classroom experience later.
I know many of you are concerned about our new graduates coming into a job market that switched from robust to challenging in a matter of days and weeks.
Our employer engagement team is working with employers, conducting online sessions, developing ideas for meaningful online internship opportunities, and tracking the rapidly shifting employment landscape.
You can help. If you or members of your network might be in a position to recruit CLA students for jobs or internships, please check out our resources for employers and this handy tip sheet for hosting remote internships. Post your jobs on GoldPASS. Join the Maroon & Gold Network to connect with students and provide career advice. Or join CLA’s 8,000+ member alumni group on LinkedIn and start a conversation with a recent grad. And of course, watch for opportunities to volunteer or mentor here in Alma Matters.
I say often that the liberal arts are the front page of the newspaper. The questions we explore, the subjects that drive our inquiry—these are matters of critical importance. We have certainly seen that in the past two months. Economics, governance, lessons learned from history, policymaking, balancing competing values and principles, assessing disparate impacts, disparate impacts across groups, individual and community contributors to healthy lives, health communications. All that and much more are the stuff of the liberal arts and are front-page news.
Thank you for your support. Our foundational purpose in CLA is to advance knowledge, create opportunity, and improve lives at the highest level of excellence. Nothing we are experiencing right now changes that purpose whatsoever. With you in our corner, CLA will remain one of the nation’s premier liberal arts institutions and continue to live out that purpose.
Stay well,
John Coleman, Dean
