To the Case Western Reserve Community:
We begin this semester at an extraordinary time in the history of our country.
Yesterday marked the federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
This Friday, the nation’s first African-American president leaves office.
His successor, Donald Trump, will be the first president never to have served in government nor the military—and voters enthusiastically embraced his “outsider” status as a sign of independence from established interests.
While we do not know precisely what the coming months will bring, one point already is clear: This presidency will be unlike any that preceded it.
Tomorrow, The Daily will detail opportunities to engage in civic issues on our campus and in the larger local community. Yet even as we look to the future, the new year also represents an opportunity to reflect. Today, we release As Mentioned, the university’s 2015-2016 annual report. It highlights our student entrepreneurs, meaningful community engagement and impressively influential faculty, among other strengths.
I encourage you to visit the site at case.edu/asmentioned.
Meanwhile, I also wanted to remind you that the university’s annual activities celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr. begin this week and continue throughout February. This year’s MLK Convocation takes place at 12:30, Friday, Feb. 3, and features Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures. The book, about three African-American women at NASA who played pivotal roles in sending John Glenn and other astronauts into space, is now also a movie. In its first weekend of national release, it hit No. 1 at the box office.
The film has many memorable lines, but one seems particularly apt as we begin the semester:
“We all get to the peak together, or we don’t get there at all.”
Barbara R. Snyder
President