To the faculty, staff and returning students of Case Western Reserve University:
This Sunday, we will welcome more than 1,200 first-year students during our annual Move-In Day, opening a week of orientation activities before classes commence Aug. 28. These young people begin their undergraduate careers little more than a week after the repugnant “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saw three people lose their lives and dozens more suffer injury.
I join those condemning the racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry, and violence the nation witnessed Friday evening on the University of Virginia campus and throughout the next day across the city. I also express profound sympathy for those grieving the deaths of loved ones, and great concerns for the many injured and still recovering. Finally, I ask that you reflect on our university’s core values of diversity and inclusion, and consider ways to give them even greater meaning across our community.
Case Western Reserve embraces people of all racial, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, national and international backgrounds. We support diversity of thought, pedagogy, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, political affiliation and disability.
As we prepare for the start of this new academic year, I encourage you to demonstrate your own commitments to diversity and inclusion. Whether in classrooms or dining halls, athletic fields or student housing, every member of our community should feel welcomed and valued. I thank you for all that you have contributed to this goal already, and look forward to a most instructive and enlightening 2017-2018 year.
Sincerely,
Barbara R. Snyder
President