Dialogue with President Beth Paul

Dear Nazareth Community,  The theme of my second "Prez Paul Podcast" is "The Learning Journey: Helping Each of us Find our Part in our Movement for Racial Equity" and I invite you to listen to the conversation with my guests Lisa Durant-Jones , Nazareth’s vice president for Community and Belonging; John Mordaci , assistant vice president for Undergraduate Admissions; Nazareth student Isa Reese, a senior legal studies major, and Nazareth student Sarah Schuler , who is studying for her master’s degree in speech-language pathology.  In a conversation discussing ways in which our Nazareth community is taking an active role in racial equity, my guests discussed:  The experience of a person of color in the Nazareth community and the importance of having pride in one’s culture and love for oneself at 10:26. How a Nazareth Solidarity and Social Justice civil rights journey to Selma, Alabama, and historical locations and monuments shaped perspective at 14:11.  The importance

Dear Nazareth Community, I am grateful to so many of you who have reached out in support of opening lines of communication within our community and the ways in which we keep in touch. These days, there are so many channels of communication. As such, we are working to engage with our community with various touchpoints. With that in mind, I am pleased to share with you that I am starting the “ Prez Paul Podcast” for us to engage and hear honest and compelling dialogue about Nazareth College, the people at the heart of who we are, and the important topics of our time. Nazareth College is full of exceptionally talented, fascinating people and inspiring perspectives and possibilities.  Through this podcast, I invite you to join in, open your mind to new ideas, and enjoy the power, beauty, and momentum of the Nazareth College learning community, as we have meaningful conversations that speak to Nazareth’s place in the world.   I welcome you to the inaugural podcast focusing on

At Convocation back in August, I shared with our incoming new students my hopes and expectations for their Nazareth College experience:  Individually and collectively, you will define the future of our world — a world that is in the midst of a revolution… The key to this path is your mindset about challenge. Too many people in our world are afraid of challenge — and, as a result, we are struggling as a people with so many pernicious and hurtful problems. If you are afraid of or resistant to challenge, you are limiting yourself, the power of your learning and your life, and your purposeful impact on our world.   And so, my personal goal for you is to relish challenge: to be a person who seeks out challenge, to move toward — not away from — challenge, to thrive in challenge.   And this learning community at Nazareth is where you can learn to relish challenge and distinguish yourself as a courageous learner and leader.  How quickly our whole community has indeed relished chal

Dear Nazareth students, Happy October! And happy “we’ve made it halfway!” I am so grateful to be part of this learning community with you, and I am so proud of the progress we have achieved. We are resilient! I think of you often, as students learning, growing, and pursuing your life’s work in such a complex time. We are dealing with the ongoing pandemic, participating in the important work of social justice amidst the heaviness, divisiveness, and trauma of our times. We are all coping in our own ways and we are not only coping, we are working diligently at making progress towards a better future for each other no matter our differences.  And we’ve created success day by day with the individual decisions and contributions made by each and every member of our community.  With sacrifice, we’ve seen our community adopt PPE and safety protocols, turning restrictions into new daily habits embraced by all with care and creativity.  With ingenuity, we’ve seen our community adopt

Dear alumni, What a wonderful conversation we had last week during the alumni town hall. Thank you for the overwhelming response and for the informed, insightful questions. We hope that this is the first in a series of conversations to strengthen your visibility and involvement with the College and our students, faculty, staff, and fellow alumni. We have made the recording available to those who were not able to participate, so you can also hear about all that is happening at the College. For me, the most memorable parts of the conversation were talking about how Nazareth is persevering during the pandemic, reflecting on leadership during a time of such significant challenge, and thinking about the significance and excitement of our upcoming centennial celebration of the founding of Nazareth College. I am moved and amazed by how we are thriving amidst the steep challenges posed by the pandemic. It is through the ingenuity of our faculty and staff, community commitment

To the Faculty, Staff, and Students of Nazareth College:  Today, we commit to a movement to understand, interrupt, and transcend racism and achieve community, opportunity, and belonging for all. Our learning community will face and reflect on the realities of racial injustice and cultivate the vision and skills for creating just and inclusive communities, near and far. A lifelong commitment to antiracism will guide our life’s work in service to humanity and the greater good. We are a college that was formed to take a stand against injustice. Our values compel us to choose action and pursue social justice . Last week, we stood in silence as our bell tolled to honor lives lost. The student group El Barrio hosted dozens of students, faculty, and staff in a breakthrough conversation about race and healing. And, this week, students are working together to create a mural which proudly states we are committed to the creation of an antiracist campus community uniting with the t

Dear Nazareth College Community, Yesterday we witnessed in stunned horror a video of the heinous killing of Daniel T. Prude — naked, shackled, hooded, and suffocated on a cold, dark Rochester street. We now add his name to the list of Black lives unnecessarily lost — murdered in an agonizing cry of pain, suffering, and outrage. Today we hear the stories of Daniel T. Prude’s life from his family — all shattered in a stranglehold of thoughtless, murderous violation. Today we renew our commitment to action as we remember the Black lives who deserve our honor, our remembrance, and our fierce advocacy. I again call on every member of our community to face this reality. In 2020, Black people are still being persecuted on the basis of race. Even in our own Nazareth community, people feel unsafe and unwelcome because of their Blackness. Enough! I again call on each of us to reflect on how we have internalized the systemic racism and white supremacy that tarnishes our society and assaults our h

Dear Nazareth students, I hope your travels throughout campus each day have shown all that CAN be done during these unsettling times when COVID still threatens. I hope you’ve seen the many ingenious ways we are now gathering and interacting while adhering to the important safety measures in place. A look at the Nazareth calendar shows outdoor events of all kinds — fitness, advocacy gatherings, social gatherings, games, faith-based gatherings, carnivals, group art events, and more.  I hope you’ve enjoyed learning together once again as we fulfill our academic mission in the innovative environments that have been configured specifically for safety — classes held outdoors, classes in larger spaces, new learning modalities like virtual classes, symphonies practicing with social distancing.  I hope you are empowered to be part of a community that is an agent of social justice in the world. The coronavirus feels all-encompassing, but there are other major things happening

Hello!  As I begin my work as Nazareth College’s 10th president, I am pleased to introduce myself to my new Pittsford neighbors.  My husband, Bill, our two daughters, Martha and Sophie, and I are enjoying getting to know our new hometown and we are grateful for the warm welcome.  I value the close relationship between Nazareth College and Pittsford - a relationship that is nearly a century deep.  As an institution founded in 1924 on the heels of the Pandemic of 1918, we have a foundational belief in the positive impact of neighbor-to-neighbor care and empowerment.   It is this commitment that guided Nazareth College in playing such a pivotal role in lifting and shaping the Rochester community nearly 100 years ago.  In my many years in higher education, I have been an active proponent of the importance of place and community in our students’ learning experience. Our students bring a unified spirit of responsibility, caring, and purpose as they join our shared community of Pittsford.  An

Dear faculty and staff; I’ve had a bird’s-eye view of what the Nazareth community accomplished this past move-in week and the start of classes, and it was nothing short of astonishing!  Can students come together with an extraordinary spirit of responsibility and care for others? Can parents feel comfortable moving their students in a safe and healthy way, entrusting their care to us with hope and positivity? Can a large group of students move in conscientiously, following the guidelines to protect our entire community? Can faculty and staff bring new and innovative approaches to educating, engaging, and supporting our students? The answer is a resounding YES! Our community accomplished this and more.  And so I extend my heartfelt thanks to ALL who have been involved in making the student move-in process and the start of classes the smoothest I have ever witnessed during the most challenging time we collectively have ever experienced.   This week I have felt students’ excitement to be

Dear students, What a time this is to be a college student! Our collective ability to respond to the call to action in the face of societal injustice, tackle social challenges, partake in the important work of our times, and continue scholarly work in myriad fields that directly affect humankind hinges on our individual actions. It is in this place, during this historic time, that you will develop the character and conviction that will be deeply held as your beacon for behavior and choice in all the days forward.  Over the last few weeks, we have shared information about the important, science-based protocols in place to ensure a safe re-entry to on-campus life. Our goal is to mitigate the danger COVID-19 poses to our fellow students, faculty, staff, and neighbors. Never before has individual decision-making and behavior been so vital to the collective. Our individual behaviors can literally save lives.  We’re in the process of having everyone sign the Nazareth Community Pledge in sup

You have been on my mind as we finish preparations for welcoming students into our Nazareth community next week. We are living in complex times — a time of challenge and a time of great possibility. I am inspired by your commitment to emerge from Nazareth with an advanced education that will guide you as a transformational leader at this critical time. Our graduate students are particularly special to me as I often reflect on Nazareth’s extraordinary beginnings — a group of committed women with doctorates founded our college, remarkably, during a time of global pandemic. I believe that our graduate students carry on this triumphant legacy — meeting challenges with rigor and ingenuity, embracing change, engaging in the important work of our time, and holding within a strong belief in changing the world for the better.  I also understand that most of our graduate students juggle their studies with many other responsibilities — employment, teaching, caring for family members, and being fu

Dear Nazareth faculty and staff;  As August approaches, marking the end of my first month here at Nazareth, I reflect on how grateful I am for your warm welcome and for the opportunity to work with each and every one of you to advance Nazareth and our world.  I am seeing us enter this new academic year with the sense of purpose and ingenuity that I'm learning defines our community. We are all focused on the many here-and-now details so we can ensure a healthy and safe learning environment for continuing Nazareth's vital mission. The focus on near-term needs is important and appropriate. On the heels of this focus on the here and now, it will be important to turn our attention to defining how we will emerge from this time in such a powerful era of possibility. And so this fall we will work together to envision and define our next strategies for living Nazareth’s mission —our thinking beyond . It is a collaboration I very much look forward to as we help each other ba

Dear Nazareth students; The important conversations continue here at Nazareth. Thank you all for your comments and input, and thank you for keeping the dialog going. Soon our conversations will turn to action as we come together as a community this fall and forge a path forward. As I contemplate our coming together, I reflect on the power and importance of your college years. They will define you for the rest of your life. It is here, in these years, that you will find your place in the world; you will find your life’s work; you will ignite your purpose and be an agent for change in the world.  To be a college student during this extraordinary time brings the opportunity for exponential personal change as you prepare to answer the world’s call for you to join a future of change for the betterment of all. These are not easy times. In this unchartered territory, there are no road maps, just a call for the bold and the brave to take part.  Issues of injustice, poverty, sexism,

After a series of meetings and consultations, the Empire 8 Conference (the conference in which Nazareth’s teams compete) made the difficult decision on Monday to suspend all fall season intercollegiate athletic competition for the fall 2020 semester. Empire 8 joins the ECAC, the Ivy League, and other collegiate leagues across the country who came to this decision understanding that it is the hard thing to do, but the right thing to do for the safety, health and well-being of our athletes and the entire Nazareth community. The uncertainty surrounding the spread of COVID-19 presents a set of risks for competition this fall that we are unwilling to take. Instead, the Conference is now developing plans to allow fall season sports teams to play and compete during the spring, concurrently with traditional spring sports. Our athletic teams bring an energy and excellence that invigorates our campus culture all year round. While we are disappointed that health and safety protocols concer

Dear Nazareth students; Thank you for raising concerns about the recent racist acts on campus through the change.org petition Make Blackface Grounds for Expulsion at Nazareth College. We know the recent blackface incident caused our community a great deal of pain which will continue in our hearts when the new academic year begins. This is an opportune time to review and revise our policies and procedures to ensure that they accurately reflect our community’s commitment to diversity. The College's Statement of Diversity and Inclusion expresses a commitment that includes: engaging in a continual process of education, critical self-reflection and dialogue regarding privilege, power, and marginalization; promoting greater access and inclusion through systemic and structural change; and ensuring that all students, faculty, and staff reach their fullest potential individually and collectively. I join the Nazareth Community in taking this commitment very seriously. Your