Welcome, grad students!

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 fully engaged members of the community outside of our college campus. Your graduate education is life-defining in many ways.

It is with this understanding and commitment that I reach out to you today to share my fresh-eyed observations, as I complete my first month at Nazareth, of how our community is living its commitments and values in responding to the challenges of our times. I recognize the special circumstances affecting you as your sphere of activity and influence are quite different from the undergraduate population and, therefore, deserve special consideration.

Every day I learn more and more about the resiliency and ingenuity of our community as we respond to the pandemic, act upon our commitment to antiracism and social justice, adapt our education to real-world needs, and emerge stronger. Our aim is singular: to provide you, our students, with a safe and thriving learning community so you can focus on what matters most — doing the vital work of learning, growing, and thereby becoming all you are capable of being in a world that needs your leadership.

Our mission-inspired work is unstoppable. Yes, the conditions of our daily lives have changed. And we have been given new openings and opportunities to change and reshape our world. Indeed, the imperative of the kind of education we provide is more important than ever! As such, our faculty and staff have been working tirelessly to adapt to our new circumstances so the power of our learning community continues. For example, our learning community is engaging in critical self-examination and hard conversations that will drive us toward a more just and equitable world. Issues of racism, injustice, poverty, sexism, human rights, subjugation of peoples, environmental crisis, and more, call on our students to be agents of change. You will be well prepared to lead the charge. 

The unknowns exist, but we are nimble and ready to pivot to provide a safe, healthy, supportive learning environment for our students. It is with rigorous and clinically-based protocols that we pursue safety this fall. Our plans and protocols, as documented here in Our Way Forward, meet and exceed our state and county requirements for mitigating risk. Our COVID-19 safety policies will be monitored and implemented to ensure around-the-clock safety on campus. We also have put in place our Nazareth Community Pledge — signed by all students, faculty, and staff — to promote community social responsibility and compliance. 

While we enjoy a uniquely purpose-driven student body and feel that our community will come together with characteristic unity as we engage in protective behaviors with shared responsibility, enforcement of our policies will be paramount. We will adhere to strict regulations for conduct and we have response-ready, supportive plans for quarantine and contact tracing if necessary. 

Our graduate students have always enjoyed a vigorous scholarly environment of important study in small groups, contact with faculty on a regular basis, and teaching and research opportunities within the university, the local community, and the world. These distinctions and commitment continue. We are adapting to ensure academic access and rigor during these unexpected times. These include pedagogical innovations, unique opportunities for research projects and experiential learning, special lab access, and personalized engagement through various communication channels. And you have a direct line of communication with your program directors to address any special concerns or needs.

Through all of my interactions with Nazareth faculty and staff, it is clear that there is an uncommon spirit of dedication and deep commitment to our students. 

You are the very hope and future of our world. Together we move forward! 

Best wishes,

Beth Paul, Ph.D.
President
Nazareth College