Dear TC Community Members,

 

Every day I am thankful for our community of individuals who are passionate about advancing access and equity, and who work tirelessly to achieve the highest quality of teaching, mentoring and research. Thank you for your steadfast dedication to these efforts. Our support of one another’s work fuels our innovation and creative thinking, and furthers TC’s progress toward creating a better world.

While feeling very grateful for our community this week, I share with all of you a tremendous sense of distress and grief in the wake of recent violence across the country. This includes the murders of seven students from the University of Virginia and University of Idaho communities last week. This past weekend, our nation was rocked by the news of the mass shooting targeting the LGBTQ+ community at Club Q in Colorado Springs, which resulted in the deaths of five individuals and injuries to many others. And yet another shooting took place overnight in Virginia, resulting in multiple deaths. TC stands together in condemning these acts and all forms of violence. As a community striving to foster inclusion, equity and justice, let us recommit to building a society that embraces understanding and difference so that all individuals may thrive and live safely, free from the dangers of discrimination and hate.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I hope you’ll rest and reflect, enjoy the company of family and friends, or partake in your favorite activities, so that we may enter the last part of the semester feeling refreshed and ready to continue our work. It could not be more important.

 

With thanks,

Tom Bailey signature

Thomas Bailey
President, Teachers College