Dear Members of the TC Community:

First, let me welcome you back to the new academic year. I hope you were able to get a chance to rest and recharge this summer. I am energized, both by some travel and time with family, and also by the vibrancy of our summer programming that kept our campus abuzz, from the children in the Hollingsworth and Rita Gold Centers who gathered outside my office, to the variety of classes and professional development programs that brought students and educators to the College from parts near and far. The vitality I’ve felt in our halls has returned to pre-pandemic levels and it has been wonderful to experience. I’m also thrilled to be meeting our new and continuing students, staff and faculty and grateful that Provost KerryAnn O’Meara, now two months in the role, is already making her mark.

Since the beginning of my presidency in 2018, we have been working together on many fronts. We set strategic priorities and focused on areas of impact. We strengthened our research productivity and infrastructure, enhanced our student and career services, expanded and improved our financial aid program and deepened our commitment to the digital world through the creation and activities of Digital Futures Institute (DFI). We launched our annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) report and worked to diversify our community and promote a more inclusive environment. In addition, we implemented a series of administrative upgrades and reforms to help our faculty stay focused on what they came here to do.  

Over the last year, we reaffirmed our interest in strengthening TC’s public good, our engagement with the community and impact on society. Through discussions in faculty meetings and a series of informal dinners, we chose to emphasize our impact in several core areas: teacher education; mental health and wellness; sustainability and climate change and digital innovation. As we move forward, I want to bring these several strands of progress together in a more synthesized way and I have asked KerryAnn to work with me to organize a set of TC dialogues around our common commitments. KerryAnn has led such initiatives before and is well prepared for this effort.  

Our goal is to work together over the coming year to develop a clear, integrated vision and action statement, informed by the broader landscape and our current work. We will work closely with the faculty as a whole as well as with the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) and department chairs to achieve this end. We will also engage the TC community, including Trustees, students, staff and alumni as fully as possible.

The timing is right to do this now, as KerryAnn integrates into her leadership role and we face many pressing issues that confront our global society, particularly in these fields of focus. Our process will be informed by TC’s history. It will build on our commitments to providing a foundation for our students to achieve their dreams, our engagement with the community, our path-breaking and impactful research and our DEI and social justice values.

This work is the next step following our efforts over the last year to create and affirm our mission: To empower committed learners and leaders to build a smarter, healthier, more just and equitable world through multidisciplinary knowledge creation, policy engagement and practice innovations across education, psychology and health.

Our work ahead will bring this mission to life, with greater focus on our common commitments and concrete actions we can take to ensure TC lives its values through tangible impact in the world.

You will hear from KerryAnn soon with next steps. In the meantime, my best wishes to you all for a successful year ahead. 

Warm regards,

Thomas Bailey
President, Teachers College