Welcome, at the Start of a New Academic Year.
Welcome, at the Start of a New Academic Year
As our community returns from summer, a word of welcome and a look ahead.
I have long felt that one of the joys of working in academia is the sense of renewal it brings, each fall semester, with the return of our school community. This is particularly true after the upheavals of the last year-and-a-half. COVID-19 did much to disrupt settled routines, seeming to turn the world upside down. Yet despite challenges in our country and globally, we find ourselves poised at the start of another academic year, pursuing our common vision of a healthier world.
With gratitude, then, and with hope for the future, we are delighted to welcome our school community back. To our new students, to students coming to campus for the first time, to returning students, to faculty and staff, and to our extended family of alumni and friends—welcome. We are thrilled to have you on campus. It will be a joy indeed to catch up with you in the weeks and months to come, to hear your stories and to meet those of you who are joining us for the first time. We are, of course, aware of the challenges that the pandemic moment continues to pose and we continue to work carefully to make sure that we are all safe as a community, even as we continue moving ahead with our mission. I want to thank Dean Ira Lazic and the entire team at the school for all they are doing to keep us safe, every day.
As the semester unfolds, there will be many chances for us to come together as a community, to reconnect and to engage with the broader conversation about health. We look forward to seeing many of you at our Orientation events this week. We also hope to see you at our ongoing series of public events, including our Public Health Conversations, where we host distinguished speakers who lead us in conversations about issues of consequence for health.
And we hope you will also engage with us in the digital space. You can do so by staying up-to-date on all that is happening within our community by reading SPH Today and SPH This Week, our daily and weekly email newsletters. You can also engage with our school through our social media channels. Use these platforms to read the latest research from our scholars, follow along with our events as they happen, and add your voice to the public health conversation.
Finally, it is particularly resonant to be welcoming our community back during our yearlong celebration of our school’s 45th anniversary. To mark this anniversary, we have chosen to elevate the theme, “Public Health. Now is the time.” We have each month engaged with this theme by highlighting a different area where our community’s expertise intersects with public health priorities. We look forward to engaging with September’s theme, “Global Health. Now is the time.” Each month will include a message in SPH This Week with updates on our monthly thematic programming. On November 18, our anniversary year programming will culminate with our SPH45 Anniversary Celebration. The event will be a chance to reflect on all we have done and all we will do together, in the years to come.
We are returning to campus at a time when the work of public health is more needed than ever. The pandemic has tested us, and it has been inspiring to see how our school community has risen to the challenge. To those of you who were part of these efforts—thank you. To those who are joining us for the first time—welcome to the work of public health. We are so glad you are joining us, as we move, collectively, towards a healthier future. We look forward to all you will do to change the world for the better.
I hope everyone has a terrific week.
Warmly,
Sandro
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Robert A. Knox Professor
sgalea@bu.edu
