A Note from School Director Luc Vanier on Day One of Classes

It’s already Fall 2020! I’m betting that we will not be forgetting this one.

Whether you are entering, in the middle or ending your academic career as a student or as a faculty/staff, you are just joining us or have been here for a while – this will be a semester that will shape our future. With this in mind, and all the fears and anxieties that come from dealing with the unknown, I’m reminded (by my wife) that this is not the time to pretend in any way. There is no need to pretend we are starting as usual. There is no need to pretend we are all ready for whatever is about to happen. There is no need to pretend we are not scared or apprehensive. There is no need to act like schooling is separate from everything else we are going through “outside” of school. We are all connected, impacted, some more than others, and there is no way to pretend this is not the case. We can see where we our conditions are the same and where they are different, and in this way we can support each other at different moments in these difficult times. But to do so, we cannot pretend – we must show up and do our work with humility and imagination. We must give ourselves the chance to reimagine ourselves while being just where we are, without pressure to do what we would normally have done while still growing from the experience.