Welcome message from President Daniels and Provost Akridge

August 24, 2020

Dear Boilermakers,

We write today to welcome each of you to the 2020-21 academic year — one that we know will be far different than any you or we have ever experienced. Your lives both on campus and off, by necessity, are and will be dramatically different than anything we could have expected a mere five months ago.

In the best of times, Boilermakers from all walks of life come together to celebrate — our 150th anniversary, our World Food Prize laureates, student accomplishments, research breakthroughs, victories on the fields and courts of play, and so many other special people, events, and achievements.

But Boilermakers also come together in our most challenging times, which this year has proven to be. No matter the situation, no matter our differences, no matter the tensions of the world, as members of the Purdue community, we work together to find solutions, we work together to build a better world.

You all are here because you have worked so hard and put in so much effort to get us — get yourselves — to the beginning of this fall semester. For that we are extremely grateful.

We have even harder work ahead. It will take each of us listening to each other, understanding each other, trusting each other, and supporting each other to ensure a safe and healthy campus and a community where we can continue our vital missions of learning, research, and engagement.

By now you know the vast effort put in to the Protect Purdue plan and know the tenets of the Protect Purdue Pledge that we must all follow. That work continues.

Another urgent effort is now under way with our Purdue Equity Task Force. Led by Trustee Don Thompson, the task force is charged by the Board of Trustees with assessing and addressing structural and environmental barriers to success for students, faculty, and staff of color and specifically our Black Boilermakers. This effort will include working groups with representation from across the Purdue system — your colleagues and peers who will come together to listen, to assess, and to develop solutions and define the action plans that will help ensure all members of the Purdue community have the opportunity to experience all Purdue has to offer.

This semester will challenge us in ways we cannot know. At the same time, the adversity we will face will provide opportunities for us to grow as a Boilermaker community. We urge you to live the values we all hold true as Boilermakers — those of integrity, respect, honor, inclusion, innovation, and growth — as together we face the adversity, the opportunity, of our academic year.

We thank you for all you have done and will do to help us deliver a safe and productive semester and wish you every success in the coming year.

Sincerely,

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
President

Jay T. Akridge
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity