Hello, friends. As I tape this message to you, the Samford University campus
is buzzing with activity.
Many of our student-athletes have been on campus for several weeks preparing
for their upcoming seasons. Student leaders are preparing exciting plans for the fall semester.
Undergraduate and graduate classes are being held across campus in a number of
programs. Important research and scholarship are being conducted and shared with the world.
And our hard-working and talented facilities personnel
are busily preparing Samford’s incredible buildings and grounds for another academic year.
That activity and the energy we feel is only a foreshadowing of
what’s to come as we welcome all of our students, faculty and staff
back to campus in just a few weeks for the start of the fall semester.
As we wind down summer and look forward to the beginning of the fall term,
I want to say just a few things.
First, we are ready for your arrival. For you first-year and transfer students,
and new graduate students, you have already made one of the best decisions of your life,
and that is joining the Samford community. You will experience all that makes
Samford special – its amazing people, its beautiful setting, its commitments
to rigorous learning and scholarship, and its faithful spirit that calls us together
as one Samford family. And for you returning students, we can’t wait to welcome you back home.
And to Samford’s incredible employees – to faculty and staff members who contribute so
vitally to Samford’s mission – thank you for the amazing ways you have stepped up this past year.
Time and time again, you have demonstrated the dedication,
expertise, creativity, determination and faithfulness to rise above challenging
circumstances, and to serve our students and community with excellence.
I look forward to building an even better Samford with you this year.
It’s disappointing that, despite our hopes and prayers, it appears that our campus will continue
to have to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic as we begin the academic year. The Delta variant
is contributing to a wave of infections and hospitalizations across the country
and world. Although Samford will return to our traditional models of instruction this fall,
and even though we are determined to form and sustain community and host events and
activities in many of the same ways we did pre-pandemic, it will be vitally important
for all of us to maintain vigilance so that we can remain in-person and in-residence all year,
and so that we can contribute to the public health and safety of those we love.
Currently, the primary tools to enable us to have the year we are hoping for remain
safe and effective vaccines that are free and readily available,
mask wearing indoors, and some degree of random sentinel testing. You’ve read about all of these
plans in previous communications to campus or on our COVID-19 resources webpage.
We will continue to implement our public health plan until this wave of the coronavirus subsides.
I expect that we will relax mask-wearing requirements on campus as soon as we are convinced
that the Delta wave is subsiding, and our community has sufficient levels of vaccination.
If you haven’t done so already, please allow me to encourage you to get vaccinated,
if you are medically advised to do so. I’m increasingly convinced that the pandemic won’t end
until sufficient numbers of us are protected from the virus’ worst outcomes. I’m encouraged
to see so many of you who have already taken that step. It’s not too late to receive a full
two-dose regimen of one of the approved vaccines before the semester begins. Now’s the time.
So, I am asking all of you to support our efforts to have as close to a normal year as possible.
By God’s grace, and because of your efforts, we are planning for another great year for Samford.
In my first weeks as Samford’s president, I’ve become even more convinced that this
place is spectacular because we have such incredible people. My theme for this year – for
all of us – comes from Ephesians 3 when the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are rooted
and established in the love of Christ. That is our charge this year, friends,
to love each other fiercely. That is the Samford way.
I can’t wait to greet you on campus in the days to come. We’re ready for your arrival.
Please know that Julie and I keep you close in our prayers. See you soon and Go Bulldogs!