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hello and welcome to our 2020 virtual founders day celebration
on this special occasion we take time to reflect on the founding of this great
university looking back at our roots as western
illinois state normal school in 1899 and commemorating our first day of
classes in sherman hall on september 23 1902 this year in the midst of the
coronavirus pandemic and many other challenges we not only
look back on our founding 121 years ago we also look back on the many challenges
that were faced by those who have come before us
we are in unusual times that have affected nearly everything that we do as
a university we have adapted and developed new ways
of conducting our business in true leatherneck fashion we will
learn lessons from these times and emerge a stronger institution in
some respects this is a new beginning not only for us
at western but for higher education our faculty have developed hybrid course
options and converted others to a fully online
modality and have discovered that many students
are able to learn equally well using these new tools
our virtual meetings are shorter and conducted in a more casual environment
increasing our productivity we will not go back to all of the old ways when the
pandemic is dissipated but use these lessons learned as new
opportunities to forge ahead and take advantage of the new tools that
we've developed and have become familiar while the
pandemic has caused us to change our educational delivery modes
the racial strife and injustices across our nation
has also caused us to reassess our values
specifically regarding racism and in particular anti-Black racism
in this area as well we will begin anew to ensure that all of our students have
an equal opportunity for success and recognize and embrace that Black
lives matter at western our mission for many years
has been to provide opportunity for us we can embody that
mission through our efforts to ensure the success of our Black students
our Latinx students first generation and other diverse and underserved
populations when we provide our students the
opportunity to succeed their lives are not only changed but
they will go on to impact the lives of so many others we can
and we will make a difference and we again recognize
that western was founded 121 years ago to make a difference to the people it
serves we have a great legacy that we must live
up to but we have outstanding faculty and
staff that are prepared to serve and incredible students who are prepared
to learn and make a difference i am thankful for the opportunity i've
been provided to get to know so many wonderful people at wiu
and to work with you on a daily basis supporting our students
together we will carry on the mission on which we embarked in 1899
knowing that through our efforts western will continue to serve for another 121
years and beyond thank you
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