University of Rochester students, faculty, and staff:
Since arriving in Rochester, so many of you have taken the time to welcome me and offer support and encouragement as I begin my work as Provost. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome each of you to the start of the fall semester.
Like many of you, I am looking forward to commencing my first academic year at Rochester. More importantly, I am eager to hear from you and to do all I can to support our students, faculty, and staff. To help accomplish this, I have established sign-up office hours so I can meet with you in an informal and unstructured setting and learn more about your experiences at the University. The office hours will start with River Campus sign-up slots, but we’ll soon add sign-up slots for office hours on the Eastman and Medical Campuses as well. If you prefer to drop by and meet, we will also be holding periodic pop-up events, much like we did this summer at Tasty Tuesdays. Hopefully there will be many opportunities for us to meet face-to-face and connect.
Of course, no mention of in-person meetings and pop-up events can be made without an important reminder that while things are improving, COVID-19 is still with us. My friend Claudia Goldin, who will visit campus on September 28 to give the first Stanley Engerman Lecture, refers to the current phase of the pandemic as “AC/DC” or, “after corona/during corona.” In this phase of the pandemic, many activities feel more “normal” again, but we must remain vigilant and continue to adhere to the guidelines and protocols that have been put in place to help keep us healthy and safe.
The University recently updated some of our COVID-19 guidelines for undergraduate students, so I encourage you to visit the COVID-19 Resource Center to get the latest information about isolation, dining, and temporary living arrangements; Medical Center faculty, staff, and students should also check the redesigned URMC COVID-19/redesigned intranet site for additional guidance as it relates to patient care or clinical research. A friendly reminder that as with other viruses, we should all make reasonable efforts to stay healthy and contain the spread of infection to others.
On a personal level, I well understand the importance of our COVID safety measures. Just a few weeks ago, I contracted COVID-19. As recommended, I isolated immediately, continued with regular testing until I received a negative result, and masked indoors until ten days after the onset of symptoms. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to miss my first Welcome Week at Rochester. Although that was an enormous disappointment for me, I was more than content missing the events, knowing that I was doing what I needed to help prevent spread to my colleagues, friends, and the rest of the University community.
Still, the landscape is changing, and we are moving forward. As evidence, we are building upon all the work that so many of you have contributed to the strategic plan. In the coming months, as we build our strategy and the plans for implementation, there will be new opportunities to weigh in on the plan and to offer additional thoughts on where we should be heading as a university. My objective for the University is that we will be a place of boundless possibility—where our students, staff, and faculty have the right conditions and all the support possible to achieve their most ambitious dreams. I am excited to work together with you all to help make this a reality.
Meliora,
David
David Figlio
Provost and Gordon Fyfe Professor of Economics and Education
PS: Claudia Goldin’s recently published book Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity, which will be the topic of her Engerman Lecture, uses an economic history lens to analyze some of the conditions that contribute to or inhibit gender equity. Another new book, The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work, coauthored by my friend, Lise Vesterlund, also offers compelling explanations for persistent gender pay gaps. Both books offer actionable steps to address these inequities. I encourage all of us in positions to make our organizations ever better to take their lessons to heart.