Dear MSU Faculty Member,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I want to welcome you back for the fall semester and express my gratitude for your dedication and skill in supporting our students’ success as we’ve navigated the difficulties of the past months. I know the pivots to online learning we’ve had to make imposed an added burden on you on top of the personal stress already created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many of you not only reformatted your courses for online delivery, but also made the effort to develop skills to accompany that shift through professional development offered by the university. I’m confident your efforts and care will help make this another semester of accomplishment for our students, who we know face their own challenges presented by remote learning.
I want to add that the board is looking forward to participating in MSU’s work to further our development in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion. That includes meeting with the finalist candidates for our vice president and chief diversity officer position. We consider this position to be as crucial a role to changing the university’s culture as those of the president and provost. We also want to acknowledge the important work being done by the DEI Steering Committee and look forward to seeing its report.
Finally, I want to thank you for the excellence you continue to represent every day, as illustrated most recently by the “clean” accreditation report from a midcycle assurance review conducted by the Higher Learning Commission. Well done, Spartan faculty!
Sincerely,
Dianne Byrum
Chairperson, MSU Board of Trustees