Address to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

The [academic] year that just ended was another where we asked you to respond in unusual ways, to innovate, [and] to be creative because the pandemic was still very much with us. This year was a little different than the prior year because vaccines gave us more tools and more possibilities, but those also brought new challenges to all of you.

So kudos and thanks to all of you for keeping our core missions of teaching and research and creative work on track over the last year. I know that not every decision that we made was supported by everyone, but I appreciate very much that we were able to get through the year and do so successfully.

In fact, it was another banner year for external recognitions of your outstanding work, looking at Guggenheim Fellowships; Career Awards; The Kleban Prize—congratulations, César [Alvarez]; the Radcliffe Fellowship—congratulations, Will [Cheng]; and many others. It was just a banner year of recognition from the outside, which speaks volumes about all the work that you do.

You also are attracting great students. We had another incredibly strong undergraduate admissions cycle this year, and I know that faculty recruitment and retention was also extremely successful.

And the last thing I'd say is that, after a pretty [difficult] year two years ago, alumni and parents were in a very good place this year.

Fundraising year to date has been extraordinary. We're headed towards the second best year in Dartmouth's history, just after the year when the Call to Lead campaign was rolled out.

So to summarize, this was a challenging and complicated year. But we ended with very positive outcomes, and you all played a huge role in making that happen, so thank you.

With that, I am going to now turn to the first agenda item, which is to hear from Elizabeth Smith, our Dean [of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences], with her Annual Report to the Faculty.