June 12, 2020
In less than three weeks I will take the reins as president of the University of Wyoming, and in just a week I’ll be en route to Laramie from Champaign. As excited as Gabrielle and I are about this transition, it also comes at a time full of complexity and concern that we could not have imagined just a few months ago. We are in the midst of a global pandemic that continues expanding across the world. This has had unprecedented impacts on our families, our lives and our economy. And our nation is experiencing turmoil driven by racial, social and economic inequality. In such crises, higher education institutions like UW are looked to for leadership, and as essential components of the solutions our society needs to address such complex challenges.
June 02, 2020
As I am sure you are all seeing in Wyoming or wherever you may be, many communities around the nation are in turmoil in reaction to the killing of George Floyd, and to the history of racism, intolerance and bigotry and their terrible outcomes that this event signifies to people across the nation and across the world. Newspapers and television networks are showing daily what is happening in cities like Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, telling a painful narrative of national upheaval that is perhaps unparalleled since the era of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
