The following massmail was sent to students, faculty and staff across the University of Illinois System from President Tim Killeen:
It is a pleasure for me to join your chancellors in welcoming you back for the spring semester, and I hope you are as filled with hope as I am about what the coming months promise.
Every one of you has so much to be proud of for getting us here – to a point where it finally seems possible to begin putting the pandemic in the rear view and moving back toward the lives we now cherish more than ever. You have sacrificed and adapted – teaching and learning in hybrid ways, working remotely, and adopting new behaviors such as saliva testing, wearing masks and social distancing. You have come together to safeguard our universities and surrounding communities, making the University of Illinois System a model for the nation.
As vaccinations roll out to curb the virus, we can be grateful to our scientists and healthcare professionals who helped develop these innovative medicines. Yet I believe more work lies ahead, beyond conquering the deadliest pandemic in a century. Momentum must continue to bridge our nation’s lingering racial divide, as well as the economic gap between the haves and have nots. We must also work together to mend our divisions, to preserve debate while reducing hate and rancor, and to find solutions that protect our environment and our standing as a welcoming nation that America has carried since its birth.
Across all of those fronts, the U of I System will again lead the way, just as we have throughout the COVID-19 crisis. We have already set the pace through our Guiding Principles, first adopted in 2018 and expanded a year later. They stake our position on several crucial issues, from free speech and civic engagement to sustainability and immigration, reflecting the core values that define us and the ideals that we hold most dear. Please take another look at our Guiding Principles.
I hope you are as proud as I am to be part of an institution that is truly ahead of the game, an institution with its bearings in place, an institution committed to excellence and integrity in everything we do, an institution that is focused squarely on education and discovery that lifts the lives of all of our students and directly supports the public good.
I wish you all the very best in the semester to come, and my deepest thanks again for your hard work and cooperation during one of the most challenging periods in our more than 150-year history. And please keep up your COVID protocols as the finish line draws nearer. We have achieved far too much together to let our guard down now.
Sincerely,
Tim
