Dean's Message to SciMath and ITEC 2 of 2

Dear Colleagues of STEM,

My last day at Minneapolis College is Friday, 6/28. There are so many memories! I want to share one that's especially meaningful to me.

It was late February 2020. As COVID-19 started to unfold, you asked me what we should do. My response was that we should get ready to teach out the rest of the semester online, and probably for a longer time going forward. I posted this opinion on my blog, and a day later, the College asked me to take the message down because:

1. My personal opinion doesn't represent the College's stance, and
2. All of the faculty who read this blog would start to panic.

I took the blog down immediately, but I disagreed with 2). Not all faculty panicked. The STEM faculty, YOU, did not. That's how special you are and why our team accomplished so much despite COVID, enrollment decline, and many more challenges that sack the rest of the higher education world. We always work with what we have and we innovate to create successful outcomes despite many limitations. I appreciate that about our team.

Some say that the post-COVID world hasn't been kind to higher education, as crises continue to emerge, from student under-preparation to faculty burn-outs to the rise of AI. However, I am confident that you will overcome them and continue to excel. I know it whenever I recall the rally we made that spring. Changes will keep coming at us, many others will choose to bury themselves in denial, grief, anger or self-pity, but you are much better than that.

Thank you for being a great team in the past six years! This team is made for the Super Bowl, no matter who the general manager is. I look forward to hearing about more great work by you and your new leader.

Sincerely,
Ben