President’s speeches, letters, and articles
Subject: Inauguration thank you
October 8, 2019
Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty,
It was such an honor to celebrate with you at the inauguration ceremony and events last week. I am enormously grateful for the work that so many of you put into making it a truly special and memorable occasion. This is an amazing community, and I could not have imagined a more perfect celebration. My deepest thanks to everyone who planned, organized, cooked, catered, served, marched, spoke, performed, showed up, danced, took selfies, smiled, and welcomed me so warmly.
The inauguration gave us an opportunity to come together as a community and celebrate hope for the future. Hope is a powerful driver. My deepest wish is that we act on this hope together and inspire positive and important advancements for Reed.
I am keenly aware that underneath hope is the reality that difficult work needs to be done. Open communication will be essential to our success and one of the hardest things to get right. We need to find ways to better understand the difficult issues we have faced and are facing. I am open to your ideas, here to listen, and eager to collaborate with you.
I am giving a great deal of thought to how we can create occasions for discussion and conversation, and about how we can open up the best channels for dialogue. We have the opportunity to get this right. I will need your help, and I am looking forward to what we can accomplish together
With love and gratitude,
Audrey