Dear AU Community,

In a matter of weeks, we will finish exams, end-of-term assignments, and celebrate our fall graduates through the special moments and tradition of commencement (the bagpipes are coming!). And our holiday break will be here. I hope that you will be able to spend quality, restful time with family and friends.

As anyone who knows me well will tell you, I am a holidayphile (is that even a word!). I love the festivities and the traditions, and the ways that people of different faiths and beliefs celebrate. From Diwali to Hanukkah to Kwanzaa to Christmas, light is a focal point. And light is what this note is about.

We have had challenges this semester, here on campus and around the world --the past few months have been especially difficult for so many. I hope each of us can pause and think about the light and the hope that this AU community provides, through our impact.

This holiday season, my seventh and last as AU president, I’m proud to be an Eagle. And I feel a great sense of hope for the future because of this community of changemakers.

I’d like to take a few moments to share some of the many ways AU changemakers are creating impact, so that, together, we can celebrate both the effort and the impact that is at the heart of who we are as a community.  

So…in the interest of keeping it short (I know you all have a lot of studying, grading, and projects to do), I’m only going to list a few of the many things happening in the AU community that both give me joy and remind me of the importance of the work we do to advance knowledge, foster intellectual curiosity, build community, and empower lives of purpose, service, and leadership.  

• We ended November with a ceremony to officially install Kogod Professor Sonya Grier as Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Marketing (one of eight faculty positions created, to date, through the Change Can’t Wait campaign – which hit 90% to our $500 million goal today)! It was a great celebration of an incredible scholar, teacher, and changemaker. Professor Grier has had an incredible impact through her work on inclusive marketing, and it was so inspiring to see her surrounded by the faculty and students who share in her impact. She was awarded the American Marketing Association’s Thomas A. Kinnear Award, top recognition in marketing … not once, not twice, but five times for the work she is doing.
• As always, our Eagle student-athletes have been working hard on the fields, courts, and mats of competition … A few weeks ago, we had a great sendoff pep rally for the field hockey team, who were crowned Patriot League champions, for the 13^th time, while head coach, Steve Jennings, was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year for the 11th time. And volleyball closed its season by advancing to the Patriot League final, while men’s basketball, under the leadership of new head coach Duane Simpkins, went undefeated at home through the month of November. Wrestling’s Jack Maida has been named one of the top athletes in the U.S. in his sport. Go Eagles!
• Several recent Eagle graduates were selected as finalists for prestigious scholarships: Benjamin Holtzman (SIS/22) was a finalist for both the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, while Ifeanyi Umunna (SPA/23) and Aneisa Babkir (SIS/23) were finalists for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and Juan Pablo Villasmil (SIS/23) was a finalist for the Schwarzman Scholarship. Congratulations to these accomplished changemakers!
• This one is a big deal, not just because of the incredible amount of hard work and collaboration AU staff has put into this project – thank you to staff from Office of Information Technology, Finance, Human Resources and Academic Affairs divisions – but also because of the ways in which it will impact all of us! Drum roll please…we made the go decision for the implementation of Workday, which means that our new, unified enterprise resource management system, is on schedule to go live on January 2. Workday will be a transformative addition, creating opportunities to advance our work, enhance efficiency, and help us fulfill our mission.
• A faculty-student research team, under the leadership of Professors Barbara Balestra and Stephen MacAvoy, has been studying the prevalence, and impact, of microplastics in the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. Their work is helping to inform local policymakers as they combat decades of pollution in our local rivers and was recently featured in the Washington Post. That’s experiential learning (and changemaking) at its best!
• I was honored to celebrate the National First-Generation College Celebration by accepting the charter of Tri Alpha, a national honor society for first-generation college students. Welcome to AU chapter Eta Sigma! The celebration concluded a week of special events recognizing this important part of the AU community.
• Air Force veteran Tyeshia Boone recently finished a 12-week Hiring Our Heroes fellowship with AU’s Human Resources Department, which helped her prepare for next steps outside of the military and inspired her to embark on a career in higher education recruiting! Tyeisha was the first HOH fellow to work with the AU HR recruitment team, but she certainly won’t be the last.
• Speaking of last, but certainly not least, more than 1,600 new AU graduates will walk across Bender’s stage on Dec. 17, and I’m excited to announce that Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy will be our featured speaker! As the nation’s top doc, Dr. Murthy has been working to address the youth mental health crisis, and the epidemic of loneliness and isolation. He became U.S. Surgeon General, the first time, when I was Secretary of HHS, so I know what a treat it will be for all of us to be inspired by his thinking, his words, and his work!

As the semester draws to a close, I hope that each one of you will have a moment to reflect on all your incredible achievements, and the truly special bond we share as members of the AU community.

Thank you for all that you do to be the light.

Happy Holidays,

Sylvia