Hello, Eagles!

I hope you are having a great summer and looking forward to the beginning of a new academic year at AU. 

The last few weeks have been invigorating and inspiring as I’ve started daily walks to and from campus and begun meeting the many incredible people that make up our AU community.  

With only weeks to go before move-in and the first day of classes, I wanted to share a few thoughts on what I hope to accomplish during my first semester as AU president. One of my first priorities is to engage in an active listening tour across our community and learn more from you about what makes AU so special. 

Throughout the coming months, I will be participating in fireside chats at each of AU’s schools and colleges and meeting with the teams in the administrative units; sitting down with students, faculty, and staff in a variety of venues; exploring our opportunities and challenges together through shared governance; touring AU’s vast network of facilities and service centers and meeting the staff that keep everything running smoothly; grabbing coffee at the Dav and the Bridge; cheering on our student-athletes; enjoying a concert at the Katzen or a show at the Greenberg Theatre; welcoming alumni back to campus; and much more.

I will be listening and learning—while asking questions and soliciting feedback about the university’s future and how I can help you thrive at AU and beyond. I’ll also be unveiling a yearlong, community-wide effort around civic education and engagement and civil discourse. 

There has never been a more important time for all of us to build our civic skills and become a model for what it means to be engaged productively in our democratic process and our society. Together, we will learn how to better see, hear, and understand each other and build a more welcoming and inclusive community. Throughout the coming academic year, we will work to infuse civic engagement and civil discourse into our institutional DNA and help our students, faculty, staff, and alumni develop further as civic leaders. 

As we continue to build out this initiative, I hope to hear your ideas on what I envision as an all-hands-on-deck effort. Look for updates, reflections, and ways to get involved through AU Now or on social media, and contact me at president@american.edu. 

I look forward to welcoming all of you back to campus soon, and I hope you enjoy these last days of summer! 

With warm regards,

Jon
Jonathan Alger, President