A message from President Tim Sands in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Good morning,
As we take time this week to honor and reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I ask each of you to consider what you can do this semester to bring our campus closer to his vision of community. Our Beyond Boundaries initiative asks us to imagine the university we could become a generation into the future. We cannot make that leap without thinking boldly about whom we will serve and how we will prepare our students for a dynamic, diverse, and interconnected world. Through InclusiveVT, we are imagining that future for Virginia Tech, and we are engaging in the hard work it takes to put us on a trajectory toward that future.
Over the past year, under the leadership of Menah Pratt-Clarke, we’ve taken significant steps, including the creation of diversity education programs for students and faculty, establishing scholarships for underrepresented students, and expanding our intercultural engagement center. We sought to facilitate difficult and meaningful conversations through #VTUnfinished, which featured an enlightening series of workshops with Lee Mun Wah. We’re proud of our progress and our recognition by INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine as a Diversity Champion, and we’re excited to move forward. InclusiveVT will continue to be a priority at Virginia Tech in 2017 and beyond.
Our weeklong celebration of Dr. King is an excellent opportunity for you to engage, perhaps for the first time, in meaningful conversations about race, justice, lived experiences, and diverse perspectives. Let’s make this a great semester by listening and learning from each other, practicing empathy, and affirming our Principles of Community.
In the spirit of Ut Prosim,
Tim Sands
President
