CAS Students, Faculty Display Resiliency Throughout 2020-21 Academic Year

Dec 15, 2021

Campus cleared out early this fall. The last of the colored leaves still graced our beautiful campus as students packed up for home.

Don’t worry: our dispersed students continued to learn, following a COVID-cautious calendar that shifted to remote learning just before Thanksgiving. Final exams too were taken remotely this semester.

But don’t mistake our caution for inactivity! We’ve had a bustling, intense semester together. Full classrooms and animated common spaces once more animated our campus. The college’s music and theatre programs were even able to welcome appreciative audiences to their live performances.

Throughout, CAS students and faculty have exemplified resilience and adaptability in order to continue learning, serving, and achieving in a time of continuing pandemic. That’s the theme, you’ll see, of this CAS Alumni Newsletter.

You’ll read how some students found ways to study abroad, many have engaged in intensive undergraduate research, and a few collaborated with an artist alumna to bring beauty to the suffering. And despite extraordinary challenges to conducting research, Xavier’s faculty have produced more scholarship over the past year than ever.

The days grow shorter, and we are tired, to be sure. Everyone is looking forward to the end-of-semester rest. But the mood on campus remains one of hope and anticipation, as it has throughout the semester.

For the first time in more than two decades, we celebrated this fall the inauguration of a new university president, Dr. Colleen Hanycz. Now the college’s own Dr. Rachel Chrastil has been named Xavier’s next Provost and Chief Academic Officer. They together will launch a campus-wide strategic planning process to begin once students return for the new semester. Great things are ahead for Xavier. 

Looking towards Christmas and the holiday season, I am tremendously grateful for you and the entire Xavier community. This year as before, you have come together to be people for others. You make Xavier truly extraordinary.

Together. For others.

David Mengel, PhD
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Xavier University