I know many of you have heard me say it before, but I think it merits repeating: Buffalo State College is a very special campus.
For more than 140 years, students have entered Buffalo State with great hope and aspiration. As a public institution, we have had a long legacy of educating students from a variety of backgrounds and economic situations. Bengals today represent the broad diversity that is seen within and throughout our country. Our students come from middle class and working class families and from every ethnic and cultural background.
They range from newcomers to longtime immigrants to indigenous members of Native American communities. They represent LGBTQ communities and all levels of physical ability, as do our faculty and staff. We are diverse in all ways.
I am proud to work alongside faculty and staff members who understand and continue to refine what it means to be an urban-engaged campus. We know diversity is a strength, and we together are lending our energy in ever-changing and evolving ways to ensure that all members of our community grasp their stars of success.
The divisive rhetoric of the presidential election and the election results have unsettled many members of our community, while others have rejoiced in the results. I have heard that some faculty and staff members are concerned that changes in our elected national leadership will erode aspects of their civil liberties. With a change in national leadership, there will definitely be national policy changes.
We are hopeful that future policies of the new administration will benefit all sectors of our country and will embrace the rights of all members of our diverse communities. As we move forward, we must stay on our path and live the mission of Buffalo State College. I ask students to stay focused on the work they must do here as they complete their degrees and prepare for their next step into a career or a graduate program.
Here at Buffalo State, we will continue to teach, support, and shepherd our students to success. We will not deviate from our mission and our goals. We intrinsically and wholeheartedly celebrate and appreciate the diversity of our campus and the world around us. We are in it for the long haul.
Just a few weeks ago, we (the faculty, staff, and administration) recommitted ourselves to the success of all of our students during the Fall Forum. So as we learn what a new national leadership will bring to our country, we will not deviate from our goal to elevate all students to success, while at the same time supporting and encouraging each other’s success.
I ask us all to remember that our passion for our students and all members of Buffalo State remain intact now and as we move into the future. We embrace diversity in all its forms, we celebrate the strength that diverse individuals bring to our world, and we will challenge discrimination and prejudice in all its forms whenever and wherever we see it.
