Happy New Year! This common expression carries extra hope for 2021, after such a difficult 2020 and start of 2021. We all fervently hope and pray that the new year will usher in the return of life to normal, including gathering together again as a community.
As I greet you with this first Dean’s Message of 2021, I want to recognize today as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I hope you were able to attend the online discussion earlier today with Justice Alan Page and Notre Dame Law Dean Marcus Cole. Also, I hope you will participate in Notre Dame’s annual “Walk the Walk Week” from February 22 through February 28, after we reconvene on campus on February 3. The week-long series of University and department sponsored events is designed to help each of us consider the steps we might take individually and collectively to make Notre Dame, our communities and our nation more equitable and inclusive.
In the wake of the tragic national events during this past year, including the murder of George Floyd, MLK Day reminds us that our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is foundational to our mission. It is critically important to always affirm and act consistently with belief in the inherent dignity and worth of every person. We ask for everyone’s participation, ideas and initiative in taking actions toward becoming a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community, where we aim to listen, understand and value everyone as individuals and as part of our community.
At Mendoza, 2020 brought us many disruptions and changes, and as a result, the need to strike balances between priorities. We needed to safeguard the health and wellness of our students, faculty and staff, while recognizing that in-person engagement is an integral part of our culture and learning environment. We had to prioritize our resources to meet immediate challenges while also keeping our vision on the future and the long-term goals for the College. We had to reinvent the way we work at a time when the larger demands of our families, churches, friends and communities have stretched us.
Yet as I reflect back on the College during this past year, I am struck by the fact that through all of the uncertainty and stress, your continued commitment to our mission, and specifically to serving our students and each other, was unwavering and an inspiration to me. I saw this commitment expressed daily in many, many ways, from learning to teach via Zoom, to wearing masks all day so you could teach in-person, to finding new ways to work as teams, to performing smaller acts such as manning the courtyard fire pits so that our graduate students would have a safe place to gather outside.
I'm proud of what we have achieved in 2020 despite all of the disruption and all of the challenges, and very grateful to all of you. Often when people face great adversity, they freeze. You didn’t! In fact, in looking over the “Mendoza year in review,” we were quite busy and accomplished a lot, to the great appreciation of our students as well.
On January 6, we witnessed an outrageous assault on Congress that to quote Father Jenkins, “was unworthy of our democracy.” I join his call for all of us to pray for this nation and to “condemn unequivocally the disruption of institutions designed to serve the common good.” These realities remind us that we continue to face many challenges, including social disunity and racial and social injustice. All of us can consider how we can work to heal these divisions.
As we enter 2021 (during which we will start celebrating the College’s centennial), it is our joint commitment to our Catholic mission – to educate business leaders who contribute to human flourishing, cooperate in solidarity and compete through growing toward the best version of themselves (with the help of God and others) – that endures and renews our hope, whatever the next 12 months might bring.
In his recent Epiphany of the Lord homily, Pope Francis encouraged us to greater worship and discipleship by presenting three (a most appropriate number…) “lessons” from the story of the Magi who traveled to see the newborn Jesus: “to lift up our eyes,” “to set out on a journey” and “to see.” I think this message offers a good approach to 2021 — to maintain an attitude of openness and gratitude with lifted up rather than downcast eyes, to continue on our journey with a focus on growth, and to prioritize a concern for the wellbeing of others.
In Notre Dame,
Martijn