Dear members of the OCAD University community,
It is with great delight that I welcome you to the start of the 2021-22 academic year. I look forward to seeing your smiling eyes in person as we gradually come back to campus starting today.
The past 18 months have not been easy. Though many of us rose to the challenge, creatively adapting to our more constrained circumstances and even thrived, it is also clear that we have all been changed in one way or another by the COVID-19 pandemic.
All sorts of feelings and thoughts will arise as we re-engage with each other in our community face-to-face. Joyful abandon will bump up against social anxieties; expectations of how closed or open the campus should be will vary; and social norms will be created in real-time as we sort out how we relate with each other all masked-up and social-distanced while studying or making or eating or excitedly sharing ourselves once more with peers. All this coming together will be rife with pleasure, misunderstandings, failings, serendipitous magic, tensions and yes, sometimes conflict.
And that is OKAY. Feelings and thoughts come and go. How we choose to be in relation with each other as a community is an ongoing project. And today, this project takes centre stage.
How we show up for ourselves and others will influence how this fall unfolds and how the next four years could unfold. After these 18 months, will we re-engage with each other with generosity, openness, humour and grace? Will we try to understand that everyone’s experience of the pandemic is different and choose to give each other a break? Will we give space to that necessary pause before reacting to whatever unexpected thing comes our way?
During the past year, I have seen our community come together to create meaningful connections and build a sense of togetherness despite working, studying and learning remotely. We should all be proud of the work that everyone – students, faculty and staff – has done during a very difficult year.
So, let’s make the most of this new beginning of being gradually back on campus to mindfully nurture our human connections in all their diversity so we can find opportunities to grow, to be even more creative, and to be ready to tackle new challenges that may come our way.
To our new students, I am so thrilled you chose OCAD U as your new academic home for the next few years! You’re joining a community of mentors and peers whose creative talents, diverse passions and kind generosity will help guide your own academic and artistic pursuits.
To the newest members of our faculty and staff, welcome to OCAD U! I look forward to seeing what you have in store for our students, to learning more about your own creative endeavours and projects, and to working alongside you.
And finally, I want to give a huge shout-out to the members of the Fall Experience Group, led by Deanne Fisher, Vice-Provost, Students & International, for their tireless work and ongoing dedication in getting us ready to welcome everyone back to campus. Thank you so much!
Stay safe and I look forward to seeing you soon!
Ana Serrano
President and Vice-Chancellor
OCAD University