WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.250 --> 00:00:01.250 Hi, everyone. 00:00:01.250 --> 00:00:05.759 I hope this message finds all of you, your families, and your friends safe and well. 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:09.550 We just finished classes this week, and I would like to mark the occasion by taking 00:00:09.550 --> 00:00:14.050 a moment to thank all of you—our faculty, staff, students, and alumni. 00:00:14.050 --> 00:00:17.700 This has been an extraordinary semester, in every sense of the term. 00:00:17.700 --> 00:00:20.530 It has, in many ways, been extraordinarily challenging. 00:00:20.530 --> 00:00:25.530 While the number of COVID-19 cases in our community hasn’t risen as dramatically as 00:00:25.530 --> 00:00:30.270 we had feared, we now have two dozen patients being treated in our Health System. 00:00:30.270 --> 00:00:34.390 Members of our community have been infected and some of our alumni have died from the 00:00:34.390 --> 00:00:35.450 disease. 00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:40.130 The economic impact of this pandemic has meant that we have had to make difficult decisions 00:00:40.130 --> 00:00:45.629 across the University, especially within the Health System, which has been hurt financially 00:00:45.629 --> 00:00:50.050 because it has been so well-prepared medically for COVID-19 patients. 00:00:50.050 --> 00:00:54.800 At the same time, many of our employees have had to juggle work and family, faculty have 00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:59.110 had to adjust their courses and course plans to teach online, and our students have 00:00:59.110 --> 00:01:03.359 had to adjust to being both at home and online. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:09.280 All that said, in extraordinary times, extraordinary institutions do extraordinary things. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:13.170 And this 200-year old institution is extraordinary. 00:01:13.170 --> 00:01:17.880 It survived the Civil War, two world wars, and the Korean and Vietnam wars. 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:21.410 It survived 9/11 and the 1918 Flu pandemic. 00:01:21.410 --> 00:01:26.729 In fact, UVA didn’t just survive these crises and others—it has managed to thrive over 00:01:26.729 --> 00:01:27.729 time. 00:01:27.729 --> 00:01:32.800 And so it is and will be with this pandemic—which poses a challenge unlike any other we've 00:01:32.800 --> 00:01:34.450 seen in our lifetime. 00:01:34.450 --> 00:01:40.190 We have risen to meet this challenge, which is to say that you--our students, faculty, staff, 00:01:40.190 --> 00:01:42.740 and alumni—have risen to meet it. 00:01:42.740 --> 00:01:46.439 You have faced this challenge with extraordinary dedication, creativity, and compassion. 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:51.620 To cite just a few examples from literally hundreds: 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:57.160 Members of the library staff scanned and delivered more than 64,000 pages of content to students 00:01:57.160 --> 00:01:58.570 and faculty. 00:01:58.570 --> 00:02:02.719 Teams from the architecture and engineering schools worked together to create a new way 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:07.790 to make face shields for doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients. 00:02:07.790 --> 00:02:12.410 Faculty not only taught their classes in new and challenging ways but continued to mentor 00:02:12.410 --> 00:02:16.910 and advise students, including a faculty member from the college who has spent two hours a 00:02:16.910 --> 00:02:22.170 day for the last couple of weeks helping a student fine tune her thesis over video chat—something 00:02:22.170 --> 00:02:25.910 I learned from a letter sent to me by a grateful parent. 00:02:25.910 --> 00:02:31.000 A team of UVA employees and volunteers has provided aid to hundreds of furloughed contract 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:35.700 workers—and a group from the Law School volunteered to help them apply for unemployment 00:02:35.700 --> 00:02:36.700 benefits. 00:02:36.700 --> 00:02:41.650 A team of UVA faculty, lab professionals, and staff created the first local test in 00:02:41.650 --> 00:02:46.990 Virginia for COVID-19, and they can now test hundreds of people a day, not just those from 00:02:46.990 --> 00:02:50.240 UVA and Charlottesville but across the Commonwealth of Virginia. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:56.370 Two Health System employees traveled to Tennessee to bring back a robot that is now being used 00:02:56.370 --> 00:03:02.099 to sanitize up to 6,000 N-95 masks per day, so that they can be reused. 00:03:02.099 --> 00:03:07.620 You have also supported each other all along the way, making it abundantly clear just how 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:11.300 strong and connected this community is at its best. 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:15.900 A group of students created Hoos Helping Hoos, a network that connects students who need 00:03:15.900 --> 00:03:19.390 assistance with members of the community who can offer it. 00:03:19.390 --> 00:03:23.670 And staff from Student Financial Services and Student Affairs have worked together to 00:03:23.670 --> 00:03:28.140 distribute nearly a million dollars in assistance to students in need. 00:03:28.140 --> 00:03:33.650 Construction crews working on the new UVA Health wing lined up at 6:30am to cheer 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:37.760 health care workers on their way to work or leaving their shifts. 00:03:37.760 --> 00:03:42.950 A group of alumni and parents in China came together to donate and ship 20,000 surgical 00:03:42.950 --> 00:03:45.269 face masks to the Health System. 00:03:45.269 --> 00:03:49.110 Members of the University Guide Service and Black Student Alliance have reached out to 00:03:49.110 --> 00:03:51.700 admitted students to tell them all about UVA. 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:57.180 Finally, talented singers, dancers, musicians, and artists in our community have helped lift 00:03:57.180 --> 00:04:00.630 our spirits as part of our digital “Arts on the Hill” program. 00:04:00.630 --> 00:04:05.879 For all of this and more, you have my profound thanks and the thanks of my colleagues Liz 00:04:05.879 --> 00:04:11.830 Magill, our provost, JJ Davis, our COO, and Craig Kent, our EVP for Health Affairs. 00:04:11.830 --> 00:04:16.769 The semester isn’t entirely over, as papers and exams and grading still await, but thank 00:04:16.769 --> 00:04:19.810 you—and congratulations on making it this far. 00:04:19.810 --> 00:04:24.620 It hasn't been easy; it hasn't been perfect; and our work is not complete. 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:28.770 But it's nonetheless been inspiring to be a part of this community, as it continued 00:04:28.770 --> 00:04:34.639 its inevitably imperfect pursuit of high ideals during a uniquely challenging time. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:38.870 As we look ahead, I know that many, if not all of you, are eager to know what the fall 00:04:38.870 --> 00:04:39.870 will look like. 00:04:39.870 --> 00:04:41.389 I am as well. 00:04:41.389 --> 00:04:45.150 We will certainly be open and offering courses; that much is clear. 00:04:45.150 --> 00:04:49.060 Our hope is that we will have students back on Grounds and that we will be teaching our 00:04:49.060 --> 00:04:50.750 courses in person. 00:04:50.750 --> 00:04:54.460 We are working night and day to figure out how we might do that safely. 00:04:54.460 --> 00:04:59.380 We are also making contingency plans in case not all students can be here in person and 00:04:59.380 --> 00:05:02.530 in case some courses will need to be online. 00:05:02.530 --> 00:05:07.310 This is a complicated task, but we have a remarkable group of faculty, staff, and students 00:05:07.310 --> 00:05:08.310 working on it. 00:05:08.310 --> 00:05:12.630 We will keep you posted on our progress and expect to announce our plans for the fall 00:05:12.630 --> 00:05:13.630 in mid-June. 00:05:13.630 --> 00:05:18.470 We already know that next fall will call on us to summon once again the flexibility, 00:05:18.470 --> 00:05:23.250 creativity, and resilience that carried us through this semester. 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:27.510 Runners tend to overuse marathon analogies, so I apologize in advance for ending this 00:05:27.510 --> 00:05:29.090 message with yet another, but I can't resist. 00:05:29.090 --> 00:05:35.150 If you’ve ever run a marathon, you know that at about mile 11 or so you start to realize 00:05:35.150 --> 00:05:38.360 that marathons are long, and they are hard. 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:43.060 But you tell yourself, repeatedly, that there is a finish line, and that you will get there, 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:44.490 even if you can’t yet see it. 00:05:44.490 --> 00:05:48.200 You just have to keep running, one step at a time. 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:52.460 And you have to remind yourself that you’re not actually in this alone—you know you’ll 00:05:52.460 --> 00:05:56.580 get support and encouragement from your fellow runners and spectators. 00:05:56.580 --> 00:05:58.380 We are at mile 11 in this pandemic. 00:05:58.380 --> 00:06:03.440 There is still a long road in front of us, and at times it will be hard. 00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:07.110 But there is a finish line ahead, even if we can’t see it yet. 00:06:07.110 --> 00:06:11.229 We will cross that line together, supporting each other the whole way. 00:06:11.229 --> 00:06:16.260 When we do cross that line, we will likely be a little tired and sore, and maybe even 00:06:16.260 --> 00:06:17.970 a bit bruised. 00:06:17.970 --> 00:06:22.960 But we’ll better and stronger for the experience, and we’ll share a bond that won’t soon 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:23.960 be broken. 00:06:23.960 --> 00:06:26.420 Thank you, and be well.