Dean’s Message

I am resilient – I am strong!

I’ve been thinking about resilience lately sparked by the recent storms and flooding.  Not resilience of infrastructure to disasters, but human resilience.  Definitely, it was awful to watch the pictures and probably each of us knows at least one family or person who was personally affected.  Remember, it was the second weather related catastrophe in ten years most of our students have endured.  Just ten years ago hurricane Katrina hit and caused similar devastation.  At the fall 2006 commencement some of you probably remember I played Randy Newman’s song LOUISIANA.  Click on it and listen.  It was poignant then and now.

These two life-changing events can stress even the strongest person – young or old.  How are your students handling it?  How are you handling it?  How can we help our students handle it?  What can we do?  We need to help them become resilient – tough without being callous.

I read a lot of articles on the secrets of resilience.  But many were formulaic. They had common elements like seek help, believe in yourself, build social support, have a strong network of family and friends, surround yourself with mentors, etc.  But I was looking for something more aspirational and an explanation of how some people live resilient lives and others do not.

David Brooks, the New York Times author, recently wrote an article titled “Making Modern Toughness.”  He wrote, "The people we admire for being resilient... are ardent. They have a fervent commitment to some cause, some ideal or some relationship. That higher yearning enables them to withstand setbacks, pain and betrayal... There are moments when they feel swallowed up by fear. They feel and live in the pain. But they work through it and their ardent yearning is still there, and they return to an altered wholeness."

Brooks continues, "If you really want people to be tough, make them idealistic for some cause, make them tender for some other person, and make them committed to some world view that puts today's temporary pain in the context of a larger hope." (Brooks, Opinion Pages, August 30, 2016)

In short, people are stronger when they are pursuing their ultimate aim - their purpose for living.  Now that is something that we can work on.  We do it all the time.  It is what we do best as educators, professors and academic leaders.  We help our young students identify and define their goal, their ultimate aim in life. 

It is an awesome responsibility but it is one that I know you can fulfill. They deserve our attention to his important part of education. Our students and the resilient lives they live will be the testament to our success. Thank you for everything you do.  Have a good semester.

All the best,

Gordon