July 9, 2021
American Freedom
I celebrated this Independence Day watching the film of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical, In the Heights—an infectious and joyful love letter to Washington Heights, Nueva York, and the U.S.A. conceived of as a multicultural nation built of waves of immigrants bringing not just dreams and determination but rich culture (music, food, language, customs). In the […]
May 17, 2021
The COVID Commencement
A year ago, when college commencements were rendered impossible by the pandemic lockdown and we all switched to virtual ceremonies or tributes, we imagined we might be able to reschedule an in-person event by December 2020 at the latest. Instead, we were just part of the way into a full year of running our institutions with full COVID mitigations: masking, distancing, hybrid teaching, and frequent testing, isolation and quarantine.
January 17, 2021
MLK Day 2021: “The Fierce Urgency of Now”
“The memory of our warmest heart is Celebrated in bitter winter’s time” —from Robert Earl Price, “Baltimore: Aftermath of a Dream Deferred (MLK Birthday 2018)”(full poem at end) Ninety-two years after the birth of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, fifty-two years after his assassination, we celebrate his legacy just days after violent insurgents broke into […]
December 14, 2020
Muddling Through the COVID Christmas
Lonelier and quieter winter holidays await us in the midst of the pandemic
November 20, 2020
Thanksgiving 2020
I look out my office window and see the students walking by in their masks and think of the stories they will tell their children about college during the pandemic. Thanksgiving holiday is approaching, and just as in normal years, the students are thinning out as they trickle home a few days ahead of schedule. […]
September 1, 2020
Back to School — 2020
As September begins and, yes, the air in upstate New York starts to show a little crispness, I’m struck by what an unusual start of school this pandemic fall presents. Russell Sage students are back on campus and classes are meeting, but more are online; some students and faculty are wholly remote; most classes are […]
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