A year-end message from President Book

Dear members of the Elon community,

As we bring 2021 to a close, I want you to know how I am so grateful for each of you, and for what we have accomplished this year — together.

Think back to last January. We were experiencing the first Winter Term since 1969, more than 50 years, without a study abroad course. Students, staff and faculty were welcomed back to campus in January with new protocols that required us to visit alumni gym for regular COVID testing. To be honest, I was grateful. It meant that we had plenty of rapid tests. Those weekly check-ins staffed by many of you — hundreds of volunteers — allowed our campus to come together again, with a healthy routine.

Then came the vaccines, the big game-changer. North Carolina led the nation in orderly distribution of the vaccines putting college students in the first cycle. And Elon staff ensured that Elon became a vaccine site. Thank you for that important work. Our testing and vaccine efforts were enormously successful and COVID numbers dropped precipitously.

Elon athletics put together a great spring sports season—including football. We all experienced a great sense of comfort when we could eat together again in dining halls, and College Coffee resumed.

And we received a major gift from alumnus Furman Moseley and his wife, Susan, a vote of confidence in the middle of the pandemic that allowed us to break ground on the Innovation Quad. A welcome signal for the community that Elon’s future is bright. The Moseley’s gift also helped Elon cross the 200-mark in our Odyssey scholarship program. Truly remarkable! Two-hundred-plus students, usually the first in their families to attend college, with full tuition assistance.

We ended the spring semester of 2021 with zero active cases of COVID and a spectacular commencement celebration with alumnus Daniel Watts. After some long overdue vacation time during the summer, we transitioned our Ready and Resilient COVID plan to Healthy Elon, as we prepared for a much more normal fall semester.

Another generous gift came, this time from the Williams family, which allowed us to name the School of Education in honor of our beloved colleague, Dr. Jo Watts Williams. We are enormously grateful that Jo’s name will be a part of Elon’s future forever. Her passing in September was challenging for us all. And this fall we also lost trustees Wallace Chandler and Jeanne Robertson – two longtime, loyal and generous champions of Elon. Elon leaders who will be sorely missed.

And then the fall came with the Delta variant, another reminder of our vulnerability and the need to keep our masks handy. But we also welcomed our first nursing students to campus, all 49 of them. They are a hopeful sign of the future, of Elon nurse leaders working for the common good, for each of us, our families and our communities.

This fall we also welcomed back the Class of 2020 for a delayed Commencement celebration. And as I congratulated each graduate and looked into their eyes, I understood more clearly the importance of traditions and rites of passage. The renunciation of what was lost and the annunciation of what is to come. That ceremony, created by your hard work on a Sunday in September, was truly one of the greatest moments I have experienced at Elon. And it will be a treasured memory for those families their entire lives. Thank you.

The next week, we learned that U.S. News and World Report had ranked Elon at #83 among national universities – the highest ranking ever. Most importantly we were ranked #1 for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Our peers in higher education across the country recognize what we have known for years: that the Elon model of classroom engagement and student mentoring is second to none. My congratulations to everyone who makes our classroom experience the finest in the nation. Thank you.

Throughout the fall, the number of visiting prospective students has been returning to pre-pandemic numbers. In fact, our new Inn at Elon has had several sold-out nights. We are on track for a record number of applications for admissions for the Class of 2026 and Vice President Zaiser tells me we have received our first deposits.

What remains steadfast at Elon, is the true power of learning. This miracle that we can learn something new and with that knowledge change our lives, change the lives of our family members, those in our communities and around the world. There’s no question in my mind that if you truly want to change the world — educate someone.

I was reminded of that last Monday evening, when Furman Moseley called me again wanting to give back to Elon, the university that changed his life, by providing another gift to support the Innovation Quad and four more Odyssey scholarships. Furman and Susan know their gifts provide that everyday miracle of life-changing learning.

In each of the moments of 2021, you have been there — our community of staff and faculty. You are Elon. You are the lumen, the luminaries, the lights who make our mission possible. I hope that you have a great sense of satisfaction that in the unknowns of 2021, you have made this year successful. And you are building the future by making life-changing contributions to students’ learning. Please know how grateful I am, and how grateful Elon is for each of you.

May you enjoy time with family and friends as we close out this year and may we all face the unknowns of 2022 with pride in what we have accomplished together, and with bold confidence that we are ready for the challenges that lie ahead.

Thank you.