Dear Members of the Clark Community,

As I start my first day as president of our great university, I can’t help but think back to my earlier beginning here. It was a sweltering day in August of 1983 when I drove from New York to Worcester and moved into Bullock Hall as a first-year student knowing little about what my future would hold. That I would someday — today! — be president of Clark was beyond my imagining then. Even now, months after the announcement of my appointment, and despite the serious and immediate challenges we are all facing, I remain delighted by and ever more determined to embrace this opportunity.

Of course, this opportunity belongs to all of us. And my hope is that each of you will join me — in any and every way you can — in appreciating, defining, and realizing Clark’s potential to become an even more excellent, distinctive, and truly impactful place. In doing this work together, we must accept and confront our shortcomings and do far better for all members of our community. In doing this work together, we must at once be bold and courageous as well as prudent and realistic. In doing this work together, we must be patiently-determined in our aspirations, but not fail to raise our sights, even as the challenges of the coming year will be considerable.

I will soon have much more to share with you about the coming year and about the aspirations to which I just alluded. For today, however, I simply wanted to share with you this moment of personal reflection and resolve, and extend an invitation to each of you to actively join me in writing the next chapter of Clark’s compelling story.

With warmest regards,

David B. Fithian ’87

President