Dear students, faculty, and staff,

As the academic year draws to a close, I want to thank you all for contributing as each of you do to the dynamic and vibrant life of our university. This was a year in which thankfully we were able to return to an even greater sense of normalcy following the height of the pandemic. This may be especially poignant for our graduating seniors, whose first year at Clark was abruptly upended in March 2020. For our entire student body and everyone in our community who on top of altered academic activities and workplace responsibilities also had to manage support for families and loved ones, I hope that this year was as fulfilling as possible and that as you reflect on your time at Clark you are proud of how our community first responded to and now are evolving out of the worst public health crisis in a century.

This year at Clark was actually an extraordinary one; the sheer number of things we achieved, accomplished, or attained as a university, many for the first time, is impressive. To highlight just a few:

• Applications for undergraduate admission soared past 10,000, with applicants for the first time hailing from all 50 states (as well as all but two U.S. territories); more than half of the growth in applications this year is from international students living abroad.
• We enrolled this past fall our largest classes in history—both at the undergraduate and graduate level.
  Students in Clark’s concert choir performed for the first time on the main stage at Carnegie Hall, conducted by a member of our own faculty, to standing ovations.
• The Clark University rowing team earned its highest national ranking in program history as they joined the top five in the Division 3 Pocock CRCA Coaches Poll.
• We celebrated the centennial of our Graduate School of Geography and the 40th anniversary of our School of Management (which for the first time this year offered undergraduate majors in finance and marketing in addition to business).
• We hosted a national conference on DEI in gaming and in esports we won our first-ever divisional championship in the NECC Navigators Division.
• More than 200 members of our faculty and staff came together for the first time to learn more about exciting programs seeded by innovation grants and to explore a broad range of current and future initiatives.
• A Clark alum won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in photography and another was appointed a Federal judge to the District Court in Worcester.
• We will complete the first building on our campus to be heated and cooled by geothermal technology, and we have created the University’s first full-time position of Chief Sustainability Officer, which we hope to have filled in the fall semester.

These are just some of the dozens of things that have happened at Clark this year that I hope you join me in taking great pride in. There is a wonderful and growing sense of accomplishment on campus today to which all of you have contributed. As we continue to expand our academic offerings, improve support for students, faculty, and staff, and enhance the experience of campus life for all, I am confident that the way in which Clark fulfills its mission in the years ahead will be ever more compelling and rewarding.

I look forward to seeing many of you again on campus in the fall and, for our newest alums, at events around the country next year.

With very best wishes,
David Fithian ’87