Dear Pitzer Community,
At Pitzer, the start of fall semester always feels like a new beginning. Returning students are eager to reconnect with classmates and teachers. Incoming students arrive on campus ready to embark on one of the most exciting, transformative chapters of their lives.
Today, our campus is alive with that sense of renewal and possibility. As our newest Pitzer students moved in this past weekend, they were warmly greeted by enthusiastic student leaders and bright orange signs that summed up the overarching theme: “Welcome Home Pitzer Students!”
We also know that this fall will be like no other as we return to campus still facing challenges posed by the pandemic. We will delight in each other’s company while being ever mindful of our community’s wellbeing. We will mix new public health protocols with cherished Pitzer traditions.
In that spirit, we will hold a virtual Convocation this year to formally usher our new students into Pitzer’s academic and intellectual community. Please mark your calendars for Monday, August 30, at 4 p.m., and we’ll send more details soon.
In the meantime, it is a profound joy to be able to welcome everyone home to the Pitzer College campus, and I am beyond grateful to all of you who have worked so hard to make an in-person fall semester possible. I also want to thank our students and their families for their enormous faith and patience as we continue to navigate this unprecedented era.
James Baldwin once wrote, “I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that. So are we all.” This semester, we will learn what these times, circumstances, and history have made of us. We will also see how much more we are as we do what we do best—learn together, grow together, and change the world together.
Provida Futuri,
Melvin L. Oliver
