A Letter from Gregory Dunaway

Dear Alumni and Friends,

I hope this message finds you well and beginning to enjoy the summer season. As I write this message, we are just a few weeks past our Spring Commencement Ceremonies, which I am happy to say were not only in-person, but we were able to return to our typical indoor College-specific commencement exercises. President Gee, Provost Reed and I were able to personally congratulate nearly 1,000 graduates from Eberly.

It is worth noting that these graduates completed a significant part of their studies during extraordinarily challenging times. While we are likely to be feeling the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic for years to come, it cannot be denied that the challenges posed over the past two years were unprecedented. I think we should all be incredibly proud of our academic community within Eberly and across WVU for rallying together and meeting these challenges head-on and, for the most part, overcoming them. I am particularly proud of our students who displayed resilience and courage. As difficult as these times have been and continue to be, I know that this experience will provide them the strength and knowledge to face and conquer adversity going forward.

Speaking of which, I have been thinking a lot about going forward and what that means for us as a college, as well as for all institutions of higher education. I firmly believe that our future success will require us to think more intentionally about our academic programs, our scholarship, our learning experiences and our service to the larger community. Specifically, I believe that we need to orient our activities towards solving today’s and tomorrow’s problems. This will require that individuals across many different academic disciplines and fields work in tandem both to educate our students more holistically, and to create and apply knowledge from our scholarship. I will have more to say about this topic and emerging initiatives in future editions of the Eberly Magazine.

This issue’s theme of ‘Illuminating Opportunities’ provides some terrific examples of how our students, faculty and alumni making a difference by shining a light on how we work to find solutions to serious problems. I hope you will enjoy reading about these efforts as well as the many other exciting things going on in Eberly.

I want to thank you for your loyal support of Eberly’s students and faculty. Your support truly changes people’s lives, and I am humbled by your generosity. Please keep in touch, and I look forward to seeing you either on campus or wherever our country roads lead us.

Be well, and Let’s Go!

Gregory Dunaway, Dean