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Dear Clarke Community,
There is something remarkably energizing about the beginning of a new academic year. After the quieter rhythms of summer, campus fills again with students, conversation, activity, and possibility. Over the past several weeks, we have welcomed new colleagues, gathered as faculty and staff for CU Conference, introduced new students and their families to Clarke through CONNECT, and formally opened our 184th academic year at Convocation.
For me, these opening weeks are always a reminder that Clarke’s mission is not simply something we inherit from those who came before us. Each generation of students, faculty, and staff is called to ask what that mission requires of us now.
That question was very much present at CU Conference, where Dr. Caryn Riswold joined us through Clarke’s participation in the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). Trained as a theologian, Riswold invited us to think about vocation, the humanities, artificial intelligence, and human dignity, drawing in part on Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, on the dignity of the human person in an age of artificial intelligence. Her presentations challenged us to consider how rapidly changing technologies intersect with some very old questions: What does it mean to be human? What responsibilities do we have to one another? And how do we prepare students not simply to succeed in a changing world, but to participate thoughtfully and ethically in shaping it?
Those are deeply Clarke questions.
We will continue engaging questions like these throughout the month. On September 11, Campus Ministry will host representatives from the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa for a conversation about how people of different faiths and beliefs can draw on their deepest values to engage difficult public questions constructively and contribute to the common good. Then, on September 21, Clarke will join other community partners in sponsoring Dubuque’s annual International Day of Peace. This year’s theme, Celebrating 250 Years of HERstory, will highlight the often-overlooked contributions of women and others throughout American history through an evening program at Loras College. As an institution founded for the education of women, Clarke has a particular reason to value that work of remembering whose stories have shaped our communities and our country. I hope members of the Clarke community will take advantage of these opportunities to listen, learn, and engage with one another.
Our newest students are beginning that journey themselves. During CONNECT and Opening Convocation, I had the opportunity to meet many of them and their families and to hear something about the hopes they bring with them to Clarke. At Convocation, we welcomed them formally into a learning community that will ask them not only what they want to do with their lives, but who they want to become and how their gifts might be used in service to the world around them.
The renewed energy of campus is visible in other ways as well. Our fall athletic seasons are underway, and I had the pleasure of attending the women’s volleyball match last Saturday. I was struck by the size and enthusiasm of the crowd and by how good it felt to see the Kehl Center so full of life. It was a simple but vivid reminder that community is formed not only in classrooms, but also in the places where we gather to support one another, share experiences, and simply enjoy being together. I already have several other athletic events on my calendar this fall and look forward to cheering on more of our teams in the weeks ahead.
This past weekend offered another, more reflective reminder of how Clarke’s mission is carried across generations. Professor Emeritus John Lease, who taught generations of Clarke music students and founded the Clarke Collegiate Singers, was laid to rest on Saturday, September 5. Though I never had the opportunity to know John, it was nevertheless deeply moving to see the Dubuque community gather to celebrate his life, including a chorus that included many Clarke alumni and others who had been taught by him or sung under his direction. In moments like that, we see the mission of an institution in retrospect, in the lives and relationships shaped over many years. More, we are reminded that our responsibility is to carry that mission forward in the lives we are shaping now.
As this new year begins, I am grateful for the many people who make all of this possible, and especially for the alumni and friends who continue to encourage, support, and believe in Clarke and its students.
The world our students are preparing to enter is complicated, and Clarke itself continues to navigate significant change. But I remain convinced that the kind of education this institution has sought to provide for nearly two centuries matters profoundly: education grounded in relationship, attentive to human dignity, open to difficult questions, and oriented toward justice and service to others.
I am grateful to begin another year of that work together.
With gratitude,
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