This summer dozens of Wofford students, faculty and staff worked on a plan to return to campus in the fall. We called our plan Wofford Together. The Student COVID-19 Response Team also came up with a special Terriers Take Care (of each other) tagline for their social media campaign encouraging their peers to make healthy choices for the good of our community. I like Wofford Together and Terriers Take Care very much because they are indicative of our community, and not just in this time of coronavirus. Even as I write that, I realize that those words are easy for me to say because I see and experience this each day. Unfortunately, not everyone in our community has the same experience or feels the same level of inclusion. This has been hard for many of us to hear and understand, but we must listen, learn and respond with compassion.
Since integration and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, each generation has made strides in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. Now, however, is the ideal opportunity to take those cumulative gains and build upon them. This issue of Wofford Today shares information on our college’s and nation’s extraordinary summer, with an interview with Dr. Will Gravely ’61, professor emeritus of religion at the University of Denver, who spent 40 years researching the last lynching in South Carolina. We share information on the 2019 Diversity Report and celebrate the launch of a new strategic visioning process to prepare our college for the future. There’s even a story written by a South Carolina Journalist of the Year telling the story of the Back of the College neighborhood.
We belong to an incredible community, and although we may have different majors and priorities and values, we all cherish Wofford College and value the liberal arts educational experience. Thank you for your commitment to the college and each other.
Wofford Together!
