Dear L&S Community,
The College of Letters & Science is committed to creating an inclusive environment in which all of us — students, staff and faculty — can have opportunities for growth and success. Ours is a community in which we all are welcome, cultivate mutual respect and foster connection. Most importantly, it is a community to which all of us feel a great sense of belonging. We are resolute in this commitment.To quote the late Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize recipient Toni Morrison, an extraordinary liberal arts experience is built on “encounters and collaborations among and between strangers from different neighborhoods and strangers from other lands.” We know, unequivocally, that teams that bring different ideas and experiences to the group are more creative and successful than homogeneous ones. The questions we ask as scholars and our approaches to the “sifting and winnowing” that is the hallmark of this great University are reflections of our varied backgrounds and lived experiences.
We are better when we embrace our complexities and nuances and when we acknowledge, celebrate and honor them. In acknowledging and honoring our diversity, we also assume a responsibility to learn from each other through civil dialogue and support each other to grow and succeed. Let that be the Letters & Science experience. Let that be what it means to be a member of this Letters & Science community.
Eric M. Wilcots
Dean and Mary C. Jacoby Professor of Astronomy
College of Letters & Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison