Adrian Randolph, Dean of Weinberg College, welcomes new and returning students to the fall quarter and academic year in the video below.
“I could not be happier to welcome you for this fall term. Know that I and my faculty and staff colleagues work tirelessly to build a foundation on which you can successfully build a positive and catalytic experience at Northwestern.” – Dean Adrian Randolph
Transcript:
Hello. I am Adrian Randolph, Dean of Weinberg College. Last week on a sunny day on Deering Meadow, I had the pleasure of welcoming all new students to Weinberg College. Let me now, in addition, welcome back all returning students. I hope that no matter how you spent the preceding months, they proved fruitful for you.
There is something exciting about fall on campus. I think many of us feel this acutely given the disruptions of the pandemic. For years we have taken for granted “in-person” instruction. Covid-19 and remote learning has led us all to recognize more clearly the value of our being together and forming a community.
So let’s capitalize on this and renew our efforts to build community. This means different things to different people, but let it start with a kind word, a friendly smile, or a nod of acknowledgement. Such small gestures can help and, honestly, they are too rare in this world.
And, in your classes, you show respect for your instructors and one another by preparing. It may go without saying, but our collective enterprise only functions at the highest levels if everyone tries to live up to the latent contract that we all agree to try our best not only for ourselves but for those around us.
You can and you will learn much from your professors, but there is no doubt that much great and deep learning also results from the conversations you have with one another. I know that I still recall even short conversations with my fellow students that resonate with me today. Places like Weinberg College are vast networks of relationships, activated with ideas, words, images, and media. Your interactions feed this network and link up with our expansive research enterprise. For this network extends beyond Northwestern, into the world of ideas and into the lives of our alumni – and your lives after you graduate.
I encourage you to recognize that your social relationships and intellectual engagements all participate in enriching this network. Moreover, how you approach your curricular choices matters: the network of the arts and sciences operates most efficiently and intricately when you choose to stretch yourselves, exploring new fields. For, as I never tire of saying, the value of our interdisciplinary degree lies not only in the development of a skill set, but an adaptable mindset, forged as you both draw on your experiences and pursue depth of understanding, but also as you seek out new experiences across our broad curriculum.
It is for this reason that the College’s strategy is called “Interdisciplinary Thinking for a Complex World.” We need you to embrace the possibilities of interdisciplinary curiosity to face our greatest challenges.
I could not be happier to welcome you for this fall term. Know that I and my faculty and staff colleagues work tirelessly to build a foundation on which you can successfully build a positive and catalytic experience at Northwestern.
So be kind and be intellectually curious. Enrich the network of ideas and individuals that is Weinberg College. I know you will not regret it.