President's Corner ‑ May 21, 2021

Dear Dal Community,

Last week, we released Dalhousie’s annual Community Report, which highlights the university’s impact in our communities across the province and the region.

As I shared in the opening message of the report, as we pursue our global ambitions, it is our civic duty to simultaneously strengthen our province and our region. While the report shares stories of our considerable community impact across the spectrum, highlighting numerous examples for us to be proud of, the timeliest perhaps are those that illustrate the current efforts of Dalhousie’s faculty, students and staff to control the pandemic.

I encourage you to explore the entire report, which is laid out in a very reader-friendly style, but especially note our partnerships with the provincial and federal governments and Nova Scotia Health to help with testing and vaccination efforts; the expert advice our researchers have provided on a national scale; how our staff, researchers, and alumni collaborated to address the critical need for PPE; our leading efforts to detect COVID-19 through wastewater testing; or how our students have utilized technology to stay connected with one another and their surrounding communities in a virtual environment.

As we grapple with the third wave of the pandemic together here in Nova Scotia, I am especially conscious of the dual role many of our students and researchers who work in medicine, health and related fields have as citizens of Dalhousie who are also making vital contributions to the province’s fight against the virus. While we all have made difficult and necessary compromises to combat COVID-19, there are many members of the Dalhousie community for whom responding to the pandemic has been a nearly all-consuming endeavour for more than a year now.

Both National Physicians Day and National Nursing week took place in May, and we are currently flying the Healthcare Heroes flag to recognize the front-line healthcare providers and volunteers in our community. I am extremely humbled by the courage and commitment of the students, faculty, researchers and staff who are putting the wellbeing of others ahead of their own during this time that is so critical for Nova Scotia’s healthcare system. Thank you for living this principle of civic duty and service. The Dalhousie community stands behind you.

Sincerely,

Deep