Dearest Friends and Colleagues:

At the end of the fall 2023 semester, on December 6, 2023, our beloved university, UNLV, was dealt a devastating blow, a tragic event we could never have imagined happening, as we were poised to end the semester. As we all know firsthand, an active shooter on our campus viciously murdered three esteemed faculty colleagues and seriously injured a fourth victim. This was unfathomable. How could this atrocity take place on our campus, our academic home, sacred ground for educating thousands of students? After all, our university has the glorious responsibility of transforming the lives not only of our students, but also of their families. We may never really be able to make sense of how such an unspeakable tragedy could have happened to change the course of our collective lives. The devastation from this incident still feels incalculable.

But as heinous as this horrific tragedy was, now it is time to embrace the future with optimism, and to move forward. This is the best and right way to honor our fallen faculty members, those whose lives were cruelly cut short, and who were such dedicated and committed educators in their own right. They, who changed lives and deeply inspired their students, are an inspiration to all of us. 

In the College of Fine Arts, we have the opportunity to take on the future by infusing the arts into every aspect of life. By doing this, and by affirming that the arts are an essential part of living, we are sharing the absolute best that life has to offer. Amidst all of the sorrow and confusion, we must come together to celebrate the light and joy that comes with providing a stellar education to our arts students — and watching them thrive.

It is time to turn the page to 2024, to the spring semester, to the next era of providing the pathway to success for our students. We hold dear those we lost on December 6. We hold them in our hearts, never to be forgotten, by pursuing a future each of them stood for — caring and educating our precious students. We will find, once again, a safe space on our campus that is a nurturing and fertile environment for meeting the needs of each and every student, faculty and staff member.

I wish each of you a restorative and meaningful semester. I am there for each of you, in times of celebration and happiness, as well as in times of difficulty and challenge. Please always let me know how I can be helpful.

Sending all of you my warmest wishes,
Nancy