Tropical storm doesn’t dampen start of Fall 2021

Students leave the Jefferson Academic Center during the first day of classes.   Everyone has a story to tell, but the story of the Clark University Class of 2025 is just a little, well, damper than most. On Move-In Day, August 19, many of the 519 first-year students and their families were greeted with a torrential downpour that turned sidewalks into streams and steps into waterfalls, throughout the morning. Then there was the tornado warning. On Sunday, August 22, Tropical Storm Henri brought additional moisture to Worcester, driving welcome-back events and activities indoors for new and returning undergraduates. Among them were 243 transfer students, including 195 from Becker College, many of whom will be among the first cohort of the Becker School of Design & Technology at Clark. During Orientation, new Clark students got a feel for the University’s academics through a Common Academic Experience — a screening of the award-winning documentary, “Coded Bias,” followed by a discussion with Clark faculty members. The film, which can be viewed on Netflix, chronicles the efforts of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini to push for U.S. legislation against the racial bias in algorithms that are central to facial recognition technology. A conversation with the director of “Coded Bias,” Shalini Kantayya, will take place on September 15 from 5 to 6 p.m.

By yesterday, August 23, Clark’s undergraduate and graduate students had returned to the classroom for the first full day of classes. “I have no doubt that this is going to be a productive and exciting year,” President David Fithian said in his August 23 welcome message to students, faculty, and staff. “I hope it affords each and every one of you the opportunity to explore, to discover, to learn, and to contribute to life on our campus.” The Class of 2025 will certainly add their skills and passions to the campus mix. The class includes an internationally ranked skier and snowboarder, an Olympic swimmer, a collector of baseball memorabilia, and a student who wrote and presented a TED Talk on how to virtually dissect a frog. Clark has also welcomed 293 graduate students this fall, hailing from 23 U.S. states and 29 countries. In addition to hundreds of new students, Clark also begins the semester with a new provost, new faculty members across the disciplines, and its first-ever director of esports and recreational games. As the president noted in his message, there also will be physical changes to campus taking place this year, including the enhancement of the Main Street entrance and a significant renovation of the Michelson Theater inside the Little Center. In short, a new look for a new year.