{"id":28,"date":"2020-07-01T17:50:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T21:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/president\/2020\/07\/01\/first-day-reflections\/"},"modified":"2025-03-31T10:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T14:59:57","slug":"first-day-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/president\/2020\/07\/01\/first-day-reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"First-Day Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2020-07-01T17:50:22-04:00\">July 1, 2020<\/time><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"Style7\">Dear Members of the Clark Community,<\/p>\n<p class=\"Style7\">As I start my first day as president of our great university, I can\u2019t help but think back to my earlier beginning here. It was a sweltering day in August of 1983 when I drove from New York to Worcester and moved into Bullock Hall as a first-year student knowing little about what my future would hold. That I would someday \u2014 today! \u2014 be president of Clark was beyond my imagining then. Even now, months after the announcement of my appointment, and despite the serious and immediate challenges we are all facing, I remain delighted by and ever more determined to embrace this opportunity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Style7\">Of course, this opportunity belongs to all of us. And my hope is that each of you will join me \u2014 in any and every way you can \u2014 in appreciating, defining, and realizing Clark\u2019s potential to become an even more excellent, distinctive, and truly impactful place. In doing this work together, we must accept and confront our shortcomings and do far better for all members of our community. In doing this work together, we must at once be bold and courageous as well as prudent and realistic. In doing this work together, we must be patiently-determined in our aspirations, but not fail to raise our sights, even as the challenges of the coming year will be considerable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Style7\">I will soon have much more to share with you about the coming year and about the aspirations to which I just alluded. For today, however, I simply wanted to share with you this moment of personal reflection and resolve, and extend an invitation to each of you to actively join me in writing the next chapter of Clark\u2019s compelling story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Style7\">With warmest regards,<\/p>\n<p class=\"Style7\">David B. Fithian \u201987<\/p>\n<p class=\"Style7\">President<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Members of the Clark Community, As I start my first day as president of our great university, I can\u2019t help but think back to my earlier beginning here. It was a sweltering day in August of 1983 when I drove from New York to Worcester and moved into Bullock Hall as a first-year student [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>First-Day Reflections | Office of the President | Clark University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/president\/2020\/07\/01\/first-day-reflections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First-Day Reflections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Members of the Clark Community, As I start my first day as president of our great university, I can\u2019t help but think back to my earlier beginning here. It was a sweltering day in August of 1983 when I drove from New York to Worcester and moved into Bullock Hall as a first-year student [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/president\/2020\/07\/01\/first-day-reflections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Office of the President\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-01T21:50:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-31T14:59:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Pennypacker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/01\\\/first-day-reflections\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/01\\\/first-day-reflections\\\/\"},\"headline\":\"First-Day Reflections\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-01T21:50:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-31T14:59:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/01\\\/first-day-reflections\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":297,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/01\\\/first-day-reflections\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/01\\\/first-day-reflections\\\/\",\"name\":\"First-Day Reflections | Office of the President | Clark University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-01T21:50:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-31T14:59:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/884237452632ee846930bad1d6a6d61d\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/2020\\\/07\\\/01\\\/first-day-reflections\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/posts\\\/28#breadcrumbs\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":0,\"name\":\"ClarkU\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Office of the President\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/\",\"name\":\"Office of the President\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/president\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"First-Day Reflections | Office of the President | Clark University","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/president\/2020\/07\/01\/first-day-reflections\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"First-Day Reflections","og_description":"Dear Members of the Clark Community, As I start my first day as president of our great university, I can\u2019t help but think back to my earlier beginning here. 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