Dear Fellow Badgers

During a March press conference, Chancellor Blank announced that students should not return after spring break. With her are Jake Baggott of University Health Services (center) and vice chancellor for finance and administration Laurent Heller (right). Bryce Richter

What a year it has been.

Here at the UW, we (like so many of you) continue to deal with upheaval, isolation, and uncertainty.

And yet, in the middle of this crisis, we also have found reasons to be hopeful. We’ve continued to move forward with much of the work of the university, using technology in new ways. We’ve figured out how to stay in touch with, and deliver education to, our students at a distance, and loaned our residence halls to health care workers. And we’ve been part of an international scientific collaboration that is driving an extraordinary response to fighting COVID-19. As mentioned in the summer issue of On Wisconsin, UW–Madison is a clinical trial site for a promising COVID-19 treatment, and members of our faculty are leading a worldwide team working on a coronavirus vaccine.

And in the proud tradition of the Wisconsin Idea, when our faculty, staff, students, and alumni heard about critical shortages of personal protective equipment, they pulled together and quickly figured out how to produce hand sanitizer and make face shields. You’ll read more about those efforts in the summer issue, too.

In short, I’ve been proud of this university and how it has responded to this crisis in the past few months.

The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association created a website to gather and share updates from campus: advanceuw.org/coronavirus. I hope you will follow what’s happening here, and I hope you will let us know how you are supporting one another and your communities at this difficult time.

But most of all, I hope that you will take good care of yourselves and your families.

I look forward to the day when we can welcome you back to campus in person.

Be well and keep in touch.

My best,
Chancellor Rebecca Blank

Published in the Summer 2020 issue