A Year in Review

December 4, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

As we approach the final weeks of 2020, we are provided an annual opportunity for reflection. Of course, this year has been like no other, and each of us has been challenged in ways we never anticipated.

Early in the year, the COVID-19 pandemic required us to quickly change the course of our operations to maintain the safety and health of our community. Our faculty and staff responded admirably, despite many challenges. Our dedicated faculty were largely able to successfully effectuate an unprecedented move to a fully remote environment to ensure the continuation of all academic courses. Our staff responded rapidly to the changing needs of the University and worked tirelessly behind the scenes to not only support our students, but ensure our daily operations were managed effectively, even from afar. In addition, researchers throughout Rutgers initiated groundbreaking research to fight the pandemic, and even now, clinical trials testing vaccines and new therapeutic treatments for COVID-19 are ongoing, right on our New Brunswick campus.

So today, even from a distance, our extended university community maintains the positive spirit of Rutgers. While these last 12 months have tested our collective strength in ways big and small, we have responded with the resiliency that reflects our university’s 254-year history. Rutgers has faced challenges before; we have endured trials and celebrated triumphs, and that is what makes our bond as members of this extraordinary university so strong.

As we close out 2020, I thank you for your continued commitment to Rutgers and for all your work to support education, academic and research excellence, and community service. I also so look forward to the days when we are back together, on campus, safely once again, hopefully very soon.

Sincerely,

Christopher Molloy, Ph.D. (PHARM '77, GSNB '87)
Chancellor, Rutgers University–New Brunswick