(bright upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Kevin O'Brien.
I'm the Dean of Humanities here at PLU
and this video is to welcome
you to fall 2020 to welcome you
to work with us here in humanities at PLU.
Our programs include the
study of Chinese, Classics,
English writing, English Literature,
French and Francophone Studies,
German, Hispanic Studies,
Nordic Studies, Philosophy, Religion
and Southern Lushootseed.
You will get exposure
to some of all of this
because the academic study of religion,
philosophy, literature and
global cultures and languages
is part of every student's
prior experience.
And I'm excited that you're
thinking also of majoring
and minoring in some of these topics.
What unites us in humanities
is that we all study
what it means to be human,
how humans make meaning
and how humans live together
across and amidst diversity.
This is all supremely relevant
in the times we're living in.
The COVID-19 pandemic is testing our ideas
of what it means to be together,
what it means to be human community.
The election and political
divisions in the U.S.
stream some of our deepest
connections and traditions
what makes us a community.
The Black Lives Matter
Movement, the Sunrise Movement,
and many other social movements
are demanding that we think
hard about our deepest values.
Values like justice.
Global Media is giving us
all these tools to connect
to create community across the world
and that makes learning to
communicate all the more urgent.
So what you study this
semester in humanities classes
should be relevant to what's going on.
And I invite you to find those connections
to use your classes to think about
what's going on in the world more
and to think more deeply about it.
I'm sure you also have
some practical questions
about what your courses are
gonna be like logistically
in the humanities almost all
the classes will be online
and you'll likely be watching
some recorded lectures
kinda like this.
You'll be engaging in
conversations on Zoom
or in online forums
and you'll be doing lots of
reading and thinking and writing
just like you would any semester.
You should hear from
each of your professors
with more details before
the first week of class
and hopefully that will start
answering your questions
if you don't hear from them
or if you have more questions
or if there's any other reason to
please don't hesitate to reach
out to me at obrien@plu.edu
I'd also be really excited
to connect you with the chair
of any one of our programs
when you decide you
wanna get more involved
or when you wanna formally
declare a major or a minor.
PLU is really about relationships.
It's a community that is built up
of people connecting to each other
and so I really encourage
you to commit to connecting
to your faculty and your peers.
When you have questions,
please reach out to folks
when folks have questions for
you please respond honestly
and quickly when you can.
Show up for class whatever that looks like
this semester in any other.
Respond to your emails regularly,
log on to Sakai regularly.
Give yourself time to do good
work that you can be proud of.
If you do these things you'll
build strong relationships
with your professors and with your peers.
And that will be the heart
of your college experience.
This is gonna be a strange year
and I can't really predict what
all it's going to look like
but I can say this with confidence.
You can learn a lot and you can build
really meaningful connections
if you commit to doing the
work of being a PLU student
Please again don't hesitate
to be in touch with me
if I can help at any stage of that.
And in the meantime good
luck with the semester
and please take good care of yourself.
