Dear Undergraduate Majors,

On behalf of all the faculty and staff in Comparative Studies, we would like to welcome you back to the new academic year.

First, we want to acknowledge that many of you are confronting and experiencing considerable anxiety, vulnerability, and stress concerning the upcoming year, whether this relates to your own health, experiences of loss related to COVID, trauma and anger related to issues of racial and social injustice, concerns about the election, or additional economic burden. We want to assure you that our instructional, advising, and administrative staff recognize these concerns and that we will be responsive in any way we can to help you negotiate the upcoming year. We also recognize that these concerns, particularly at this time, are especially significant and critical for students of color. In whatever ways you might experience anxiety, vulnerability, and stress over the coming months, we urge you to reach out and contact us. We also welcome suggestions and productive and creative initiatives about how to work through the inevitable twists and turns of the upcoming months. We might not have all the answers and solutions, but we promise that we will help you find or identify the necessary resources in the university, resources that will allow each of you not just to survive this coming year but to thrive and flourish.  

Secondly, we have been working all summer to open our buildings and classrooms, with intense and sustained focus on your safety and security. For those of you coming to campus, please respect the regulations and policies in place, and listen closely to your instructors regarding new safety protocols for your classrooms. We urge you in the strongest way to follow the protocols found on the Safe and Healthy Buckeyes site, take the safety training and pledge, as well as the daily health check. We are in this together; as a department, we are committed to understanding, confronting, and sharing the collective as well as individual challenges of our moment.

Our best wishes for a safe and healthy semester! Please keep in touch.

Philip and Isaac

Philip Armstrong (Chair)

Isaac Weiner (Chair of Undergraduate Studies)