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President's Blog: From the Heart

A Christmas Reflection

By Eric F. Spina

In my annual Christmas message to students, faculty, and staff, I reflect on how the University of Dayton is more than our home away from home. It's a place in our hearts.

Dear University of Dayton Family,

The semester always ends in such a celebratory way — from the joy of sharing Christmas on Campus with Dayton schoolchildren to the relief of completing final exams. As some students hurriedly packed to go home for winter break, others were embarking on new chapters in their lives after graduating.

Thousands of students — and many faculty and staff — are now scattered across Ohio and around the globe, spending this special time of the year with family and close friends. Still, though, we feel the connections across these many miles — connections to friends, mentors, colleagues, and the Marianists who grace us with the presence of their lives, not to mention to the spaces and places on campus that are so familiar, beautiful, and, in some cases, so sacred.

Home is not only a physical place. It’s a place in our hearts.

During this time away from our UD home and each other, I hope you take a moment to reflect upon how special UD is and how fortunate we are to live and learn in a community in which every person is cared for and loved, in which we can celebrate both our similarities and our differences, in which we are dedicated to vocational pursuits that allow us to make our world a little bit better. This is truly a community that serves as a beacon in a world hungering for faith, hope, and love.

As we reflect on the joys we receive and the contributions each of us makes to the UD community, I ask you to especially remember those staff members who will continue to work even when the University is officially closed. Public safety officers will patrol the campus and dispatchers will field calls as facilities management workers make necessary repairs and take care of the grounds. Finance staff will run payroll as our advancement division processes and acknowledges end-of-year gifts. Some researchers will need to work over the break to keep experiments and equipment running. Please say a special prayer for — and when you are back on campus, a special thanks to — these people. Thank you, dear colleagues, for the special sacrifices that you make.

As Karen, Kaitlyn, Emery, and I celebrate Christmas in the coming days — and the extraordinary joy that Christ brought to our world — please know that every member of the University of Dayton community will be in our hearts and prayers. We wish you all a blessed Christmas and a New Year that is full of good health, laughter, joy, and peace.

Warmly,
Eric Spina

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