You have probably heard it several times already in the last few weeks but allow me to say, “Welcome, ‘Noles!”
One of our goals at FSU Libraries is to be the physical and virtual heart of the university, serving as a center of the intellectual community. In our mission to support and enhance learning, teaching, research, and service at FSU, we value critical thinking and healthy discussion, innovation, trust, diversity, collegiality, and inclusion.[i] We provide physical space for you to collaborate, and we can assist you to find and evaluate quality information. We’re here to help, so please bring us your questions.
There is an awe-inspiring variety of people at FSU. First-year students this Fall semester come from 46 countries, all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. [ii] In Fall 2022, FSU students came from a total of 129 countries in addition to every one of the United States.[iii] We are thousands of students, faculty, staff, and administrators from diverse cultures and different communities. Each of us is a complex mix of intersecting backgrounds, circumstances, and narratives. We each have perspectives and beliefs that are informed by these life experiences: pleasant and unpleasant, inherited or chosen. Each of us has a different story to tell, but together we are the FSU community.
So as the semester gets into full-swing, I invite you to consider the opportunities that such diversity offers you here at FSU. Listen to someone else’s story or take into account a different perspective; and always remember to treat each other with dignity, because each of us belongs here. We are all FSU Seminoles.
[i] https://www.lib.fsu.edu/about/organization#values
[ii] https://news.fsu.edu/news/students-campus-life/2023/02/15/fsu-admits-stellar-incoming-class-as-academic-reputation-continues-to-rise/
[iii] http://ir.fsu.edu/Factbooks/2022-23/Enrollment_by_Country.pdf
Leave a Reply