Staff Forum Follow-Up

Dear Emerson College staff:

Thank you to everyone who attended the staff forum online last week. The senior leadership team and I appreciated the chance to share updates and plans for Emerson’s future. We are also grateful for all the questions posed by staff ahead of and during the forum, which allowed us to speak to the issues of most interest to you.

Our special thanks go to Jamie Montgomery-Hyde and the HR team for their hard work organizing the meeting and Pierre Huberson and Stephen Sedman from our media technologies and production and IT teams, for managing the webinar. We are interested in your feedback and thoughts for future forums, so please share them via this anonymous survey. 

Emerson is a unique place, and our focus on the arts and communication, the skills we develop in our students, and the creativity we exhibit in our work sets us apart from other institutions. We all have an essential role to play in Emerson’s success. I am optimistic and excited for the future we will build together, focused on the four top priorities I discussed for the year ahead:

First, we will grow our enrollment, particularly at the undergraduate level. We all have an important role to play as ambassadors in helping recruit outstanding students to consider and choose Emerson. We are the best people to raise awareness about Emerson because we understand what makes our College so special.

Second, we will strengthen our community and build bridges across our divisions through open and inclusive dialogue. We established the EmersonTogether initiative for this purpose, starting with the first community conversation as classes began. Please consider getting involved in future activities designed with input from across the Emerson community. Your ideas and engagement will help us address our shared challenges and enhance our connections. 

Third, we will work together to plan for our shared future, including through our strategic planning effort, now in phase three of six. This collaborative process imagines the next chapter for the College, culminating in our 150th anniversary in 2030. We need your input and ideas so Emerson can reach its full potential, so please be sure to complete the upcoming campus-wide strategic planning survey. We will also work on plans for academic improvements, including a new hub to grow funded research, a new task force to develop a roadmap for our unique educational programs, and improvements in career development and student outcomes.

Fourth, we will continue to improve our internal communications and advance our position in the marketplace. We will apply Emerson’s longstanding and deep expertise in communication and storytelling to our own operations and outreach. 

I am honored to be a part of this extraordinary institution and look forward to working with you all on these crucial priorities. Together we will build Emerson’s bright future as the world’s leading college of arts and communication.

Sincerely,
Jay M. Bernhardt
President