President's Corner is a regular column from President Deep Saini.
Dear Dalhousie Community,
Sometimes we don鈥檛 quite appreciate what we have until it is taken away.
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit our Studley campus as part of a photo shoot with Danny Abriel, one of our talented university photographers. While I would normally cross paths with our photographers nearly every week at various university events, this was the first time we鈥檝e had the chance to work together since last March 鈥� of course, following the new public health protocols.
Simply having a reason to put on a suit and tie became a source of much joy in the current circumstances. The act of getting dressed up and going to campus brought back an invigorating sense of familiarity. During the shoot, a group of masked and socially-distanced students walked by on their way to their class 鈥� and what a welcome sight it was to see students passing through our hallways!
The photo shoot, and the trip to campus, was a reminder of the many things I took for granted before. For example, travel. I never thought I鈥檇 miss my trips away from home, airport security lines, and living out of suitcases 鈥� but surprisingly, I do. 聽My regular visits to the Dalplex are now replaced with workouts in the basement at home. I鈥檝e recently resumed weekend visits to the Dalplex for golf practice, and the mere act of walking into that familiar space is proving to be a real comfort.
The frigid temperatures in Halifax this week notwithstanding, my wife, Rani, and I have been walking regularly on campus. Occasionally we see students playing on the tennis courts, kicking around a ball on the Wickwire Field or tossing a frisbee on the quad. We even came across a couple of them last Sunday honing their musical skills on guitar. Little things that we hardly would have noticed before now seem so special!
Spring is now just a few weeks away, bringing the promise of warmer weather and the hope that better days are ahead. In the interim though, this week I want to acknowledge all those on our campuses 鈥� like our photographers, athletics and recreation staff, and so many more 鈥� who have transformed their own roles, responsibilities and policies to continue allowing others these small semblances of normalcy during a very strange time.聽 聽聽
Sincerely,
Deep
President Saini can be reached at deep.saini@dal.ca. You can also connect with him on聽 and .