Lance R. Askildson, Chief Academic Officer, Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, Chaminade University

Adaptation and change has become more than a characteristic of our Marianist approach to education since I came to Chaminade as Provost some eighteen months ago; indeed, since the earliest days of the pandemic, 'adaptation and change' has become a daily aphorism to affirm my personal commitment to supporting our academic enterprise during a period of tremendous uncertainty and unprecedented change.  While I am proud of the totality of our institutional decision-making in the face of the pandemic -- decisions that led to ubiquitous instances of adaptation and change -- I am particularly proud to have been a part of those decisions that placed our community, our 'ohana', at the center of our decision-making calculus.

When disruptions to in-person work and financial uncertainty appeared with the pandemic last year, our leadership team committed to maintaining the employment of every Chaminade employee and specifically those most vulnerable to these effects; when members of our community expressed concerns about the risks of returning to campus, we instituted unprecedented safety protocols and gave broad discretion to students and faculty to learn and teach in ways that they found most comfortable.  As our community struggled with added stress, workload and anxiety in the midst of the pandemic, we developed ways to significantly expand holiday/vacation breaks alongside opportunities for rest and mental well-being.  Our Marianist mission and ethos has been at the heart of all of these decisions and so many more; and I am proud to be a member of an intellectual and professional community that 'educates in the family spirit' and prioritizes the true value of our university: its people.