Invitation from President Faust

Dear members of the Harvard community,

Two years ago, our first-year students arrived amid the blustery remnants of Hurricane Hanna. This year, her cousin Earl appears poised to lend a little torque to the start of our academic year. Hurricane or no, the bustle of activity that sweeps onto campus in late August and early September always ushers in excitement, change, and a renewed sense of possibility. For those students, faculty, and staff arriving at Harvard for the first time, welcome. For those of you returning from far or near, welcome back. As I said yesterday at Morning Prayers in Appleton Chapel, this remarkable place belongs to every one of us, and it’s our shared opportunity to grab hold of its extraordinary promise and make it real.

As we look ahead, I invite the Harvard community to join me and Charlie Gibson, former host of ABC’s “Good Morning America” and now a visitor at the Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, for a year-opening conversation on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 at 4 p.m. in Sanders Theatre. I look forward to answering questions — both from my distinguished interlocutor and from the audience — and to offering some thoughts on the priorities and challenges we will face together in the year ahead.

I hope you will join us. Click here for more information. For now, here’s wishing all of us a year of favoring winds.

Sincerely,

Drew Faust