Dear Members of the TC Community:

Heading toward our winter break, I have been thinking about how inspired I’ve been this year. As students, faculty, staff, and alumni took time to share their lives with me, I saw that Teachers College is much more than a place for scholarship and research. Classmates and colleagues become close friends. Those relationships are particularly meaningful this time of year, especially for those who are unable to travel to far away families and relatives. It’s one of the things I love most about TC: we share a common interest in making our world better, and that fuels lifelong bonds.

Looking back

In my State of the College address, I talked about three ways we could work together to strengthen our College: supporting our community, projecting our influence and impact into the world, and ensuring our institution functions effectively through improved systems and continued recruitment and support of excellent faculty and students. 

Together, we have accomplished a lot. We started the semester with the launch of our Advancing Community Together (ACT) initiative, and I am so pleased with the participation of our campus community, whether in frank and thoughtful feedback on our policies and procedures, or active engagement in our awareness sessions with Project Shema and the Muslim Community Network (with student sessions to come early in the new year). Over the last few months, we have built a solid foundation that I look forward to continuing in the Spring semester.  

Our faculty excelled in connecting their scholarship to impact, and it was a consistent joy to see them published and quoted as experts in the media and in testimonies before local and federal agencies. At a press conference earlier this month, we announced a new Latine studies curriculum. Such public engagement drives real change and supports our further growth. 

We also instituted new employee and student portals among other upgrades designed to make things more streamlined. We know it will take time to iron out rough edges; we are off to an excellent start. I appreciate the collective effort toward improvement. 

All these efforts will continue in the Spring semester and beyond.

Looking ahead: Our TC Way Forward

When we return for a new semester in January, we will inaugurate a new president in the U.S., with potentially significant impact on the field of education generally, and TC specifically. We will watch and prepare for any issues our community must be aware of, and we will stay in close touch—and I ask you to do the same.

I want to note that the Trump administration presents opportunities for TC to demonstrate leadership. We have experts in privatization, analysts to consider the impacts of federal funding shifts and changes in health policy, among other areas. We also have much to say about teacher pay and teacher professionalization. We are not only leaders in the field; in the spirit of our founders, we are also a leader of graduate schools of education in the U.S. and around the world. What we do sends a message well beyond our campus. In many ways, the work that faculty and students do at Teachers College will become that much more important. 

My goal remains ensuring that our students and faculty can continue their work. This underlies everything I do as TC president. Among the things you can count on:

• We will focus on our roles as teachers, researchers, and policy analysts and adhere to our values and goals, providing support, advocacy, and evidence to raise our voices about what is working in the world, and what is not.
• We will showcase our good and impactful work through our Public Good Initiative, media placements, subject meetings, podcasts, and more.
• We will seek out and align with other organizations, schools, and leadership as we reinforce our commitment to academic freedom and diversity.
• We will engage our TC partners—Trustees, donors, and alumni—to ensure that we continue the extraordinary legacy we’ve inherited, care about deeply, and are bound to advance.  
• We will continue to fundraise on behalf of our students and provide as much financial support as we can.

We are a community built of compassion, strength, and an eagerness to serve. One of the most important things educators can do, whether in K-12 classrooms or in higher education, is to help students and others find their joy, and tap into that interest. Seeing our community members working together toward this goal motivates me to do more.

During the holiday break, I encourage all of us to take time to remind ourselves of what inspires us and brings us joy. TC has long been a voice for that work, and we will continue, together.

With best wishes for a restful and rejuvenating break,

Thomas Bailey
President
Teachers College, Columbia University