Dear Colleagues:

For the last several days, our region has faced many challenges brought on by Hurricane Sandy. As recovery from the storm's impact continues, I want to thank you all for your outstanding contributions and patience at a time of great challenge. I am so proud of the way in which our students, our faculty and our staff prepared for and rode out this rather extraordinary weather event. Not all university locations were as fortunate as we were on main campus; Ambler lost power for a period, and the impact in Fort Washington continues to be felt. Even in the face of difficult circumstances, our staff has taken great care to ensure the safety of our students and community.

By announcing in advance that we would suspend normal operations, we hoped to give everyone a chance to prepare adequately for the storm and joined with Mayor Michael Nutter to reduce the volume of travel in the city. At the same time, we needed to ensure the safety of our students and staff members who remained on campus.

I am deeply grateful to all of our essential staff who braved the challenging conditions to remain on site — our outstanding Temple police and security personnel, health care staff at our clinical sites, facilities staff, technology staff, Housing and Residential Life leaders, and the many supervisors across our campuses. We are all deeply indebted to them for their tremendous service. I particularly want to thank our dedicated Resident Directors, Resident Coordinators and Resident Advisers, whose leadership ensured that our students were safe and well cared for, and also our dedicated health care professionals, who continued to put patient welfare first.

I was on main campus both Monday and Tuesday to see firsthand how well our planning and coordination paid off. I visited each student residence hall, talked with students and staff and witnessed just how well our teams made sure that our campus facilities were safeguarded and in great condition for reopening on Wednesday. It is a real tribute to our  wonderful community that we maintained all of our essential services so well.

While we can all be grateful that our campuses remained safe and relatively unharmed by Hurricane Sandy, we are aware that many people along the East Coast have not been as fortunate. Many members of the Temple community who have family and property in the most devastated areas still face a difficult time ahead as recovery continues. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well.

Again, I offer my most sincere thanks to all who kept our students, our faculty, our staff and our campuses safe during the hurricane. Once again, in a time of crisis, our Temple family stood tall. I am so proud to be a colleague of such great professionals and students.

My best,
Richard M. Englert
President