eMcCormack Resource Center

Message from the Dean, David Cash

Dear McCormack Community,

Yesterday was a riveting day in which we watched violence descend on the US Capital.  We watched the President of the United States encourage the violence and continue to sow discord with lies about election results.  We saw double standards of law enforcement when we compared its treatment of rioters and insurgents storming the US Capital, waving Confederate flags within its halls, and seeking to violently overturn a free and fair election, to its treatment of peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors seeking justice.  We watched a remarkable Senate debate that went into the early hours of the morning as some lawmakers still maintained the fiction of election fraud in order to disenfranchise citizens, and others, like Senator Cory Booker, admonished those “who are surrendering to the passion of lies as opposed to standing up and speaking truth to power.”  We saw, ultimately, the rule of law prevail and President-elect Biden’s and Vice President-elect Harris’s victory at the ballot box rightfully certified. But we were shaken.

For many, yesterday was a wakeup call about the dangers of ignoring norms of the rule of law, of democratic principles, of decency, of the slide toward autocracy.  For many others, yesterday was the inevitable and predictable outcome of a descent from the principles of good and just governance that goes well beyond the last four years, but that has been accelerated by President Trump and his enablers in Congress.

As we prepare to begin the Spring semester, yesterday’s events should strengthen our resolve as faculty, students and staff of a public policy school to employ our teaching, research and engagement to further just and good governance and to follow our mission:

The McCormack Graduate School equips future leaders with tools to enhance governance, strengthen communities, remedy injustices, catalyze change, and improve our planet and the lives of people across generations...we help shape effective policies that create a more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful world.

I wish the remainder of the winter intersession is revitalizing as we gear up for the next semester of work to realize this mission in a new era of our country and our university.

Stay healthy and inspired,

Warmly, 
David, 1/7/2021