On Wednesday, August 26, 2020, Editor-in-Chief Michael Schaffer interviewed Sylvia M. Burwell, President of American University, as part of our ongoing series called Campus Conversations.
The conversation kicked off with a focus on American University and how President Burwell has been dealing with the variety of challenges that the school has been dealing with in addition to the current pandemic. “Our decisions all throughout this period of time have been based on three principles, “said Burwell. “The first principle is the health and safety of our AU community, the second principle is how do we maximize for achieving against our core mission of learning, scholarship and community, and then the third decision principle we used is how do we participate as members of our broader community.”
The conversation then dove deeper into Burwell’s time with the US Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as Secretary from 2014-2017. As Secretary during the last pandemic the US faced, Burwell has ample experience from dealing with the ebola crisis. “One of the things that’s important is that we listen to scientists, and I know that there are questions about experts and how experts are viewed […], but I think returning to a place where we listen to our scientists as they are often the speakers and we take our cues from them,” Burwell said when asked about credible information coming from the government.
Missed the event? Click the link below for the full video and learn more!
