Aug 26, 2024
Dear Pratt Community,
I am happy to welcome everyone to Pratt for the 2024–25 school year. With 1,717 new students arriving, 3,464 students returning, and new faculty and staff settling in, this year’s move-in days were animated and orientation week was filled with campus tours, introductions to academic life, block parties, game night, events for parents, and the annual Brooklyn Bridge sunrise walk for new students and those adventurous enough to join us.
As always, at this time of year, the campus is filled with creative and energized students, faculty, and staff. Those of you who are returning will see welcomed improvements to our campuses. For those of you who are new, let me note them here:
- The green energy upgrade was completed on our Brooklyn campus, replacing inefficient boilers to reduce our overall energy and carbon usage, and creating a landscaped gathering space, designed by SCAPE, on the East Hall Plaza.
- The Masters of Fine Arts and Photography studios have been relocated to Dock 72 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with 360-degree views of NYC, the surrounding marine structures, and brilliant work spaces. And the new MFA in Fashion has launched in expansive workshop and maker spaces at the Pfizer Building.
- The installation of an elevator and ramp for North Hall that meets ADA accessibility requirements is soon to be completed.
- The new food service provider, Chartwells, has also arrived with a focus on nutritious, sustainable, and inclusive eating options in a renovated dining hall, PI Shop, and satellite locations.
This summer we also announced important news for students in internships. The Eric and Jane Nord Family Endowed Internship Fund is a $5 million endowment that will provide stipends to students who wish to pursue otherwise unpaid or underpaid internship experiences in their chosen fields.
Throughout the coming school year, Pratt will undertake a new strategic planning process to be completed by May 2025. You will be called upon to participate at several points. Pratt also will soon launch the search for our next vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. More information about both of these institutional processes will be announced soon and with updates on Pratt.edu.
No doubt, we all approach the coming year with caution and tempered optimism. We know that we have tumultuous times ahead, both nationally and globally, with elections, wars, and more on our minds and in our hearts as we begin our classes and creative explorations.
At Pratt we learn through doing, through making, through creative processes that are embodied and immersive. This is central to the Pratt experience, as we generate new ways of engaging while honing new skills. We do this, striving to be the visionaries that people look for us to be — framing critical questions in unexpected ways and developing new solutions to ordinary and urgent problems in the world. This will require patience, hard work, and intellectual openness.
This practice asks us to be understanding of each other, to expand space for those with whom we disagree, and to create a place of respectful making and dialogue. In the face of conflicts, we nurture civil discourse, broaden our knowledge by listening and experimenting, seeking different experiences, ideas, cultural contexts, and acknowledging we do not know all the answers in advance. Ultimately, we bring our community together and add value through our interventions. Higher education is under siege and we, with all our colleagues nationally, are its stewards. Universities and colleges are founded on inquiry and it is our greatest calling to hold this precious gift.
On November 5, the United States presidential election will occur and for many of you, this will be the first time that you are eligible to vote. Voter registration and voter education events will be held on campus. Please avail yourselves of the moment to learn about the American political process and to participate. For non-US citizens, this will be an opportunity to learn about the United States’ political system and the issues that dominate discourse and life in this country.
In addition to your creative and collaborative work, there will be opportunities to connect with other members of the campus community outside of your classes and studios. There will be many occasions for dialogue across differences and engagement among campus members of diverse backgrounds and religious, political, and ethnic identities, framed by our shared commitment to learning and, for many, living together in our campus communities. A series of events and resources framed as Critical Conversations: Bridging Pathways Forward will be listed on the Pratt website as an ongoing resource. In the spirit of inclusive practice, I encourage you to express your views with thoughtful discourse, compassion, and care for everyone in the Pratt community.
Beyond Pratt, being in Brooklyn and NYC, you have so many art and cultural institutions — museums, art galleries, performance venues, public installations, parks and green spaces (many free or discounted with your Pratt ID) — to consider and make into your own creative cauldron.
With this new year, the work of investigating, creating, designing, building, teaching, and learning lies ahead in our classrooms and studios, residence halls, offices, and across our campuses and in the neighborhoods where Pratt has a presence. Pratt is a laboratory for engaged discourse, a learning community where we will come together to explore and share experiences and ideas with curiosity and anticipation.
With best wishes,
Frances Bronet
President