President's Perspective

Dear Roosevelt Community,

I’ve been thinking a great deal about the American dream lately after attending the panels this past September for our fifth annual American Dream Reconsidered Conference — and also thinking about what I like to call the Roosevelt Dream.

A dream of educational opportunity where our students can acquire the knowledge not just to go out and make their way in the world, but make that world a better place. A dream of social justice in which our students and all American citizens do not have to worry about having enough to eat or health care or being denied the right to vote. A dream in which a person is judged, as Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “not by the color of one’s skin, but by the content of one’s character.”

It is easy to feel pessimistic these days when I think about the Roosevelt Dream. Like you, I am disheartened by too many examples of police violence. But I am also inspired by the work that groups like Black Lives Matter Chicago have done to bring these injustices to light and to rid our world of the tools of racial oppression.

I am saddened by too many state legislatures passing new laws to deny people of color and people without financial resources the most basic American right — the right to vote — under the false pretense of voter fraud. But I am lifted up when I see so many Americans sacrificing to protect that right — legal groups devoting the time and resources to fight in court or simply an ordinary citizen who (despite too many obstacles, such as voter ID laws, problems with mail-in ballots or a lack of polling facilities) is willing to spend hours in line to make sure his, her or their voice is heard and counted.

Here at Roosevelt, we know all about overcoming challenges. The University was founded 75 years ago when Edward Sparling resigned as president of Central YMCA College, rather than impose racial and religious quotas, and a group of courageous faculty and students followed him. The school had no endowment, no money to pay faculty, no facilities, no books. I am sure that most people at the time believed Roosevelt University would fail. But here we are.

What did we have back then? We had the Roosevelt Dream — a set of shared beliefs about what kind of University we wanted to be and what sort of world we hoped to create. So we know from experience that dreams can be powerful.

Just as our beginning was a grand experiment, we continue to look for ways to further our mission of social justice and to support our students. We have put in place numerous programs to help faculty offer the best possible online learning experience, as well as committing additional resources to improving our technological infrastructure. We also have created new Black Student Equity Fund scholarships, and we have set a goal to eliminate degree completion gaps for low-income, first generation, Latinx and Black students in Illinois by 2025 through the Illinois Equity in Attainment initiative. In addition, we are reaching out to create partnerships with institutions that share our values, such as Columbia College Hollywood and Urban Prep Academies.

And those are only some of the many new initiatives Roosevelt has embarked on.

I know that the list of problems we face as a University and as a nation is long. It is easy to give way to pessimism and despair, but that is when it is most important to choose optimism and hope. We aren’t going to achieve the Roosevelt Dream without those.

And I, for one, am optimistic! I can see the seeds of hope being planted. Already in the wake of the protests this year, countless organizations have adopted more inclusive and more fair policies. This country has not witnessed a surge toward racial justice on this scale since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

So, let us continue the fight for social justice. I am so proud of the work our students, faculty and staff have undertaken to try to make this world a better place, and I wake up each morning excited to think about the great things still to come from our community.

You are a special group, a group who dreams big dreams, a group who will help make the Roosevelt Dream a reality. I am lucky enough to be a part of that community, so I already know what you are capable of achieving.

By the time you are done, though, the world will know it, too.

With warm regards,
Ali R. Malekzadeh, PhD
President