As anyone who has been in Iowa City during spring commencement knows, the energy that exists around campus is palpable. Even though things are largely quiet during this very strange year, Mary and I have enjoyed seeing a few students and parents (safely) taking pictures in caps and gowns on the Old Capitol steps.

When the world is so suddenly and completely different, things that seemed familiar take on new and unexpected meanings. These simple moments of joy, excitement, and normalcy are even sweeter. When this crisis ends, we must remember how precious these moments are.

While I look forward to our return to normalcy, there are doubtless difficult times and uncertainties ahead of each of us. But Hawkeyes can and have been improving things in the here and now while moving toward a brighter future—from our health care teams treating patients and testing Iowans to researchers studying COVID treatments to front line workers preparing food and cleaning our campus.

This semester and academic year will always be marked with feelings of uncanniness and loss, and the struggles we face now will become a lasting memory in our collective history. And yet I look forward to what we will regain in the near future—small things, like a face-to-face meetings or a simple handshake, and bigger things, like joining thousands of Hawkeyes walking across the campus and moving new students into the residence halls.

As we all know too well now, change is one of the only things you can count on in life. But there is no place better at embracing change than the University of Iowa. Each and every day new discoveries come to light, a student has their Ah-ha! moment, and we bring the world a little closer together. Embracing change, even at its most daunting, has allowed our campus to chart its own unique path throughout the years. And like our predecessors, we must look to the future, though it include challenges and loss as well as unexpected opportunities.

Over the summer and into next fall, we will chart a course that will allow our campus to take charge of as much of our future as we can. We will expect change, and we will react to it as thoughtfully and carefully as we can. But a campus that makes its decisions based on transparent information and as a community will create the best possible future. Working together, with a common purpose, we can be the change we want in the world.

Bruce Harreld is president of the University of Iowa.