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What a remarkable year we have experienced. “heuristic value” – the potential to stimulate
The last issue of MGA Today was written, thought – in almost every discipline.
edited, and published during those incred- This new wealth of learning is not going
ibly traumatic days in the spring of 2020 when unnoticed. One of MGA’s core values, after all,
everyone's lives were thrown into upheaval is learning. We have embraced yet another of
by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. our values – that of adaptability – in finding
Since then, we’ve seen and felt unprecedented new ways to teach and conduct the business
changes to our society and our way of life – of education during a global health crisis. We
from frank discussions about race and political continue to engage our communities in those
strife, from vacant campuses and virtual difficult conversations surrounding race and
commencement ceremonies, to a cautious identity and their roles in our culture and our
return and the daily reality of face coverings discourse. We remain dedicated to serving as
and social distancing. To say that the past 12 good stewards of those resources that have been
months have been a unique experience for all given to us and of our vital task of graduating
of us would be that most English of things – a lifelong learners and building a talented work-
dramatic understatement. force and an active and engaged populace.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and once That is the story of the past 12 months at
Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish once Middle Georgia State – one of a team working
said, “There is only one thing more painful than together to help one another and those around
learning from experience, and that is not learn- us in a troubling time. One of irrepressible hope
ing from experience.” If 2020 and the first few and unprecedented accomplishment. One of
months of 2021 have provided us with nothing finding meaning in even the darkest of days.
else, they have given us ample opportunities to And – most of all – one of learning.
learn – from experts, from colleagues, from our
communities, and from one another. As
educators, we can look back on the vagaries of
this tumultuous era and find what scholars call Dr. Christopher Blake
President

Spring 2021 MGA TODAY 3