MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Dear SESP community,

When my youngest son Ely was seven, we were on our way to a soccer game. It seemed like every week, we were traveling across the Phoenix Valley to attend youth soccer games, which meant we were exposed to an amazing cross section of the place where we lived.

Ely was in the back of our Honda Odyssey, and as we drove along a major thoroughfare, he started asking questions about the many unhoused people along the street. It was a very hot August day, and he worried about where they would get water and where they would sleep and be safe. We turned onto a frontage road running past acres of vacant state lands, preparing to merge onto an interstate.

Ely asked, “Why doesn’t the government build houses there for the people to live in? They could take care of the land and stay safe.” This led to a prolonged conversation about the land; how jobs work for many people; why we need food, water, and shelter to be happy and healthy; and our responsibilities to ourselves and one another.

Though he didn’t know it at the time, Ely was thinking through a policy solution for people without shelter in a hot desert. His approach was to imagine a world of abundance while confronted with scarcity. I often reflect on that moment because it reminds me that children are inclined to see that we are all in this together, and that it’s possible to envision a world where being part of a greater whole is good.

At the School of Education and Social Policy, I’m surrounded by people who already believe this. Our students are known as leaders while on campus and long after they graduate, while our faculty are committed to engaging the world with influence and impact. This is made possible by staff who care for students and faculty and whose commitments to a just society are evident in how they do their work and live their lives.

As the world’s only school of education and social policy, we strive to be part of something bigger. We recognize we have a responsibility to the peoples and places where we live and work.

I hope we will remain curious and observant. That we will ask questions that start with “why” or “how come.”

That we will endeavor to find ways to care for ourselves, one another, and the places where we live and love. This is what it means to be human—and it’s what it means to be part of the SESP family and community.

Warmly,

Bryan Brayboy

Dean and Carlos Montezuma Professor of Education and Social Policy