Dear CCA Community,

Over the past few months, many of you have asked what should guide us in this final chapter. Some have wanted a set of principles to hold onto. I believe we already possess them in our shared commitment to creativity, academic excellence, and community. Others have looked for a theme to frame the year, but our history is so rich that it doesn't need a theme to carry us. Out of respect for our legacy and everything that has taken shape here, I want us to meet this moment with honesty and quiet dignity, rather than trying to redefine a naturally difficult transition.

What we owe one another now is at once simpler and harder than a theme. It is stewardship: of our students, of one another, of everything CCA has built and stood for, and everything we want CCA’s legacy to reflect on moving forward.

As you saw in Vanderbilt University’s recent announcement, our transition work is advancing. While this milestone brings further clarity about the future of certain academic programs, I recognize that news of this kind lands very differently across our campus. For some, it points toward potential future paths; for many others, it brings sharp anxiety and profound feelings of loss. I want to hold space for the full array of those feelings. Progress toward our next phase does not erase the difficulty of this moment, nor does it alter our fundamental responsibility to support every member of this community with fairness and care.

As these external processes unfold, our internal compass at CCA remains unchanged. In practice, our commitment to stewardship means three things:

• Stewardship of Our Students: We will support our students toward graduation or a seamless transfer to one of our teach-out partners. The quality of what we offer must not diminish because the calendar is finite. Every single one of us has a role in ensuring our students receive the full measure of a CCA education.
• Stewardship of Our People: We will support the faculty and staff carrying this work forward as best we can with the resources we have. Managing under uncertainty is taxing, and our leadership team remains committed to keeping your well-being at the center of our decisions.
• Stewardship of Our Legacy: What CCA has meant to higher education, the arts, the Bay Area, and thousands of alumni is not a thing of the past to be preserved under glass. It lives in the work you continue to make, in the recommendations that will emerge from our Legacy Committee this fall, and in the grace with which we treat one another today.

My hope is that each of you can take these aspects of stewardship and shape your own goals for the year, that you can ask what continuity, care, integrity, and legacy look like in your corner of this community and, as a result, have the greatest impact you can on our final year.

This will be a hard and meaningful year ahead of us, but I am grateful to be in it alongside you.

With respect and appreciation,

David C. Howse

President