Aug. 22, 2016 – Fall 2016 Semester

To: Colleagues in the Faculty and Staff

From: Gayle E. Hutchinson, President

I am excited and humbled to be sending you good wishes at the start of the 2016-17 academic year. It is truly an honor and privilege to be your president, and hope I can live up to faith you have put in me to lead this university we care so much about.

Thank you if you were able to attend our Convocation last Thursday. The energy in Laxson and spirit of mutual respect and collaboration in the air was inspiring. If you were not able to attend or watch it on live-stream, a recording of it will be available soon on the President’s Office website. But let me briefly mention here the goals I shared for the coming year:

• Improve Campus Climate
• Restore Shared Governance
• Foster Student Achievements
• Build a Diverse and Inclusive Communities of Excellence
• Explore Opportunities and Support Innovation, such as:

• Developing a new university strategic plan
• Fostering public private partnerships
• Increasing the number of secured grants and contracts
• Increasing philanthropy

I have already e-mailed you previously about my 100-day listening tour, where I hope to hear from as many of you as possible, either in meetings or open forums or from your comments on the campus survey website. Only by listening and learning from you, and all of us working together, can we make this great university even greater.

Students returning to campus and starting classes is such a wonderful time. Each of us has something very important to do to help them learn and thrive and succeed. I had the absolute pleasure of meeting some of our new students at the Stadium Friday during Wildcat Welcome. Here is a video of my remarks to students gathered for the “Big C” photo. Thanks to all of you who put on or volunteer for the Wildcat Welcome events the first few weekends of the semester. Students get a crystal clear message that we care and want them to succeed.

Have a great start to the fall semester!