With winter Commencements fast approaching, I wanted to share some updates with you before the break and express my sincere thanks to the entire UMBC community. This has been a demanding semester for everyone, I am sure, and I hope that as we head to the end of the year, you will find the time and opportunity for rest and reflection in the coming days. 

 

I am pleased to share with you that we sought and have received incredibly helpful input from UMBC's shared governance leaders toward creating the best possible process for strategic planning. I am so grateful for the thoughtful work of our shared governance leaders to answer the questions of how best to engage the populations they represent and how we connect with and hear from those members of our community who perhaps did not participate in our Bold Conversations. I am excited to build on the interest and enthusiasm we saw in the Bold sessions in new conversations with you all in the spring. 

We are in a great place with our provost search as well. We hosted four finalists for campus visits this month. UMBC's next provost and senior vice president for academic affairs will join us in our strategic planning effort and be a key partner in all of our work to advance this outstanding institution. 

I hope you never tire of my expressing gratitude to you all. I feel it so deeply and so often, and I want you to know it! With my thanks, I am pleased to share with you this brief video of highlights from this calendar year. I hope you enjoy the look back at our journey together this year. 

In this moment, I find myself truly inspired by the ways in which so many of you are engaging directly and wholeheartedly in the work to make this community better. Students, faculty, and staff: You are showing up, sharing your ideas, asking hard questions, and communicating with each other and with me, and that is helping me to learn and to do my job better. 

I am grateful for the trust that you have shown in our work together, especially as we navigate global challenges that are deeply dividing society. I do not take your trust for granted. Nor do I take lightly my responsibility to honor that trust and return it, as we pour our hearts and minds into making this institution we love even better--for everyone here today and for those who will come after us. 

This work matters, as you matter, and as UMBC matters. Thank you!

 

Sincerely,