President’s Message

As a leading research university, the University of Rochester is in constant motion, and always changing as the world around us chang-es. This summer is no exception.

A great change came in June with the groundbreaking of a new University of Rochester Medical Center orthopaedics campus in Henrietta, New York. This 19.1-acre facility will help meet the growing demand for musculoskeletal care and keep the Medical Center at the forefront of care for our community.

Among our recent not-so-welcome changes are the continued struggles with the global coronavirus pandemic. While nearly 70 per-cent of area adult residents have received some level of vaccination, and our campus has seen just a handful of new cases through sum-mer break, the Delta variant of the disease has caused a mid-summer spike in infections around the world.

Many states are returning to early COVID-19 masking and social distancing requirements. And federal health officials are even rec-ommending that people who’ve been vaccinated wear masks indoors again.

Thankfully we at the University of Rochester have already taken steps that we believe will protect our community while allowing us to safely return to all in-person activities after a year-and-a-half of hybrid operations. Along with more than 620 other American col-leges and universities, Rochester will require all students to be vaccinated to return to campus in the fall—in lieu of medical or religious exemptions.

Additionally, we will require that non-vaccinated faculty and staff be tested regularly, be masked at all times when inside campus buildings, and submit online surveys any day they come to campus. Additional details about the requirement and its implementation can be found at Rochester.edu/coronavirus-update.

These changes have allowed us to plan for an in-person Meliora celebration for fall 2021 and to host the long-overdue in-person recognition of the Class of 2020, which COVID denied a traditional commencement.

The fall will see a number of administrative changes as well. I was pleased to announce this summer that Kathy Galluci, formerly the executive director of human resources, has taken on the duties of chief human resources officer. Kathy’s service to and knowledge of the University made her right for the role.

Meanwhile, the search for a permanent provost is ongoing. And we have begun work on our university’s strategic plan. We’ll be in touch soon about how students, faculty, staff, and alumni can contribute.

In June we concluded the yearlong Together for Rochester campaign. In addition to raising more than $112 million, we’re particularly grateful that the campaign was so successful at a time when other institutions struggled to raise funds to support mission-critical programs.

Change also came in local government with alumnus Malik Evans ’02 winning the Democratic primary for mayor of Rochester. Pending the results of the general election, where Malik is currently unopposed, we look forward to working with his administration to move the University, the city, and the region forward.

In this issue of Rochester Review, you will read about change exemplified by the 400-plus Rochester alumni who’ve served as Peace Corps ambassadors since the program’s inception 60 years ago. Some will share how that experience changed them and the world for the better.

This issue also celebrates UR Medicine nurses, who bore the brunt of COVID locally and have heroically coped with burnout, PTSD, low morale, and staffing shortages for nearly two years. Fittingly, the World Health Organization declared 2020: The Year of the Nurse.

And with the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks upon us, this issue also features a reflection of the day that changed this University and the world beyond. We commemorate that fateful day with an essay from the widow of alumnus Jeffrey Smith ’87, ’88S (MBA), and a list of the six alumni who died in the attacks.

Like the 9-11 attacks, COVID has changed the way we interact. Personally, COVID has limited my access to everyone in the University community through most of my presidency. But by adapting to change and embracing our vaccination requirement, I am hopeful that I’ll finally be able to meet more of you in person in the fall—many, for the first time!

All changes—the welcome and the not-so-welcome—require us to adapt. But by embracing change and seeing these adjustments as opportunities for growth, we collectively reimagine the University of Rochester as One University. It’s a worthy goal we can all get behind.

Meliora!

Contact President Mangelsdorf at Contact President Mangelsdorf at sarah (dot) mangelsdorf (at) rochester (dot) edu. Follow her on Instagram.