Dear Members of the University Community:
The beginning of an academic year is an exciting time for all of us. Whether you are brand new to campus or a long-standing member of our University community, I want to wish you the best for the 2024–25 academic year. I look forward to the remarkable ways in which you will enrich the legacy of our institution.
Last week I met many new students and their families from throughout the country and the world. The enthusiasm students have for what lies ahead is infectious and fills me with optimism for the coming year. Current students, faculty, and staff joined members of my leadership team in helping students move into their residence halls, and we welcomed students and new faculty with a series of events to introduce them to campus and to one another.
We are entering a particularly exciting time for Rochester, and for higher education at large. By working together, we can all help set a course for the University, one that will build on our history of innovation and achievement. Guided by our strategic plan, Boundless Possibility, we are reimagining how our strengths as an institution will transform critical areas of research, scholarship, and clinical care, and how our commitment as an organization will reshape how we interact with one another and with the Greater Rochester community.
At the same time, by pledging ourselves to the idea that outstanding scholarship, research, and creativity can only emerge from honest and respectful dialogue that includes a wide circle of voices, we can model the kind of civil discourse that our University and the world needs right now. As a community of scholars, we are positioned to engage one another thoughtfully, to listen with open minds, and to work together to find solutions to the conflicts, violence, and seemingly intractable differences that plague too much of our world.
Members of my senior leadership team, in consultation with faculty, students, and staff, have spent the past several months evaluating ways in which we can reinforce the idea that our Meliora Values are at the center of our interactions with one another. The result is that we have clarified—as have many universities across the country—some of our policies, guidelines, and expectations for how we engage with one another on campus. The goal is to make clear that we place a high value on freedom of expression while also demonstrating that we place an equally high value on the right of everyone on campus to exercise their freedom to participate in their academic, social, and residential pursuits without disruption or intimidation.
We saw incredible momentum during the summer, and I am confident that we will carry that through the new year and beyond. In late May, we formally opened a new addition at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. We also announced a historic $50 million gift from Rochester philanthropist and business leader Tom Golisano to establish a new institute that will transform the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And we were proud of our ongoing engagement at this summer’s CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival, a showcase of our region’s world-class musical culture.
There are few institutions, organizations, or enterprises in our social and economic systems that can take on such a wide-ranging role, much less dedicate themselves to leading these kinds of initiatives.
We have several new leaders joining us this academic year, including Quchee Collins as our new associate vice president for public safety; Cheryl Kodjo, a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, as vice provost and director of University Health Service; and Kate Sheeran, who was announced last spring as our new Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School of Music.
In addition, Nicole Sampson, who has served as the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences since August 2023, will serve as our interim provost, and Duje Tadin, chair of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, will serve as interim dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. They, and their colleagues in leadership positions throughout the University, are poised to share ideas and expertise that will advance our institution.
I hope everyone will join in our opportunities to celebrate our University this fall. Our signature celebration, Meliora Weekend, takes place in less than a month, from September 26 to 29. The annual event brings together students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of the University in ways that highlight the life of the institution.
And in October, we’ll convene for our annual diversity conference. This year’s theme—“2024 Boundless Together: How Do We Move Forward When We Disagree?”—features Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, whose book, Caste, has helped shape how we think about issues of identity and inclusion.
We are entering a historic period for the University, a time when we will reflect on Rochester’s many achievements and we will look forward to the many ways in which we will continue to lead as scholars and students, as researchers and clinicians, as artists and entrepreneurs. Beginning in 2025, we will celebrate both the 175th anniversary of the University and the 100th anniversary of the Medical School, Strong Hospital, and Nursing School.
We have a remarkable history, and we can all be proud of the ways in which our faculty, alumni, and friends have helped shape the University as it is today and helped transform their academic, social, and civic communities. I am confident that each of us can build on our institution’s legacy of innovation and achievement and on our region’s rich history of social justice.
We can also be proud that we are part of a University community that demonstrates our commitment to excellence, inclusivity, and care for one another. We all grow when we welcome new ideas and seek out perspectives and viewpoints from those around us, and we will remember most the moments when we worked together to achieve our goals.
True to our motto, we will make the world ever better.
Best wishes for a productive and engaging academic year.
Meliora,
Sarah C. Mangelsdorf
President and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. Professor