Hi everyone!

I want to take a few minutes to provide an update on our strategic planning process, one of the most important activities on campus.

But before I do that, I want to thank you all for a terrific fall semester.

Our relationship with the Akron community continues to grow as we develop deeper partnerships.

Our fundraising numbers are up.

We continue to rely on shared governance to ensure that we work together in a transparent manner.

We are encouraged that our admissions numbers are starting to move in the right direction.

And we are focused, as always, on keeping the promises we make to our students, faculty, staff and community.

I am deeply grateful to all of you for your commitment to our students, this community and each other.

One of the most important ways in which we work together to continue to move the university forward is through our strategic planning.

As you know, our strategic plan is designed to operate on a two-year schedule.

I want to thank Steve Ash for his great work to get us started.

We have made excellent headway on our current plan, which is scheduled to wind down in 2023.

The Provost has enlisted the help of three members of the faculty to assess our planning process and organize our next two-year cycle.

These three provost fellows, Angela Hartsock, Matt Juravich and Erin Makarius, have been meeting with, listening to and gathering information from a wide range of colleagues.

I am very grateful for their work, along with Provost John Wiencek’s leadership, which so far has shown tremendous progress on our aspirations and key results—known as AKRs—that provide the backbone of the plan.

I invite you to read more about their progress so far on the new strategic planning page on the UA website.

I am very excited to see this tool come together as we enter year two of the initial plan, and we intend to celebrate our successes in the spring.

The heavy lifting our provost fellows are doing now will also inform our thinking as we move into the development of our next strategic plan.

As we head into an incredibly important year for UA, our goal is a strategic plan that will set us on a continued upward trajectory, always keeping in mind our promises.

I’m looking forward to continuing this important effort in the future with all of you.

To our faculty, staff and contract professionals, thank you for your support of UA students and the entire community.

To all of you, Georgia and I wish you a beautiful start to the holiday season.

Go Zips!