0 2 / O B S E R VAT I O N S / M E S S AG E
FROM
THE
PRESIDENT
Some Positive News Amid the Challenges Dear Friends,
Gregory S. Woodward
“ This period of rightsizing and stabilizing the University, and doing so in the midst of a world crisis, calls for an unusual combination of ingenuity and creativity.”
Here, much to your surprise, is a set of positive messages from me to you, because the reality is that we could all use some. The University is ready to open for the fall semester. It won’t look or feel quite the same, but we are prepared to do our very best in a tough situation. The campus team has come together in amazing ways to make this happen—safety and health efforts and precautions; new seating and spacing floor plans; creative course delivery models and pedagogies; rigid but reasonable residence hall protocols and dining options; face-to-face, online, and blended learning—we will have it all. More than 1,300 first-year students will join us this fall; an incredible number in this crazy year and a secure vote of confidence in the education and experience that UHart has to offer. After two years of intense work on creating a more diverse and inclusive campus, with much progress, the recent national reawakening to the discrimination towards people of color that plagues our world has challenged us to do more and to do better. The President’s Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I), staff and students, the executive director of DE&I, and the Office of Student Engagement and Inclusion have all plunged into the powerful and critical work ahead with new and expanded plans for events, education, engagement, reflection, dialogue, and change. We are all in this together and I am fully dedicated to help foster our campus as a model for our community of understanding, equity, tolerance, and social justice. The future of the University is strong. Applications topped 13,000 for this fall. Our retention of first- to second-year students is on the rise, highlighted by an increase of over 10 percent for students of color.
H / UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD MAGAZINE
Our new academic building is on schedule to open in the fall of 2021 with a beautiful array of state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces for health professions, engineering, and technology. This expansion holds much of the promise of a sustainable institution in partnership with the traditions of excellence we cherish in our ongoing programs and colleges. The physical campus is changing and looking better every day with new fire pits, seating areas, gardens, residence hall renovations, and refreshed academic spaces. We could not have anticipated anything as disruptive as the COVID-19 pandemic—especially so instantaneous in effect. While the negative financial implications for us—and all universities—are disturbing, the strength of our institution to be flexible during challenging and evolving times is a great asset. This period of rightsizing and stabilizing the University, and doing so in the midst of a world crisis, calls for an unusual combination of individual, programmatic, and school/college/division ingenuity and creativity inside of a centralized system that needs to be more coordinated, better controlled, and more precisely orchestrated and strategic than, perhaps, ever before. I close with more positive news: we have created a budget that with a somewhat smallish investment, put in context of the losses, will allow us to work to a balanced, end-of-year budget for the coming year. Much of this ability comes from the generosity of our friends, and I thank you on behalf of our students for your inspiring support. As we used to say in my day, keep the faith! Humans are tough and smart. We will figure it out and education is the key to this and to our collective future. The University of Hartford is up for the challenge, the fight, and the joy. H
