Dear Faculty and Staff,

I hope your Fall 2024 semester is off to a great start!  While I know everyone is busy with the usual activities that fill up the days of the last week of August, I hope you will find time to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year and the path ahead for the upcoming year.

We have much to celebrate. Certainly, the transformation of our institution resulting from the integration of Eastern Virginia Medical School into  will be remembered as a significant turning point in our shared history. President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D. and Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Alfred Abuhamad, MD led the three-year integration effort, which involved significant heavy lifting from individuals at two different institutions, yet a commitment to the same values, beliefs, and goals. Today, we are part of the same institution. This same commitment will result in flourishing in the future.

Of course, while the great work that went into the integration was going on, our usual work in the Division of Academic Affairs continued. This work included hiring 93 new faculty into our community of scholars. While successfully recruiting these new colleagues, faculty across the University received numerous honors and accolades for their scholarly activity, teaching, and service to the University and their respective disciplines. In addition to congratulating those faculty who were tenured and promoted last year, it is also important to take a moment to honor the 23 faculty who joined the ranks of our emeriti faculty upon their retirement last year. I had the pleasure of meeting with our faculty emeriti a few weeks ago. They made clear their commitment to our institution and their genuine pride in the work you are doing.

From highlighting how breakdancing became a part of the Olympics to promoting expanded educational offerings in disadvantaged communities, our faculty continue to help us understand and improve the human condition. Two faculty received Fulbright Honors to expand health services in other countries. Across the University, we have faculty who are experts on topics such as artificial intelligence, consumer behavior, crime prevention, coastal resilience, cybersecurity, educational innovations, ethics, GIS, health services, maritime operations, robotics, telehealth, ticks, and a plethora of other subjects. More than three dozen of our colleagues have been identified as among the top 2% of cited researchers in the world. Collectively, our faculty create forward-focused scholarship that is shaping future policy, practice, and scholarship.

In addition to being world-class researchers, faculty continued to demonstrate their commitment to enhancing student success through innovative programming. Under President Hemphill’s leadership, the Monarch Internship and Co-Op Office received national attention for its innovative foundation, and was awarded  to provide internships to humanities majors. Faculty from chemistry, physics, cybersecurity, and computer science served as mentors to undergraduate students in summer research programming funded by the National Science Foundation. Other faculty supported innovative study away experiences,led discussions about improving student learning, and embraced service learning as a high impact practice.

We are beginning to see early indicators of our commitment to student success. Up from a low of 72 percent three years ago, our retention of first-year students has increased to 77%. We aren’t where we want to be yet, but we are heading in the right direction!

This year, we will build on the successes of the past year. President Hemphill is introducing the mobility mindset when he visits each college. The Division of Academic Affairs will build on this foundation and soon share more about plans to expand accelerated asynchronous programs, offer badges and other micro-credentials, and ensure that students can seamlessly access our offerings, which will position us to become a national leader in the years to come.

Our focus on artificial intelligence – in our research, teaching, and operations – will also be more intentional in the upcoming year. Just as the Internet changed our world in the mid-1990s, artificial intelligence will do the same, but more quickly and on a larger scale. We will ensure that we properly steer innovation toward “a future worth wanting,” a reference to the subtitle of Shannon Valor’s Technology and the Virtues.

A more intentional focus on academic excellence and student success can also be expected in the 2024-25 academic year. Several weeks ago, I announced the centralization of academic advising. The logistics supporting centralized advising are underway. Working with the National Institute of Student Success, we will expand our learning communities and peer mentoring, explore the development of a summer bridge program, and review DFWI data to determine how best to improve student learning. Tony Perez, Ph.D., an associate professor of educational psychology, has been appointed as a Provost’s Fellow to support the latter effort. Elizabeth Burns, Ph.D., an associate professor of library and information studies, has been named a Provost’s Fellow to help communicate this and other work being done in the Division of Academic Affairs.

Other activities underway for the upcoming year include searches for Deans of the Graduate School, Honors College, and Strome College of Business. Provost’s Fellows Dennis Gregory, Ed.D., an associate professor of higher education, and Alireza Hosseini, MD, an associate professor of health professions, are working with Chief Integration Officer Austin Agho, Ph.D. to integrate the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at faculty handbook. They will be working closely with Faculty Senate Chair Michael Carhart, Ph.D. and Deans Policy Council Co-Chairs Gail Dodge, Ph.D. and Don Combs, Ph.D.

We are also in the early stages of transforming our general education requirements. This process has been intentionally titled the General Education Reform Initiative: Reimagining the Future of General Education Together. The more of us who are involved, the better the outcome will be. In the fall semester, members of the general education leadership team will convene reading groups and discussion sessions to initiate our review progress.

As you can see, we have a number of important activities underway. A general faculty meeting has been scheduled for October 29th at 12:30 PM, so that each of these initiatives can be discussed. More details about that meeting are forthcoming.

I hope you are able to take the time to support and embrace the work of your colleagues in the upcoming year. I encourage you to visit the Barry Art Museum to see , visit the Perry Libraries to experience , attend the 47th Annual Literary Festival, or enjoy one of the numerous shows supported by Arts@. As you plan your semester, please consider meeting and even collaborating with someone from outside your college or school. In doing so, I can promise you that you will be as impressed as I am with the work that your colleagues do each and every day. Those collaborative efforts will most certainly change you as scholars and professionals.

To illustrate this last point, I’ll close with a quote from Paul Kalanithi, author of . With undergraduate degrees in English literature and human biology, Dr. Kalanithi graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine and served a multi-year residency as a neurosurgeon before being diagnosed with cancer. In his book, published posthumously, he wrote:

“I was driven less by achievement than by trying to understand, in earnest: What makes human life meaningful. I still felt literature provided the best account of the life of the mind, while neuroscience laid down the most elegant rules of the brain. Meaning, while a slippery concept, seemed inextricable from human relationships and moral values” (pp. 30-31).

Let us hope that we find and create meaning through our relationships with our colleagues, our community, and our students! 

Brian K. Payne, PhD