Crossing the Finish Line, Together

Another interesting week, and one we will all put in our memory deposit box.

We learned about the challenges with CANVAS, and we created solutions. Our faculty, staff, and students rose to the occasion with assistance from the UITS team. And we demonstrated that while academic institutions are not known for their agility and adaptability in the face of change, we know how to change, and we can do it with purpose. Perhaps COVID helped us all understand our strength, or perhaps it has always been part of who we are.

I want to thank each and every one of our faculty, staff, and students for working together to ensure that end-of-semester activities proceeded. And thanks to this work, we will graduate more than 5,600 students at our commencement ceremony on Saturday at 8 p.m. As students and their families gather at Carroll Stadium, and the cheers go out as the event concludes, we will remind ourselves that the life transformations we enable through our graduates are what keeps us going.

We take pride in teaching our students not only academic skills, but also life skills. We help them understand that, no matter the road bumps they encounter, grit and determination will get them across the finish line. And last week we modeled that behavior.

Congratulations to all our graduates, and kudos to our faculty and staff for crossing the finish line once again this academic year.

Go Jags!

Latha Ramchand
Chancellor