September 9, 2015
Dear Members of the University Community,
I am delighted to introduce the inaugural class of Carnegie Mellon University Presidential Fellows and Presidential Scholars.
These students — currently 90 undergraduate scholarship and 55 graduate fellowship recipients from all CMU colleges and schools — embody the level of excellence that the university strives to attract; those who bring a variety of talents, experiences, and perspectives to our community. Significantly increasing the pool of resources available to support Presidential Fellowships and Scholarships will remain an important priority for me.
On numerous occasions I have said that our ability to compete for outstanding students, and the faculty who mentor and nurture them, is critical to further enhance our standing as a major research university with increasing global competition for top talent. By lowering the barriers of the cost of attendance for undergraduates and reducing the dependence on external funding sources for graduate students and faculty to pursue their research, endowed scholarships and fellowships will help ensure that CMU remains a world-leader in education and research for decades to come.
Since my email announcement of the Presidential Fellowships and Scholarships program to the CMU community in May 2014, an endowment of more than $150 million has been established through a variety of mechanisms to support this and future classes of Presidential Fellows and Scholars across all seven of CMU’s colleges and schools. Additional support — such as the recent Tata Consultancy Services gift — is essential to providing strong, permanent funding for the future.
Please join me in congratulating this year’s highly select group of fellows and scholars, and learn more about the program online. Their presence will enrich the CMU community, inspire faculty, and cultivate even greater societal, technological and artistic contributions from Carnegie Mellon University for decades to come.
Sincerely,
Subra Suresh
President