January 16, 2020
Dear Members of the Carnegie Mellon University Community:
Happy New Year and welcome back to our global campus community for the spring 2020 semester! As we begin this new year, I have been reflecting on my last 30 years at Carnegie Mellon University. I have cherished my roles of student, faculty member, department head and dean, but it has truly been an honor of a lifetime to serve as your provost for the last year. I encourage you to appreciate the amazing accomplishments of our university community last year in the 2019 year in review. I have particularly enjoyed getting to know you through my open office hours, departmental visits with faculty, student advisory and roundtable council meetings, and attending the opening of new campus buildings, including ANSYS Hall in Pittsburgh and the new campus home for CMU Africa in Kigali, Rwanda. It is a joy to celebrate the success of our students inside and outside of the classroom, on stage, in the field and in our maker spaces.
We have a lot to look forward to in 2020, including the opening of the new academic success center in Posner Hall and Hall of Arts building in Pittsburgh, the launch of the Provost Inclusive Teaching Fellows Program, the rollout of professional development opportunities for faculty in support of student mental health, the second cohort of the CMU Lead staff development initiative, and continued implementation of the university’s commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition, Carnegie Mellon is poised to be the first university in the United States to undergo a voluntary university review in support of the global sustainable development goals. Please be on the lookout for a brief questionnaire about this coming soon as part of our Sustainability Initiative. As you can see, it is already shaping up to be an exciting year for our community.
I look forward to sharing more with you throughout the year as we continue the university’s journey toward a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community. We are going to increase access and affordability for our students, improve student success and experience, advance the education goals outlined in our Strategic Plan 2025, and promote faculty development and engagement. I commit to share our progress across these areas and more on the Provost’s priorities website as the year progresses.
As we begin a new semester and new year, I wish each of you the best and I hope for continued success in all of your endeavors both at Carnegie Mellon and beyond.
Regards,
Jim
James H. Garrett Jr.
Provost
Thomas Lord Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering