Dear AU community,

Welcome to the 2023-24 academic year! As classes on AU’s main campus get underway today, I wanted to share my best wishes for an invigorating and inspiring year of learning, teaching, research, and changemaking. Across campus, the energy is palpable – from the cheers of friends reunited, to the nervous smiles of first-year Eagles finding their way to TDR, to parents proudly sporting their AU mom and dad T-shirts.

Our dynamic community is in motion – moving forward toward new discoveries, new experiences, new scholarship, and new approaches to our world’s most pressing issues. As I noted at Opening Convocation on Friday, this is a community that doesn’t just talk about becoming the change our world needs today. We live it, we embrace it, and we believe it.

This afternoon, I hope all of you will join me on the quad for Celebrate AU – with food trucks (arepas, ice cream, gourmet popcorn, and more), music, lawn games, and selfies with Clawed – as we come together as a community to support and empower one another. On Thursday, stop by the Student Involvement Fair to engage with more than 200 student organizations, and, next Tuesday, Acting Provost Vicky Wilkins will host the fall faculty welcome – which I am looking forward to joining. In the coming weeks and months, be on the lookout for more ways to engage and get involved. 

This fall, we’re also kicking off a campuswide single-use plastics reduction campaign – Small Changes, Big Impact – which, together with many other efforts, aims to move us toward zero waste and continue to build a culture of sustainability.  

This academic year promises to be filled with hands-on learning, impactful research, changemaking impact, and fun! I look forward to engaging with you as we work to fulfill our mission and strengthen our AU community. Good luck today and throughout the 23-24 academic year!

Sincerely,

Sylvia