The beginning of the academic year is always exciting, but there’s an uncommon charge in the air this week. The University of Iowa is about to welcome candidates seeking to lead our institution as our 21st president.
At the same time, we’re revitalizing our physical campus, introducing new academic options, and entering the last phase of an historic fundraising campaign. Any of these developments alone would be remarkable. Together, they’re unprecedented.
For the past several weeks, I’ve had the honor of serving as our university’s interim president. I want to welcome students, faculty, and staff to a year that promises real change, challenge, and growth.
I extend a special welcome to new first-year, transfer, graduate, and professional students. You are embarking on exciting new paths, and you’ll be transformed by what lies ahead here at Iowa. The UI community is ready to make sure you have the experience of a lifetime.
To undergraduate students returning to campus, you will travel further along the paths you’ve established and have even more transformative experiences. The world is waiting for your contributions.
To our returning graduate and professional students, you’ll march ever closer to your goal of an advanced degree. Congratulations on your incredible effort, the leadership you bring to your fields, and the ways you’ve already expanded knowledge and understanding.
To our returning faculty and staff, I welcome you to a new semester and thank you for your ongoing devotion to this great institution. To new faculty and staff, we’re grateful you’ve chosen to join us in providing the best education possible, and the best in discovery and engagement.
Our talented, imaginative, collaborative university community is our greatest strength. We indeed are one university. Our ambition today and into the future is to continue breaking down barriers among departments, colleges, and disciplines and to focus on how we can best grow and thrive together.
This campus is ready to bloom in extraordinary ways. We must continue to dream together — and dream big. With confidence and clarity, we look to the future of this great institution and seek new presidential leadership that will help foster the next era of extraordinary achievement.
Be bold about sharing our strengths and our vision as we introduce our university to the presidential candidates, and please engage fully in the search process in the coming days.
Finalists for the university presidency will visit campus Thursday, Friday, Aug. 31, and Sept. 1. I invite you to take part in public forums each of those days, 4:45 p.m. in the IMU. Find more information at president.uiowa.edu/ui-president-search.
The state Board of Regents hopes to name our new president on Sept. 3. Whoever becomes our next president, we know we’ll continue to model collaborative and multidisciplinary innovation. It is in the academic character of our university community, and it’s what the world needs.
The time to dream, imagine, create, discover is now — it is never tomorrow. I am proud of all we’ve accomplished at the University of Iowa, and I am eager to see how much more we can do. Students, faculty, and staff, thank you for your shared dedication and drive.
Jean Robillard is the UI interim president and vice president for Medical Affairs.
