Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Message from the President

Last week we held a day-and-a-half “sense-making” convening in the University Center, during which we were joined by leaders from Complete College America and the Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education. I appreciate the time devoted by faculty and staff to more deeply understand our systems, policies and cultural aspects that impact students, and to begin to formulate an action plan to transform the first two years of college. Both of these organizations are deeply committed to increasing college completion rates while also closing institutional performance gaps, and both work with many colleges and universities around the country that we can learn from. 

We are now engaged in a 5-year partnership that will enable us to select areas of focus that align with our priorities and carry out projects that can help us to improve over time. At the heart of this work is “improvement science” – the application of social science principles to the gathering of data to assess, plan, and implement new ways of serving our students, and then to refine what is not working (or scale up and sustain what IS working). 

I am particularly excited about being part of a cohort of other universities across Louisiana and around the country that are working together and sharing ideas on how we might best position ourselves to meet the needs of our current and future students. I am tremendously grateful to Leslie Jacobs and Steven Rosenthal for their generous philanthropic support for this endeavor, and I look forward to sharing updates with you as our work evolves. 

Speaking of philanthropy, I do hope you will consider making a gift, of any size, to support GiveUNO Day. Thanks to a generous donor, your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar, giving twice the impact to your gift. Philanthropy benefits the University of New Orleans, but research also shows that giving positively impacts our mental and physical health through mood enhancement, reduced stress and deeper social connections. 

With UNO Pride

Kathy Johnson, Ph.D.
President
The University of New Orleans