Last month, it was an honor to be selected and confirmed as UCF’s president. Melinda and I are excited to begin this journey with you today, even though our arrival comes during a difficult time for our community and communities across the globe.
We are grateful for the warm welcome we have received. Every message and wish touched our hearts and reinforced that UCF is a very special place.
I have been so impressed by your response to the unprecedented challenges from COVID-19 and am humbled by the courage and confidence you’ve shown in moving us forward.
Thank you to every member of this community, especially our faculty, for efforts to quickly and effectively keep our students engaged on virtual and remote platforms, and to our staff assisting students and keeping UCF operating, even while working from home. A special thanks to our students who have shown remarkable agility and adaptability in adjusting to the new paradigm for our university during this pandemic. Thanks also to our alumni, friends and donors who have provided support to those in greatest need. The resiliency and innovation of Knight Nation are admirable.
Today, we are starting a new era together, at a time when everyone is adjusting to different ways of learning, working and living. But that will not slow us. It won’t hinder UCF’s impact, our potential or how we empower each other and our community.
Today, we are starting a new era together, at a time when everyone is adjusting to different ways of learning, working and living. But that will not slow us. It won’t hinder UCF’s impact, our potential or how we empower each other and our community.
Our work together will involve many minds to best deliver UCF’s mission in changing times, including the human, intellectual and financial resources that work requires. As it says in the book “The Inner Game of Tennis,” your performance is equal to your potential minus interferences. My job is to work with you to identify and reduce those interferences.
I look forward to meeting virtually with as many people as I can, to hear your stories, your aspirations and your ideas for our future. I hope you will reach out to me too, either through email or Twitter .
Uniquely UCF
As a first-generation college student who earned a GED and eventually a Ph.D., I am a passionate advocate for empowering our students to discover their full potential. As an engineer and optics researcher, I believe in breaking down barriers to allow our faculty to find solutions to our greatest challenges.
Along the way, I want us to discover what makes UCF so unique — what we do better than anyone else — so that we can chart our own distinct path forward.
I look forward to working with our campus community, UCF’s Board of Trustees and state leaders to help set our immediate priorities and short- and long-range goals for leveraging the impact of a UCF education. Thanks to many talented and committed individuals, we have a solid foundation from which to look for new opportunities to think differently and act boldly — something Knights do best.
For now, I wish each of you safety and good health in the days ahead.
Until we meet in person, it is my honor to say — for the first, but definitely not the last, time — “Go Knights! Charge On!”
All the best,
President
