Dear Southwestern community,

We are on the verge of ending this most challenging year with our dual commencements just days away. Margaret Atwood’s ending sentence to The Handmaid’s Tale comes to mind: “Are there any questions?” Well, yes, a lot, and some are more answerable than others.

First and foremost, I want to express my deepest gratitude and admiration to all of you for your resiliency and patience throughout such a difficult time. We lived through a global pandemic, a historic ice storm, great political upheaval, a reckoning on racial oppression, and the absence of our social bonds. Yet, despite all the dire prognostications, we managed to thrive thanks to our mutual support of one another, our quest for innovative solutions, and our prioritization of everyone’s health and safety.

In a million lifetimes, I never could have envisioned my first year as president of Southwestern University unfolding this way (nor could I have imagined purchasing a snow shovel in Central Texas). However, as I relax (only slightly) after receiving both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and review the University’s approved 5-Year Tactical Plan, I have a sneaking suspicion that we are at the beginning of a great journey. I feel incredibly fortunate to have witnessed the grit and ingenuity of our community and the dedication of the Southwestern faculty and staff. We should all take pride in knowing that we did not just hunker down and allow the year’s events to flow over us while hoping that everything would magically become better. Instead, we acted, we made progress, and we set our plans for the future in motion.

Ultimately, my current sense of optimism and accomplishment has everything to do with each and every one of you.

Students, I marvel at your adaptability and support for one another. It would have been easy to give up or become overwhelmed, but you kept pushing to not just persevere, but to prevail. I hope you look back on this year with a sense of pride in knowing you have been tested in ways that will serve you well into the future. I commend you all for your vigilance and your commitment.

Staff, you have permanently and positively changed the way this institution operates. Your rapid problem-solving capabilities and flexibility reshaped how we do business. The care for our students and the creativity you’ve demonstrated throughout the year have strengthened the University in both tangible and intangible ways, and your service is greatly appreciated.

I want to take a moment to give a very special thank you to our Facilities and Information Technology teams. These hard-working staff members were pushed to the limit. They ensured our campus was prepared to resume operations during the pandemic. They cleaned, rearranged room set-ups, created pathways through campus, and developed schematics for physical distancing. And when the ice storm hit in February, they were our first responders in addressing the electrical, flooding, icing, connectivity, and damaged landscaping issues we experienced on campus. The dedication and ingenuity demonstrated by this team helped ensure we all had a successful academic year.

A deep sense of gratitude for our care coordinators, contact tracers and housing staff who took care of our students needing to be quarantined or isolated on campus. They oversaw proper cleaning of residential facilities, meal deliveries, virtual engagement opportunities, and daily check-ins.

Faculty, you have my gratitude for your willingness and dexterity in implementing radical course redesigns to meet the constraints posed by COVID-19. The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship rose to the moment and was instrumental in providing support for remote and in-person hybrid instruction. Your implementation of our campus readiness plans and support of our students through innovative programming ensured we delivered curriculum worthy of this institution.

We can cite an impressive number of accomplishments in this unprecedented year of unplanned firsts. Before delving into the specifics, I will cut to the finish: we taught the largest number of students this spring in our history, we had an extremely low COVID-19 positivity rate for most of the year, approximately 70% of our classes took place in person, and we will end the year with a substantial surplus.

In academic affairs, we conducted searches for eight new faculty members and a new library director. These searches were all conducted virtually, and I look forward to welcoming our new faculty and staff to campus. Our current faculty continued their professional development through virtual meetings and by participating in forums like the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance (LACRELA). We also said goodbye to some beloved faculty members who are retiring. Please join me in congratulating:

Additionally, many longtime members of staff have or will be retiring:

I wish you well and am grateful for your many contributions to Southwestern.

To all our many supporters and donors, thank you for ensuring our fundraising continues to set new records. Southwestern Giving Day 2021 set a high for both the number of donors (1,231) and dollars raised ($325,332) in a 24-hour period. Donors also eagerly helped support the SU Emergency Fund, which provides direct support for students needing emergency help for unexpected expenses such as food, housing, medical care, technology, travel, or other needs. This year, 1,136 donors contributed nearly $40,000 to the emergency fund. Our advising and retention program was fully funded by donors, raising over $2,800,000 that will be used to hire six professional advisors, acquire a new advising platform, and increase financial aid for the highest-need students over the next five years. Donors also provided funding for nearly 200 high-impact experiences. This funding will help support internship, student-faculty collaborative research, community-engaged learning, work-study, and study-abroad opportunities. Alumni participation in institutional giving is up more than 10% over last year, total gifts to the University are up over 12%, and we still have two more months to go.

In this upside-down and inside-out year of thinking differently, Southwestern hosted its first-ever virtual Homecoming, with 859 alumni and community members representing 20 states and eight countries engaging in at least one of the 50 programs held over the weeklong event. I appreciate the tremendous work of the Office of University Relations in making this event a success.

In both the fall and the spring, all the major newspapers across Texas published announcements from the Board of Trustees that highlighted how the University successfully managed its way through the pandemic. These announcements had a viewing audience in the millions. Parents, alumni, and friends have told us how proud they were to read about our success. I want to thank the Office of Marketing and Communications for their hard work in maximizing the reach of this important communication.

For the second year in a row, we will have a Hispanic/Latinx population of over 25%, allowing us to begin preparations to apply for Hispanic-Serving Institution status. This fall, our Black or African American population will reach a record 9.9%, and our out-of-state population is at its highest-ever percentage at 15.7%. Many thanks to our Admission and Enrollment team, which continues to set the standard in student recruitment.

Our Office of Student Life reimagined each student-facing service and resource, developing entirely new approaches. Additionally, this team was responsible for guiding our students through the myriad protocols and processes necessitated by the pandemic. This included the coordination of intake and surveillance COVID-19 testing for up to 600 members of our community on a weekly basis. Our care coordinators took care of students quarantining or isolating on campus, overseeing the proper cleaning of residential facilities, meal delivery, virtual engagement opportunities, and daily checks.

Managing the pandemic also required that we alter our delivery of counseling services to provide both virtual and in-person appointment opportunities. We also expanded our health/counseling/health education staffing to better meet the needs of students.

The Office of Diversity Education focused its programming on social justice, difficult dialogues, and peace-building to help our campus navigate today’s issues and challenges, including racism. The SU Police Department partnered with the office to create a program titled “Community Policing: Bridging the Divide and Building Trust.” The program’s emphasis on the history of police and community race relations received very positive feedback.

Our intercollegiate athletics teams had to completely redefine their training, competition, and coaching. Our coaches kept our athletes connected and conditioned through virtual and in-person formats. Amazingly, a year’s worth of athletic competition was condensed into a single semester. While some competitions had to be canceled or rescheduled due to COVID-19 and the winter storm, the majority of competitions were able to take place. The amount of work, logistics, and staffing that went into ensuring our student-athletes could compete is without parallel, and I applaud the athletic staff and our student-athletes for making it happen.

We were not content with just surviving the year; we actively planned our future. To that end, our 20-person Tactical Planning Task Force, which includes representatives from all our constituency groups, reviewed 237 proposed initiatives for our new 5-Year Tactical Plan, ultimately narrowing them down to an implementable 36. After hearing from the task force members at its final meeting of the year, the Board of Trustees unanimously and enthusiastically approved the plan. The five priority initiatives are: 

We can expect to see some immediate outcomes from our planning this fall, including an increase in student financial aid, six new professional advisors for students, a fully funded teaching certificate program, a professional development fund for staff, and an increase in the student emergency fund. Searches will start for staff positions, including an assistant director for outdoor recreation, a Title IX coordinator, a director of spiritual and religious life and chaplain, a faculty grants and sponsored programs coordinator, and a diversity education coordinator. We will also be engaging in salary studies for non-exempt and exempt staff and reviewing our Student Employment Program for equity. Once the fall semester is underway, we will begin a review process for a food service provider and open up a dialogue about planning for the future of our contiguous property.

Over the summer, a great deal of facilities work will be completed. Roof damage from a hailstorm last year will be repaired. The track outside the field house will be resurfaced. Perhaps the biggest transformation will be the addition of two decks encircling the library that will create outdoor study and event space. We will also repair portions of the landscape damaged by the ice storm in February. Mechanical, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning updates will be made to Herman Brown and Moody-Shearn residence halls. We will also begin our planning for the renovation of Mood-Bridwell Hall and a new mixed-use first-year residence hall.

Although public health concerns will continue to influence our lives for many more months to come, we will return to our traditional academic calendar and mostly in-person operations beginning in Fall 2021. This means the usual housing arrangements and, depending on campus immunity levels and decisions made by our athletic conferences, typical co-curricular and athletic experiences.

As I have stated numerous times, the health and safety of our campus community is my top priority. At this time, the University is strongly encouraging students, staff, and faculty to be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the beginning of the fall semester. Tracking immunity levels for the entire campus will allow us to provide exemptions from randomized/surveillance testing and loosen mask and physical distancing requirements for the fall semester. Students may confidentially submit their vaccine records through the student patient portal on the Health Center website or via email at covidtesting@southwestern.edu. Faculty and staff may confidentially submit their vaccine records to Cynthia Nguyen, benefits coordinator, in Human Resources by interoffice mail or via email at nguyen@southwestern.edu.

Although our intention is to return to normal operations, this year has taught us that we need to remain flexible and nimble. Depending on developments over the next few months, the University may mandate the COVID-19 vaccination with exceptions only allowed on an individual basis. I ask for your continued patience and support as we continue to assess the situation and adjust our plans as needed.

Thank you again for everything you have done to bring this year to a successful close. I have learned so much about Southwestern during my first year. I look forward to all the opportunities we will soon have for face-to-face fun, learning, and sharing as this remarkable community comes back together in the fall.

Sincerely,

Laura E. Skandera Trombley
President, Southwestern University