Office of the President   2017   August   The excitement of the new academic year
Office of the President
Office of the President
Message from the President

The excitement of the new academic year

August 21, 2017

Dear Fellow Roadrunners,

The start of a new academic year is upon us, and I am excited about all the potential it represents.

As I begin my service as UTSA’s 6th president, I am struck by the words of Sir Isaac Newton: If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. UTSA is a remarkable learning and discovery enterprise and an outstanding example of a Hispanic Serving Institution. These things would not be true without the leadership and vision of the many giants who came before me, and I look forward to recognizing all the progress we have made when UTSA celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019.

As we begin this new chapter, there is much to do. I will spend the next several weeks learning as much as I can about UTSA, meeting with administrative leadership throughout the campus in addition to our faculty, staff and student governing bodies.

This time spent listening will help me to shape and build on the Blueprint UTSA strategic plan. My thinking is sure to evolve the more I learn, but initially I have four areas of focus:

  • Realizing access and discovery
  • Reinventing what it means to be a great urban-serving university
  • Growing academic and scholarly excellence
  • Becoming world-engaged

I will be hosting some campus conversations around these and other ideas over the course of the fall semester, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

In the shorter term, we will get momentum going through initiatives around multicultural leadership development, new partnerships, the National Research University Fund (NRUF), new budgetary models and residential programs to foster strategic enrollment and student success. More to come on these in the months ahead.

I truly believe in UTSA’s potential to prepare our future leaders and generate new knowledge that changes the world. This is due in large part to the caliber of our faculty and staff. Thank you for all you have done for our students and for UTSA, and best wishes for a wonderful start to the semester.

Best Regards,

Taylor Eighmy, Ph.D.
UTSA President