Dear Faculty and Staff,

In sitting down to gather the right words for my annual fall semester welcome message, I am overcome with gratitude. That we are reopening our campuses in a COVID-19 world this fall is no small feat. We would not be where we are today without the courage, endurance, ingenuity and skills of hundreds of faculty, staff and students who worked tirelessly under constantly-changing conditions. I urge you to visit our Fall Reopening website to see the many details of this work and comprehensive, searchable FAQs.

Welcoming Our Students
While the sights and sounds of our campuses will be different as we usher in the academic year, they are no less vibrant. Returning and new students will find many Fall Welcome activities from Comedy Sportz to campus cookouts, the class of 2024 photo mosaic and more. I highly encourage you to take part in some of these activities to warmly welcome and interact with our students. Besides, a little levity is a good thing! More than ever, our students will need friendly faces and to form connections with those who can increase a sense of belonging and make their UWM experience everything it can be.

Think Tank 2030 – Our Future
Making UWM radically welcoming is one of the four Think Tank 2030 priorities I discussed in my annual plenary address yesterday. We’re also working to revise the undergraduate experience, maintain our status as a top-tier research university, and design our operational structure and program array to most flexibly and efficiently meet UWM’s teaching, research, and outreach missions. As I mentioned in my plenary, the Think Tank 2030 recommendations provide big picture concepts. Work will continue this fall, with the prioritized recommendations to be studied for specific action steps and further input from faculty, staff and students.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In my plenary comments, I expressed the urgent need for actions that support our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The past six months have seen our nation and our world come to grips with those intolerable barriers that continue to hamper historically marginalized individuals from their equitable place in society. Those inequities have moved nations to re-think, re-imagine and re-focus on what it takes to ensure that each of us has the same access and opportunity as our neighbors. And we, at UWM, are no different. Our dual mission of access and research is one that we embrace wholeheartedly, and we must be a part of the difficult work to ensure that our own partnerships, affiliations, policies and practices reflect the values that we espouse.

Words are powerful and actions speak even more loudly than words. In my Racial Justice A Call to Action – Part I message to you last month (and part II is to come in a few weeks), I shared several actions underway. Since then, we have added several more, including:

• Joining the EAB Moon Shot for Equity initiative to eliminate equity gaps. There will be a national release about this in late September.
• Launching a diverse recruitment and selection protocol initiative.
• Formalizing an equity lens framework for development of UWM policies.
• Signing on to the MMAC Region of Choice Initiative pledge.
• Commissioning a third UWM history book; this one to focus on our university’s contributions of diversity.

We’ve been busy. Summer – typically a less intense time for us – has been anything but quiet this year. And, here we are already, about to enter what is an uncharted fall term. There is a certain amount of trepidation and I think most of us are experiencing some form of fatigue from the prolonged uncertainties we face. I’ve also seen how our people dig deep to lift up our students. It’s a distinct honor to work with such passionate, talented individuals who are driven by a mission for the greater good. You and UWM are foundational to an educated citizenry and the core of democracy. Your dedication and commitment is critical to our future. We are ready!

Best regards,

Mark A. Mone
Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee