May 9, 2022 - A message from Chancellor Sobolik to UMSL faculty and staff
Dear UMSL Colleagues,
As finals week begins, I want to thank you first and foremost, for your hard work and unwavering commitment this semester. I’ve said before and will keep saying as often as possible: the dedication, determination, hope and progress I see you bring to our campus and community every single day – in support of our individual students and our larger mission – is nothing short of awe-inspiring. It truly keeps me going. In return, and with immense gratitude, I want to offer a heartfelt reminder of that hope and progress as we close another successful academic year together.
Our plans to Transform UMSL are well underway. Our strategic partnerships and community connections are stronger than ever and growing every day. We are proudly partnering with and investing in our neighborhood and region. We are taking our place nationally among the top public universities in the country. Most importantly, our students continue to thrive. We are leading student success parameters nationally, and we continue to boast the largest alumni network in the St. Louis region. It is UMSL graduates – the very lives we help shape and are inspired by every day – who become our community’s nurses, teachers, business leaders, engineers, social workers, counselors, scientists, innovators, public policy shapers, change agents and much, much more.
There’s so much happening at our university and each of you continue to be an integral part of our growth in unique and vitally important ways. For all of this, I see you, and I thank you.
As UMSL’s 60th anniversary swiftly approaches next year, let us feel gratitude in knowing that we are fulfilling and expanding upon the hopes and dreams our founders first envisioned in 1963. Let us be proud and sincere when we say we are not simply “still here.” We are thriving. We are transforming what comes next for our students, alumni and community.
I look forward to celebrating commencement with you this coming weekend. And though I know our individual summer plans and workloads vary, I sincerely hope we can all find time for the rest and renewal that is so well deserved.
Gratefully forward,
Kristin Sobolik
Chancellor
University of Missouri–St. Louis