Message from the Office of the Chancellor

August 23, 2023 - Welcome to the Fall Semester at UMSL: Celebrating 60 Years of Transforming Lives

Dear UMSL Community,

Welcome to the 2023-24 academic year at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. This is an exciting time for our Triton community as we will officially celebrate our university’s 60th anniversary on September 15 with what we call Red & Gold Day. It is a day for us all to share our UMSL pride by wearing our university colors and posting pics on our social media to celebrate UMSL’s 60 years of transforming lives using #UMSL60.  

I hope you’ll join me and our more than 112,000 alumni, 15,000 students and 1,200 faculty, staff and retirees on September 15 by showcasing your UMSL spirit during our founders day. You can also engage in other key 60^th anniversary activities like voting on our new alma mater, nominating alumni to spotlight, or logging your hours of service as we have a goal to log 60,000 hours of volunteerism and service.

It’s also an exciting time at UMSL as we welcome a record-setting freshman class this fall as well as a growing number of transfer undergraduates. We also welcome a strong cohort of high school students pursuing advanced college credits and more than 2,000 graduate students who seek to level up their careers through advanced education. 

As you make your way throughout campus, you’ll see that we are at a time of change and transformation. We’re making steady progress on our Transform UMSL initiative to reimage the academic core on the North Campus, develop a health sciences core on the South Campus and make way for North St. Louis County Business and Workforce Development along Natural Bridge Road. So, don’t be surprised if you encounter some closed sidewalks, see construction barriers up, and deal with a little noise as we work to bring outstanding facilities to serve our students, staff and faculty for decades to come.

To learn more about Transform UMSL and the many other exciting initiatives we have for the year ahead, I invite you to attend the State of the University Address this Friday beginning at 10:30 a.m. at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. This exciting annual event updates the campus community on recent university accomplishments and future opportunities. 

Again, welcome to an academic year full of unlimited potential and possibility – and a year filled with shared success for us all.