Dear Colleagues,

As you know, along with other senior leaders, we regularly engage with the University Senate, USG, union representatives, the Deans Council, associate deans, department heads, directors of centers and institutes, and students to talk about challenges and opportunities for our university. But we can always do more to enhance our communication efforts and ensure that everyone feels heard and valued.

We believe that effective communication and transparency are crucial for supporting trust and sustaining positive relationships and growth at UConn and UConn Health. To that end, we would like to offer the broader UConn community more opportunities to have access to senior administrators so that faculty, students, and staff can ask questions and share their ideas on challenges and aspirational goals.

That is especially true now. Between new and sometimes rapidly changing policies and directives from the federal government to looming potential budget difficulties here at the university to the legislative session and appropriations process that is beginning at the state capitol, we are in the midst of a fraught and complicated moment on multiple levels.

First: Together, we are going to get through all of it. We are certainly no strangers to facing challenges. As events unfold, we will deal with them — meeting the moment, coming together as a community, and being responsive while always staying true to our values.

We will remain optimistic about the future despite the challenges of the present because we will persevere and adhere to our mission to educate the next generation of leaders across multiple fields; create educational access and opportunity for all; conduct innovative and impactful research; and engage Connecticut’s communities in the service of improving the world around us.

As we continue to work to navigate the issues we face, we want to make sure we share relevant information with our community but also connect with and hear from you in multiple venues, both formal and informal.

We have used the stakeholder discussions noted above as opportunities to assess our current circumstances and focus on solutions-based paths forward. Similar discussions are happening at the school, college, and department levels through the regular cadence of unit meetings as well as through smaller in-person gatherings.

Like many leaders, we’re not only talking to one another, but are in constant contact with colleagues at institutions around the nation, our contacts at funding agencies, state leaders, and members of our Congressional delegation.

The mood and tone of these discussions, beyond information sharing, is steady determination. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we are in it for the long haul. Our collective goal is to support and protect higher education across the United States – making sure that we maintain the considerable strengths of this precious national resource while innovating into the future.

With respect to internal communication, in addition to written messages and web content, we will resume a practice that we first began during the Covid pandemic: Beginning soon, we and other senior leaders at UConn and UConn Health will hold bi-weekly check-ins over Teams with the campus community, where we will share information and answer questions that can be submitted in advance or during the meeting itself.

We will share the date and time of the first meeting once it has been scheduled. In the meantime, please e-mail questions to which you would like answers (to the extent there are answers) to Communications@UConn.edu with the subject line: “Questions for leadership.”

In addition, we also want to make ourselves available at the local level through smaller group discussions during academic departmental meetings. If you would like to invite us to attend a regularly scheduled meeting of your department, please e-mail President@UConn.edu with the subject line: “Invite to department meeting.”

We also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge what is so abundantly clear: that many members of our community, including particularly vulnerable populations, are feeling everything from deep concern to outright worry. Please know that we and your university are here for you and support you. As we have said many times, we know what our values are and they are not going to change.

We plan to send a message similar to this to our students.

We don’t pretend to have all the answers or the perfect prescription to address each of the challenges we face, but we are going to do all we can in partnership with you to move forward.

All the best,

President Radenka Maric

Provost Anne D’Alleva