Rutgers President Holloway Delivers University Senate Address

Mr. Chairman, officers of the Executive Committee, Senators, faculty, staff, students, and alumni, good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to speak before the University Senate.

I am now at the start of my second year as Rutgers president. I don't need to explain to any of you how unusual my first year was. I did all of the things that any first-year president would do: I met the Rutgers community, participated in a wide range of town halls, introduced special university guests before their talks, had small-group meetings with donors, held one-on-one conversations with local, state, and federal legislators, worked intensively with university administrators, met with faculty on specific topics of interest, and, to my delight, visited a handful of classes as a guest lecturer. All of the foregoing, of course, was done remotely.

Even though this was not the start to my presidency that I envisioned, I enjoyed meeting the Rutgers community however I was able to do so. And now that we are mostly back in-person I am starting to take delight in this work. Most notably, a few events come to mind. There were the service-anniversary receptions where I was able to meet and thank staff and faculty for their decades of service. Of particular note here are those who marked 50 years at Rutgers in 2020 and 2021: David Axelrod, Stuart Baskin, Ray Caprio, Linda Groce, Jim Hughes, Frank Jordan, Casimir Kulikowski, Roger Lalancette, Joseph Markert, Mary Segers, and William Strawderman. During those events and at other times I made a point of recognizing the tireless work of our faculty and staff—whether essential workers during the pandemic, faculty pivoting to a new mode of instruction, or facilities and public safety staff dealing with Hurricane Ida and its aftermath.

I was thrilled to meet Rutgers–New Brunswick first-years recently as they moved onto campus and to welcome "froshmores"—the second-year students who were finally arriving at Rutgers. Between move-in and the long-service receptions was New Brunswick's Involvement Fair and Culture Fest—a combined event where I got to interact with students representing over 1000 organizations and clubs, who were telling stories that reflect their passions and identities. It was lively, it was earnest, it was diverse in every possible sense of the word, and it was joyous…for me, this was Rutgers at its best.

One other recent in-person event bears mentioning: New Brunswick Convocation. On that occasion I talked about how it is a privilege to be part of this community and, in so doing, to have the opportunity to write the terms and conditions of your future. I also spoke about the importance of humility for the way in which it tempers our privilege. I said, "keep in mind that the future rarely has kind things to say about its past. The more that we, in the present, can act mindfully, always aware of our good fortunes and always humble about our perfectibility, the better the world will be."

I share this with you now because I want you to know that I have the same view of my administration: I want the Holloway administration at Rutgers to be known for an awareness of the great privilege it has in serving this community, the awesome responsibility that comes along with it, and then the obligation it has to be humble in its assertion of an agenda. Let me be clear, this is not to say that my administration will aspire to modest goals, quite the contrary. Rather, I want you to know that this administration will always have its eyes trained on achieving excellence and will remember that its first job is to serve you while doing so.

Today, as I share with you key initiatives for the coming year, I want to canvas where we have been as I believe it will help us collectively understand where we need to go. Last September, I spoke to the Senate about three core value propositions that would underpin my presidency: institutional strategic clarity, a beloved community, and academic excellence. Those value propositions and my commitment to them are unchanged.

I begin with strategic clarity. For me, strategic clarity means having a shared vision and understanding of our priorities, and an organizational structure that supports principled decision-making. Early in my tenure I made several structural changes to the central administration to reflect and support the values that drive our work. I elevated the Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs in order to remove any ambiguity about the centrality of the academic enterprise in my administration. I created the University Equity and Inclusion Office and the Office of University Strategy, each charged with supporting and managing toward the realization of core value propositions.

Due in part to the natural turnover that accompanies retirements and the arrival of new administrations, I had the opportunity to appoint several individuals to vital positions. Antonio Tillis, formerly interim president of the University of Houston-Downtown, became the Chancellor of Rutgers–Camden on July 1st. I know that Antonio is deeply committed to the value propositions that are central to my administration. We are lucky to have landed him and I am certain that great days for Camden are on the immediate horizon.

EVPAA Prabhas Moghe led a search for the new Senior Vice-President for Research and successfully recruited Michael Zwick from Emory. An experimental population geneticist with an active research portfolio, Mike brings extensive organizational experience to the role with a proven track record in developing research cores. He already understands the importance of reducing Rutgers' administrative complexity and he is committed to that project. The more we can get out of our own way and facilitate ease of access to necessary resources the better we will be able to unleash our incredible research potential in all areas of the university.

When I speak about unleashing our potential, we are on the cusp of entering a new age with the Rutgers University Foundation. Just last week we were able to report the successful completion of the search for the next President of the Foundation. Kimberly Hopely, Senior Vice-President and Chief Development Officer at Arizona State University, will take the reins in mid-October but is already thinking in critical ways about how to make the Foundation's work more deeply interconnected with my value propositions.

In addition to these external hires, on July 1, Francine Conway, formerly provost of Rutgers–New Brunswick and before that Dean of the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, took on the new position of Chancellor-Provost of Rutgers–New Brunswick. By merging the positions of chancellor and provost I have tried to create the administrative space for the university president to play a more active role in New Brunswick's affairs. This responsibility was always in the job description, but due to changes in the university organizational chart when RBHS was formed, it was difficult for the Rutgers president to have a clean line of sight into New Brunswick. This has now changed. With this new position, I have augmented the authority vested in the provost, particularly as it pertains to academic affairs. Fran has embraced this authority properly while also overseeing student affairs and faculty development. Most importantly, she and I have started working very closely together as we move New Brunswick toward industry-wide best practices that recognize the regulatory and financial role of the university administration. This is not an effort to expand my own portfolio as I want to do everything I can to keep autonomy as close to the ground as possible. But we cannot ignore the fact that the extreme local independence that has characterized New Brunswick governance in the past fostered deeply ineffective practices. We can and must do better than this if we are to have any hope of realizing our potential.

I've focused my comments here on a few key individuals and roles. But they are representative of a larger moment I've initiated. Between my appointment last year and emerging from the worst of the pandemic, we have an opportunity for a reset at Rutgers. By this I mean that I—with partnership from my Cabinet and many others—commit to the simple, if not easy, principle of getting the fundamentals right.

I want to broaden out my comments here to speak to other initiatives from the past year that, taken together, serve as an indication of where we are headed. There is a lot here so I will offer a quick canvassing.

In partnership to our efforts to engage in intentional efforts to clarify university governance, we worked to build collaborative relationships with the University Senate. As I hope Jon Oliver will attest, there are wide open lines of communication between his office and mine. I feel very good about the deliberate work that has gone on quietly in this regard. I hope that the University Senate sees evidence of this new commitment across my administration. This does not mean that we will always agree with one another, but I want everyone to expect that the administration will be responsive to Senate requests and will actively seek out partnerships when the circumstances merit.

Similarly, I have been committed to building relationships with student leaders across the university. I have participated in town halls with undergraduate and graduate students, created an Undergraduate Advisory Council that meets with me monthly, and have made it a personal project to engage students as much as my schedule permits. It is my hope that having an Office of the President that is known for being accessible to students will help to reassure them that we are committed to their best interests and want to be a part of their successes. Will there be occasions when student groups disagree strongly with my administration? Of course. But just as with the Senate, if we can all aspire to achieve a beloved community that is strong enough to remain cohesive in spite of disagreements, the university will thrive. I am certain of this.

My commitment to outreach and collaboration extends to the faculty, our alumni community, and local, state, and federal officials. I met with all of the campus faculty councils and advocated for their heightened role in the University Senate; I connected with over 5,000 alumni through Zoom town halls; and I discovered strong Rutgers supporters in Governor Murphy, Lt. Governor Oliver, Senate President Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Coughlin, and Secretary of Higher Education Bridges. My quarterly meetings with the governor have been particularly useful in this regard and I look forward to a continuing strong partnership in all ways that are in service to the state of New Jersey.

Collaboration has been key to whatever success my administration has been able to secure to this point. Looking internally, Senior Vice President of Strategy Brian Ballentine led the review of the Responsibility Center Management budget model. I consider that review, which involved both faculty and administrators, a perfect example of how we can move forward together. What we learned from that report is that we must work to remove barriers to academic collaboration, and we need to make clearer how our budget model fits our priorities. There is work to do in order to realize these fundamental observations and working together we will attend to it.

Other achievements—like fossil fuel divestment and increased transparency on student fees—are important on their own, but taken together underscore the importance of listening authentically to members of the university community and pursuing collaborative engagement wherever possible.

A commitment to that approach to work continues into this year. There are three major issues that we need to address together: the future of work, university labor relations, and a commitment to carbon neutrality.

We are now in a moment of profound reflection and re-assessment of how and where we work. In addition to the changes in how we conduct work and how we talk about it as it relates to our personal lives and spaces, this is also a moment of generational change in terms of how we recruit and retain the future workforce of this university.

This is not a challenge unique to Rutgers, but we must find solutions to these challenges that fit into the logic of how we want to conduct university business in the future. We need to chart a course, drawing lessons from the pandemic, to ensure that we take an equitable approach to employment and professional opportunities. To this end, the Future of Work Task Force that is being led by Senior Vice President Vivian Fernández will deal not just with where and how we work but will set a course for how well we work, and how well we help our employees thrive in a beloved community. I expect the report from the Task Force to come to me with concrete recommendations next May. Vivian or I will keep you posted of important milestones in the work as the needs present themselves.

On the topic of work, I turn now to university labor relations.

We could not have navigated the many challenges this year without our partners in the unions. Nothing about this past year was easy, and I know that we asked a lot of our unionized and non-aligned employees in order to keep the university functioning and to preserve our financial footing in a deeply destabilized time. Our unionized employees—both staff and faculty—play a vital role at Rutgers; indeed, there is no other university in the country where unionized labor plays such a central role in the direction of the university. In recognition of that fact and with the hope that we—the administration and the university's unions—can do more by improving our lines of communication, I am announcing the formation of an Office of University Labor Relations within the Office of the President. This presidential-level office will be led by David Cohen, associate vice president and deputy general counsel, who will become Vice President for University Labor Relations and Special Counsel for Labor Affairs and will work in concert with Andrea Bueschel, my chief of staff and Senior Vice President of Administration.

Building this new office has required multiple small but important changes in the administration's org charts, especially in the Office of Labor Relations in Human Resources and Academic Labor Relations in Academic Affairs. Under David's experienced hand I believe that the newly constituted office will increase efficiency and communication on a range of issues that are important to the administration and our unions. It is my expectation that creating clearer lines of responsibility on the administration's side will minimize moments of contention and increase the opportunity for the administration and the unions to work together to build the best possible Rutgers for all.

When I think about working together in order to build a brighter future, I think about a particular project that predated my arrival but that is now set to be implemented. Two years ago, Bob Barchi established the President's Task Force on Carbon Neutrality and Climate Resilience. Since assuming office, I have been in regular contact with the faculty, administrative, and student leaders from the Task Force. Last winter's Phase 2 report offered a baseline inventory of our greenhouse gas emissions and recommendations from seven working groups informed by feedback at virtual town halls. On June 1st I was pleased to receive the final report from the Task Force. I applaud the Task Force for its careful work and for the range of realistic and ambitious goals for Rutgers' climate future.

The final report will be released next week, but the lead headline is that I accept the task force's call for a carbon-neutral Rutgers by 2040, a year ahead of our 275th anniversary. Achieving this lofty goal will involve every facet of the university—from students who ride buses, to how our administration purchases energy, to how our faculty teach and research climate change. Working with the support of the Office of University Strategy, professors Bob Kopp, Kevin Lyons, and Angela Oberg will lead the development of implementation plans for carbon neutrality, create the systems to hold us accountable for our progress, and develop a permanent Office of Climate Action at Rutgers. I believe that great universities are measured by their actions, not just their words, and I am convinced that this is an instance where Rutgers' actions are going to elevate our standing among our peers in higher education. Watching this new office develop will be exciting, and I pledge my administration's cooperation as reasonable and ambitious plans for a greener version of Rutgers begin to emerge.

All of the above speaks to achieving strategic clarity at the same time that it affirms a commitment to a beloved community.

When I introduced myself to Rutgers in January 2020, I talked about my aspiration for such a community. As a reminder, a beloved community would be a place where we respected and acknowledged one another, always aware that what we hold in common is more important than our differences. Finding ways to invest in shared goals is a critical part of my broader agenda, and it has been deeply gratifying to hear that people throughout the university have heard in this call something that affirms their own view of how to build a better university.

As I always try to point out, building this better future will mean that we have an environment that embraces a true marketplace of ideas and that we have the willingness to engage and listen to others with whom we disagree. There have been more than a few moments this past year when this ideal has been challenged and there have been times when the university truly fumbled in its responses. But I want to assure the Senate, particularly the faculty, that a central tenet of the beloved community is my steadfast commitment to the free exchange of ideas. This commitment has already put me in incredibly uncomfortable positions, and more of that is in the future, but one of my most important responsibilities is to protect ideas, especially those with which I disagree profoundly. I've long felt that the best way to prove the demerits of an idea is to give it the chance to be articulated in the light of day so that its faults and failures can be exposed by research, assessment, and critical inquiry. That's what a university does.

Realizing a beloved community will not happen merely through flowery words. There must be intentional work undergirding that conceptual project. This work began with the strategic planning process that Anna Branch, Senior Vice President for Equity, launched this past year. Anna led the equity audit of the central administration in August 2020 and then organized the diversity strategic planning process that has been applied to the entire university. As part of this process, we now have identified five priorities for making progress toward our institutional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. An assessment survey conducted earlier this year, with more than 5,000 respondents, helped us see how Rutgers' efforts to meet these priorities are perceived by members of our community.

Part of the strategic planning work also includes creating the Faculty Diversity Collaborative, a new mechanism to support our faculty and ensure that support here extends beyond recruitment. Through the Collaborative, we are providing central resources to support inclusive hiring, sustained mentoring, and opportunities to develop intellectual community across departments, schools, and campuses.

This is all very promising but there are early lessons from this process with which we all need to grapple. If we are to be mindful in the present and dare to imagine a better future, we must continue to be honest about our institution's past and thus be prepared to acknowledge and reckon with its difficult aspects. This is why the Scarlet and Black Project is so important and why the new Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice is central to our efforts of charting a better path forward. Being honest about our challenges with regard to building a diverse faculty is also important. Some of those challenges reflect larger phenomena over which we have little control, but there clearly is more that we can do internally to get our house in order. The disparities between the diversity of our student body and the faculty are real, and are most acute in New Brunswick. This is also why the new Presidential Faculty Diversity Initiative, announced in August and led by Prabhas Moghe and Anna Branch, is so critical. It is connected to the Faculty Diversity Collaborative and commits up to $45 million over the next five years to faculty recruitment, primarily through cluster hiring.

The resource investment in the Faculty Diversity Initiative is a start, but we are not the only university investing in this space. Other, better-funded institutions have initiatives of their own and will be able to outspend us. However, if we can build a beloved community that provides the opportunity for exploration and critical inquiry while also demonstrating a deep institutional resolve to supporting faculty from underrepresented backgrounds, I am confident that we will be able to attract and retain new generations of talent. The talent is there, one just has to be committed to finding it and then creating the right kind of atmosphere so that the talent can thrive and want to stay.

We also celebrate another kind of talent at Rutgers: our student athletes. While it may be uncommon for us to think of Athletics within the context of a beloved community, I want to discuss it here.

Over the last year, our players—our students—represented us in the best possible ways on the national stage on issues of racial reckoning, on the changing nature of college sports, and on what it means to be a scholar-athlete. These students are among our most visible representatives and are among our finest activists. Whether one is a fan or not, athletics is how most Americans know about the schools we aspire to call our peers, and it is how people are introduced to us. Major college athletics—and here I am talking specifically about our Division I program in New Brunswick, responsible for 2.8% of our university budget—is a high risk and reward activity and investment. When things are properly aligned and functioning—competitive teams, coaches who are invested in their players' off-the-field futures, a pursuit of excellence that does not take shortcuts—athletics can amplify a university's profile in the best ways. When things are not going well—rampant abuses of power, coaches who do not connect to the academic enterprise—athletics can cast a powerfully negative light on a university. Since I arrived, I have spent a lot of time looking at the character of the Scarlet Knights athletics program, and I am proud of what I see. I am proud of the students who model resilience and character, I am proud of the coaches who demonstrate a respect for their players and who are firm with them when they do not live up to our standards, and I am proud of the administration of the program and its commitment to integrity.

So, yes, when I look at the athletics program, I see an embodiment of the beloved community. It is a program unafraid of doing hard work on and off the field, and it is able to withstand external scrutiny and maintain a focus on its mission. Our Scarlet Knights demonstrate regularly that Rutgers is able to compete in the classroom and on the field in an elite athletics conference in which thirteen of its schools are in the Association of American Universities—the top sixty-five universities in North America. I know that my support of athletics will be looked at with disdain by those who think that we should not be part of the Big Ten. For those who feel that way, I wish I could change your mind, but I suspect I can't. What I can say is that Rutgers made the right decision joining the Big Ten and we're here to stay. And this is not just about sports; we accrue enormous academic benefits through our membership in Big Ten Academic Alliance and it would be irresponsible to walk away from those collaborations.

Admittedly, athletics is expensive, but I have looked closely at athletics' budget, its operating practices, and its financial models. Despite recent assertions, the athletics budget has been managed appropriately and has had consistently clean audits. Having said all of that, I've gone on record stating that the current situation in athletics is unsustainable. And it is. But this is not just a Rutgers story, it is a national story, and it is past time that we find a way to restore a measure of balance into the equation. At Rutgers, we will continue to fight to be competitive, we will not take shortcuts, and we will build a financial model that more accurately captures and explains the capital investment in athletics, the financial aid practices, and the revenue streams associated with certain sports. In the meantime, I will cheer on our athletes, joining tens of thousands of fans at SHI stadium, thousands of fans at Yurcak Field and other venues around campus, and soon enough, thousands more at the RAC.

For the last portion of my address I turn my attention to the third element of my value propositions: the relentless pursuit of academic excellence. My other two propositions—developing strategic clarity and building a beloved community—are aspirational. Attaining academic excellence, however, is not an aspiration, it is a description of where we are now and what we need to do to improve our position against our peers. Is this excellence uneven? Yes, just as it is at every university. Can we do more? Absolutely—and we will never rest in this pursuit.

But let's take a moment to look at where we are: thirty-eight graduate programs ranked in the nation's top twenty-five, including two history programs ranked #1; a philosophy department ranked second in the world; Rutgers–Newark's #3 ranking as an engine of social mobility; and high rankings for criminology, nursing, pharmacy, law, and business programs as well. But rankings, incomplete narrators that they are, only tell a portion of the story. When I look at Rutgers I also see an institution that produced more Fulbrights last year than MIT, University of North Carolina, or UCLA; students who won Marshall, Schwarzman, Boren, and Goldwater scholarships; and faculty getting elected to national academies. I see a Rutgers faculty that brought in over $900 million dollars in research grants this past fiscal year—from chemistry professor Hao Zhu's NIH grant to help produce pharmaceuticals that do not cause liver damage, to neurology professor Maral Mouradian's grants from NIH and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for her research on treating Parkinson's disease using small molecules targeting RNA.  In fact, this year RBHS faculty achieved a 45% increase in external research funding over the previous year.

This is all to say that cultivating academic excellence is not about building something new at Rutgers, but about building on what we already are and moving toward a vision of what can be. The New Brunswick Academic Master Planning project that Fran Conway launched this summer is but one example of how we can use our energy to become known as the best public university in the Northeast. The Steering Committee and subcommittees working on this multi-layered initiative will examine ideas for improving our scholarship, academic administration, and student success. When that report comes in at the end of the academic year, Fran and I will have a roadmap that will help chart a path toward the success that needs to be part of our narrative.

Everywhere at Rutgers we can see excellence in pursuit of our mission.

We see Rutgers–Newark's excellence influencing a city and the world. Research by law professor David Troutt and colleagues on gentrification's threat to Newark has shaped Mayor Ras Baraka's effort to increase housing affordability. Poet and professor Cathy Park Hong was recognized this month by TIME Magazine as one its 100 most influential people of the year for her book, Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning, speaking the truth of people "othered" by the dominant culture.

We see RBHS continue to enhance its status as a leader in academic health, with 186 faculty members now earning membership in prestigious societies such as the National Academy of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Nursing. To match and honor that excellence, we broke ground for a new cancer center in New Brunswick and are in the first phase of a state-of-the-art renovation of the New Jersey Medical School Building in Newark.

We see excellence at Rutgers–Camden in its critical contributions to the fight against COVID. Our School of Nursing has been a critical resource both in vaccinating South Jersey residents and increasing the vaccination rate, literally door to door, in its host city. And the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs conducted research into the variations in COVID-19 case rates across New Jersey's municipalities and produces a weekly tracker showing statewide COVID trends.

What the above summary affirms is that if you look at Rutgers through my eyes you will see that the commitment to academic excellence already exists. Academic excellence is the heart of our very reason for being and we cannot lose sight of its importance. We must also keep in mind that other universities are watching our faculty and will not hesitate to try to poach our talent. This is the right problem to have, but it is a problem all the same. I believe that if we can make major strides forward in terms of our institutional clarity and if we can build a beloved community, we will set ourselves apart from our peers and make Rutgers a destination of desire for the next generation's leading faculty. This is a long-term plan for maintaining a culture that supports academic excellence.

In the short term, we have some very specific tasks to manage when it comes to the academic enterprise. This year, our approach needs to be about a commitment to student and faculty success as we return to campus, learning how to be in the classroom, the lab, the studio, and the library once again. We also need to rebuild international student enrollment and continue to bolster in-state and out-of-state recruitment. We need to build on the home community and anchor missions for each campus—making clear to our home state, the country, and the world what Rutgers contributes to the common good.

As you all know, this particular rebuilding work is necessary because of the global pandemic and the way it has affected us financially, socially, pedagogically, technologically, and psychologically. Managing through COVID has been an enormous challenge for everyone, and we continue to grieve those we have lost, including members of our own extended community. And while the virus continues to concern us all, I feel that our collective response has been impressive. Nearly all of our students are vaccinated, with a tiny percentage receiving exemptions. The vast majority of our faculty and staff are also vaccinated—about 92%. Yes, we had to make tough financial decisions this past year, but we managed to pull through the most difficult fiscal challenges without destabilizing the university. We also benefited from the tireless work of so many, both in person and remotely, ensuring we continued to operate under incredibly difficult circumstances. As we make steady progress toward a full-time, in-person experience across all of our campuses I want to thank everyone for their resilience, for their love of this great place, and for their patience.

Speaking of patience, I want to take a moment to address its exhaustion. Late last year I sent a message to the faculty assuring them that the administration was working hard on resolving the pay equity disputes that I inherited at the start of my tenure. In fact, I promised resolution of the matter in January or February. Here we are, nine months into the calendar year and the situation is unresolved. This, I know, is frustrating, especially to those who have claimed they were inequitably paid by the university. I, too, am frustrated. Implementing this process has not been easy and when the AAUP-AFT raised concerns early this year, we met to hear these concerns and to discuss and hopefully agree upon potential improvements to the process. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and commitment to those discussions over many months, I learned late Wednesday evening that the discussions stalled. Because there continue to be other negotiations taking place, I am unable to share much more at this time, and I suspect that this feels like an insult to those who have filed pay equity claims. While I still wish we could have agreed upon revisions to the pay equity assessment process and in so doing put much of this contention and stress to rest, I have decided to move forward, taking a leap of faith that together we can create a better future. To that end, yesterday I instructed my team to prepare to release the first set of recommendations. These will provide over $1 million in salary adjustments for supported requests. None of this has been easy, and I know there remains a lot of hard work ahead. At least now, though, we are a little less encumbered and it is my hope that people will come to see that my administration is committed to a different way forward in management, labor, and faculty relations.

I have gone on long enough, but the historian in me insists on one more observation. In 1896, activist Mary Church Terrell joined with other leading figures and established the National Association of Colored Women, a landmark civil rights organization that worked to mitigate inequities related to race and gender. The motto of the group was "Lifting While We Climb," an acknowledgment of the work that remained in front of them and a reminder that they were obliged to help those less fortunate than they.

When I reflect on my first fifteen months as Rutgers president, this phrase comes to mind. It helps me remember one of the reasons that I wanted to come to this university: an admiration for its role in transforming the lives of its students, the surrounding communities, the state of New Jersey, the nation, and the world. As I have met students, faculty, and staff in person I see that mission embodied in all of their collective work. It is inspirational. But we are not where we need to be. We can do better. In order to do so we will have to take new approaches to how we work, how we govern, how we collaborate, how we discover, how we learn, how we consume…and how we trust. If we are to become the very best version of ourselves it will require nothing short of a reset in how we conceive of this university in its base and best practices. I have little doubt that this reset will be disruptive at some level, but I am certain that the result of this new approach will accrue to Rutgers' great advantage in the years ahead.

Thank you for your time and attention this afternoon and thank you for working with me as we write the next chapter for The State University of New Jersey.