Provost’s Letter

Welcome back to all for an exciting and productive 2024- 25 academic year!

There seems to be an extraordinary amount of energy on our campus this fall—more so than in recent memory. This is not only my observation, but the deans have shared with me the same observation from their respective colleges. There is a feeling of excitement and a desire to be involved.

Our incoming class of 2028 students were in 8th grade when COVID-19 hit. They are now eager to return to the level of engagement and excitement that existed pre- COVID. This will be an exciting year and set the stage for the University’s growth in the coming years.

IGNITE, Convocation, and student activities have all been extraordinary in terms of student engagement and levels of excitement. Speaking of engagement and excitement, I was particularly impressed with all the activities and the high level of student involvement during IGNITE for the first week of the semester. Kudos to the Dean of Students and the entire team for their efforts and the great student experience!

LTU’s faculty are off to a strong start given their busy and productive summer. We witnessed many scholarly papers and presentations be published, prepared, or presented. There were also dozens of proposals for grants prepared, submitted, or funded. It is vital to use our summer months to support and lay the groundwork for scholarly research productivity and growth during the academic year.

The University will also have new Ph.D. and doctoral programs pending approval and launching this year to strengthen our efforts in achieving the President’s vision of growing LTU’s academic reputation into a more research-focused and selective University.

All our outstanding colleges are doing well with enrollment and research. One example is our newest College of Health Sciences which, under the leadership of the founding dean, Mary C. Schutten, Ph.D., is expanding with the growing success of the Physician Assistant and Nursing programs, the innovative and interdisciplinary programs affiliated with the Colleges of Engineering and Business and Information Technology, and the new undergraduate and doctoral health sciences-focused programs are all in the process of beginning soon.

Our other academic deans—Maj Dean Mirmirani in the College of Engineering, Patrick Nelson in the College of Arts and Sciences, Matthew Cole in the College of Business and Information Technology, and Karl Daubmann in the College of Architecture and Design— are providing extraordinary leadership in helping their faculties grow their research activities, expand Ph.D. programs, maintain high levels of instructional excellence, and finding innovative pathways to move the colleges into and along the trajectory that will achieve the President’s vision for LTU.

There is much more to share about our colleges, faculty, and new and growing research-focused collaborations, as well as the many innovative faculty and studentbased projects strengthening and growing our research and academic reputation. I will return to these areas in subsequent Provost letters.

I trust you sense that I am very excited about the opportunities open to us this academic year. I believe this will be a transitional year for our academic and research initiatives as we merge intoand the a challenging trajectory necessary to achieve our academic vision.

I look forward to working with all our faculty, staff, students, and administration this academic year to achieve our many goals and grow our great University.

WELCOME ALL TO OUR NEW ACADEMIC YEAR!