First Impressions

A couple of weeks into my new position, I have formed some impressions about this great university. It’s a place of opportunity, hope, resilience and caring. We have faculty, staff, students and alumni who have made us that kind of place over the course of many generations of effort.

The university is connected to the City of Long Beach in so many meaningful ways. Our new mayor and many other elected and professional city leaders are alumni. We have partnerships with the Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach City College that are making a difference in the lives of hundreds, even thousands of Californians.

Part of this difference is due to our committed faculty and staff who work so well together to ensure an exceptional experience for our students. Our faculty provides students innovative learning experiences that prepare them to excel in their chosen next steps – careers, graduate school, and a host of leadership positions throughout California and the world.

Our wonderful students create a fun place with a lot of laughter ringing through halls and music across the quad. We’re a place that is artistic, creative, scholarly, richly diverse and brimming with cutting-edge research that solves important regional and global problems.

Competition, determination and high expectations are also a part of our character, illustrated well by our student athletes who win on fields of play and in classrooms.

Over the next months, I’ll be sharing what I discover, giving you my insights in weekly messages. This will help me understand who we are as we communicate our vision and create a future for our university. Values, accomplishments, aspirations and a proud history compose the story worth sharing. It’s that story and the life transformations we enable that define us for generations to come.

Go Beach!