Jan. 13, 2020

Dear UNT faculty and staff,

Welcome back to campus and to 2020, a year we've looked forward to for a long time. As a caring and creative community, it is our mission to empower our students to thrive in a rapidly changing world, and I appreciate all you do to help us achieve our mission.

This semester, we will begin to implement the strategic plan and vision that so many of you helped contribute to over the past year. Our plan is dedicated to improving our students' success, building our research profile and assuring that we are efficient and effective so that we can continue to build on the momentum of the past few years.

This year, we also will continue a conversation that began last semester and work together as a community to improve our cultural competence while rededicating ourselves to creating an equitable and diverse campus climate. The topics of Equity, Diversity and Civility will be discussed during the semester's first Presidential Town Hall at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 28 in the Lyceum. Please plan to join me and leadership from the Student Government Association as we continue to engage in critical dialogue that will move UNT forward.

Through monthly Presidential Town Halls, I look forward to hearing feedback from our UNT community about specific strategic plan priorities, which include becoming a more paperless campus, reducing student debt, and the importance of early-alert grade reporting. Details about future Presidential Town Halls will be released as they are finalized.

A huge congratulations to each of you for helping to make UNT one of the top 10 public universities on the rise. I know that working together, we will continue to make our Mean Green family stronger and better than ever, in this, our 130th year.

UNT Proud,
Neal Smatresk
President
@UNTprez