The holiday season is a time to enjoy our extended families and friends. I hope you have plans to take advantage of the time off. This is also a good time to reflect on the past year.

This is an exciting time to be a part of the UHD community. We completed a university-wide planning process and have charted a course for the future. From top to bottom within the University, faculty and staff have high impact activities planned to benefit our students. We expanded our offerings at suburban locations to serve students in those areas. We have increased our online courses and have expanded the number of online completion degrees that we offer. And, significantly, we successfully met the challenge of reduced state funding with strategic cost-saving measures.

This semester a new Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management joined the university and we have new directors for our Center for Retail Management and Center for Entrepreneurship. The first cohort of the Master of Business Administration degree begins in January. Construction of the Hike and Bike Trail through campus will connect the Heights, downtown, and the Eastside. The METRO North Line Expansion Project along Main Street through campus is proceeding smoothly and progress is being made on the expansion of the Visitors and Faculty Staff Garage.

The UHD Basketball team won a regional championship and our PowerLifting team continues to garner national recognition. UHD ranks 37th in the country among all colleges and universities for graduating both Hispanic and African-American students with bachelor's degrees, again showing that UHD is meeting the educational needs of its diverse student body. It isn't possible to mention everything, but I will say again... it is an exciting time to be at UHD.

Last weekend we held our 51st commencement exercise and awarded degrees to 1,424 students. As I looked at the crowd of over 16,000 people, I was again reminded how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to do this important work every day. We are making a difference for students who want to better their lives and their circumstances by earning a college degree. Our hard work pays off every day for them.

Indeed, we have a lot to be thankful for and much to look forward to in the coming year. I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season and best wishes for the New Year.

Happy Holidays,

Bill Flores

UHD President