Dear Students, Faculty, Staff, and all Members of the University Community,
I want to wish everyone a productive and healthy new year as we start the spring semester. A new academic term is an opportunity to assess goals, evaluate ideas for ongoing and future research and scholarship, prepare for performances and exhibitions, develop experience in clinical rotations, and appreciate the energy of new classes and campus events. It’s also a chance for each of us to think about the ways in which we can demonstrate our leadership within our roles as students, faculty, and staff members.
The 2025 calendar year was a historically challenging time for higher education and academic medicine, and I want to thank each of you for your patience and your commitment to our mission as we worked through the year. We followed our Boundless Possibility strategic plan to align our academic, research, and educational strengths to meet the moment and to advance knowledge, improve clinical care, enhance cultural vitality, and enrich the learning and living experiences of our students.
Not only did we remain strong, but we also marked several notable accomplishments, including the Wilmot Cancer Institute’s designation from the National Cancer Institute, the selection of our four new Transdisciplinary Centers, and the launch of For Ever Better, the most ambitious comprehensive campaign in our history.
Over the past year, our students earned national awards and honors and took top honors at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. Others took part in the first cohort of Burger Chemical Sustainability Scholars to conduct research at the forefront of sustainability. And our fencing club president was invited to compete at the Junior Olympics.
My senior leadership team and I are seeing early signs that the picture for federal research funding in the coming year may be less challenging than 2025, but we must be prepared to adjust as the year plays out. To that end, we will continue the scenario planning and financial modeling that we ramped up last year to help us stay on top of policy changes that affect our research, education, and business operations. One encouraging sign is that just last week, thanks to the tremendous efforts of our federal delegation, Congress approved $111 million for the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, the largest single-year appropriation in the lab’s 50-year history.
We also know that regardless of how the environment for federal funding shapes up, our nation’s political, social, and cultural landscapes remain fractious, and the news from across the country can often be difficult to bear. As is the case with our peer institutions, we continue to evaluate our security and safety protocols, infrastructure, and operations. Since 2024, under the continued leadership of Chief Quchee Collins, we have commissioned University-wide security assessments, and we have already taken steps to enhance the safety of our campus community. That work will continue.
The calendar year 2025 also was a landmark year for our University, as we celebrated our 175th anniversary and began our centennial celebrations for the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and of Nursing, and for Strong Memorial Hospital. Since our founding in 1850, we have established a legacy of achievement, discovery, influence, and innovation that has made us one of the nation’s leading research universities and academic health enterprises.
In looking ahead to the spring, we can see our leadership continuing across several fields, from next month’s Grammy Awards to national recognition to enhance Rochester’s stature in optics and laser science, the biological mechanisms of aging, and our renewed accreditation from the Carnegie Foundation as an institution that demonstrates the best of community engagement. On a longer timeline, the first phase of the Strong Memorial Hospital expansion project is set to be completed in 2027. It’s inspiring to watch the project take shape and to imagine the ways in which the new facility will enhance the work of our Medical Center faculty and staff and contribute to the health and well-being of the Greater Rochester community.
In May, we will celebrate our graduating students during our 176th Commencement ceremony. Our newest graduates will join an alumni population that is engaged in their professional and personal communities in ways that are shaping a better world and who also recognize the role that their Rochester experiences played in their lives.
As I meet with people on campus and throughout the country, I experience incredible support for and excitement about our future. We have seen that energy in the fundraising momentum of the For Ever Better campaign as well as in the number of alumni and friends who are offering to volunteer, serve as mentors, help students and alumni build their networks, and engage in a community that believes we can make a better world by helping one another.
All of which gives me great optimism — for the coming semester, the new year, and the future of our remarkable University of Rochester.
Meliora,
Sarah C. Mangelsdorf
President and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor