Celebrating the Year Ahead

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

I have been delighted to experience the telltale signs of the new semester spreading across our campuses as our community returns for the fall semester. This exhilarating start to the academic year feels like a positive indicator of the good things we have to look forward to this semester. President Snyder recently shared reflections for the fall semester, and I add a few of my own:

I share President Snyder’s excitement surrounding the celebration of the anniversary of the merger of Loyola University and Marymount College in 1973–marking 50 years of mission-driven Catholic higher education in Los Angeles. Our anniversary celebrations this fall will showcase the beauty of our communities and the creativity that comes from our combined heritages and traditions. I’m also excited to report that our Global Conversations Series with Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be entering its second season.

We recently welcomed 22 tenure-line faculty to our ranks, as well as dozens of visiting and term faculty who hail from all over the country and who are accomplished scholars and professionals in their disciplines. I extend my deepest gratitude to our Office of Faculty Development for facilitating a successful and informative New Faculty Orientation and to our faculty community for welcoming your new colleagues with open arms. 

We have three active searches for new deans of LMU’s Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, Loyola Law School, and School of Education. While the bar for finding leadership who rise to the level of LMU’s standards is high, I am bolstered by the support from our community, the expertise of the search firms that we partner with, and the dedication and care shown by search committee members as they collaborate to bring transformational leaders to LMU.

On another note, if you haven’t read our recent announcement (or if you didn’t catch Iggy and Rampage at Wellness Wednesday), LMU has entered an exclusive partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, representing unique academic, co-curricular, and career pathway opportunities for our students, and faculty access to a premier organization right here in our backyard. I am eager to see how this partnership will enhance the engaged learning opportunities for which we are known and celebrated, and I hope that you will consider exploring this opportunity to enhance your curricula or research where applicable. 

I am thrilled to share that a delegation of faculty led by Roberta Espinoza, vice provost for Global-Local Affairs, will attend the 2023 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will convene in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Attending the UNFCCC will activate our UN observer status and allow LMU faculty to engage firsthand in conversations around climate change and environmental sustainability. I look forward to hearing from the delegation members about ways our university can deepen our commitments to the UN SDGs.

And while I’ll always have more news to share, I am aware of the length of my message and the many priorities competing for your time, so I’ll end here by wishing you a successful start of the academic year and with a promise to stay connected with more updates as the semester goes on. 

With gratitude,

Tom 

Thomas Poon, Ph.D.  
Executive Vice President and Provost 
Professor of Chemistry