Anticipation! Opportunity! Discovery! Friendships! All these words—and many more—describe the beginning of the new academic year at Imagine U.

For those of you joining us as new faculty colleagues, now is the opportunity to connect with others, explore a cornucopia of intellectual and social possibilities, build a career of innovative and creative scholarship, teach and engage students during their journey of discovery and establish your own roots in our community. For those of you who are long-standing faculty members, it is the occasion to reconnect with longtime friends and colleagues, to renew collaborative campus partnerships and to explore new creative possibilities.

New or returning faculty colleagues, know that you are welcome, supported and nurtured here. We are family, in all the senses that word implies. We are here for one another, in celebration of successes and in comfort during challenges. And we must always remember an eternal truth—that when anyone is unjustly treated or abused, so are we all. We are many, but we are one, for in our diversity lies our strength.

We are One U, where students, faculty and staff come together to pursue shared dreams and aspirations. We are united in our belief that education transforms lives, that breakthrough research and scholarship illuminate our world, and that deep partnerships with our communities, our state, our country and our world are essential elements of our abiding social compact.

Extraordinary things are happening at the U, due to each of you. Together, we are building on a great present to create an even greater future. As the Plains writer Willa Cather once observed, “That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.”

Welcome (back) to Imagine U!