Sticking to it October 17, 2022

Key Takeaways

• This weekend, we celebrated our alumni and more than a century of traditions that have, for generations, united us as one UK family.
• The upcoming Board of Trustees retreat will recommit us to embedding ingenuity in every aspect of our mission to teach, discover, heal and serve.
• This time of the academic year can be overwhelming with midterms and other important milestone moments, but we are here to support our community. 

Campus Community,

This past week, as we celebrated 107 years of UK Homecoming, many of us participated in time-honored traditions alongside friends, loved ones and fellow members of the UK family.

One member, Eugene Poole Jr., 1985 UK graduate and member of the UK Alumni Association’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni, recently offered our community three words of advice.

“Stick to it.”

Three compelling words that — although simple and straightforward — hold so much meaning.

Poole’s career as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and as an architect would lead him to restore the U.S. Capitol dome, among other notable projects, such as the Supreme Court Building, the Library of Congress, the United States Botanic Garden and more.

His work and contributions remind me of the mark our alumni leave in communities near and far — of how critically important it is to invest in our students now so they may lead lives of meaning and purpose.

Embedding ingenuity into every aspect of our mission

This time last year, our Board of Trustees met during an annual retreat to provide feedback on a new strategic plan for UK — a plan focused squarely on our most important mission: advancing Kentucky.

This year, during a retreat that begins later this week, we will dive more deeply into one principle in that plan: how we inspire ingenuity in everything that we do at UK.

The commitment to ingenuity, discovery and knowledge exists in every corner of our community. But it is perhaps most powerfully on display in the research enterprise that touches every college and unit at the University of Kentucky.

Research is where we unlock the doors of discovery that extend hope and healing throughout the Commonwealth.

During our retreat, we want to take our board members through what we are doing through research to address our state’s most intractable challenges.

At the same time, we want to think — and engage in dialogue — about what the future holds for research: areas where we have considerable strength already and those in which we must build more capacity if we are to secure funding support and continue to do all we can to advance our state.

Previous retreats have been invaluable spaces for dialogue and deeper thinking about critical issues confronting our university and our Commonwealth.

We’ve examined the challenges of opioid misuse, talked about the future of higher education, including online learning and, last year, gathered important feedback from board members about the institution’s strategic plan, which they endorsed.

I look forward to thinking about the future of our institution and to reporting back to you on some of what we learned together.

Preparing for Midterms

Investing in our students — another critical part of our strategic plan — means supporting them in their academic endeavors. Our Office for Student Success is ready to support our students during midterms.

For any question, big or small, we encourage our students to call 859-218-YouK (9685) to be connected to a caring Student Success team member who can point them in the right direction.

While this time of year can be overwhelming, I invite everyone — especially our students — to remember Poole's three simple words: 

Stick to it.

Because here, in this wildly powerful community, we want everyone to know that they have the support of a community that never gives up on them.

That is who we are. That is what we do.

Eli Capilouto 

President