Messages from University of Richmond President Kevin F. Hallock

Dear Spiders,

Earlier this month, we celebrated our Class of 2025 at Commencement.

In a few days, we will welcome alumni, family, and friends back to campus for Reunion Weekend to reconnect, mark class milestones, and share their love for Richmond.

Between these two time-honored traditions, I’m excited to share the University of Richmond’s first digital year in review: Looking Back & Looking Ahead. It features major highlights from the past academic year across the University, showcasing our continued momentum and the advancement of our strategic priorities.

Together, we have accomplished so much this year, and I remain convinced that, with the dedication and strength of our Spider community, our best days are ahead.

Thank you for all you do for Richmond and for being an important part of our web.

 With gratitude,

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Spiders,

I hope you are doing well. I have been fortunate to speak with many of you this year and to see and hear, time and again, how remarkable Spiders are and how deeply they care about one another and our university. We have amazing people at UR, and with the great work and support of so many, we continue to be focused on our strategic priorities and our momentum remains strong. I’d like to share just a few examples of some highlights from campus so far this semester.

DEMONSTRATING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AND ETHICAL ENGAGEMENT

When practicing ethical engagement, Spiders demonstrate many skills we seek to cultivate through a liberal arts education.

• UR hosted and won the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges 25th Annual Applied Ethics Bowl. Five seniors, led by philosophy associate professor Brannon McDaniel, explored case studies where using AI posed ethical dilemmas. They provided analysis and made recommendations — working together and thinking on their feet. Competing against 15 other Virginia schools, Spiders took home the trophy, defeating Washington & Lee in the final round.
• The Jepson School of Leadership Studies received a grant for Ethics Education that will support faculty and students working on various ethics-related research and projects.
• Terry Price, Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics and co-director of the Gary L. McDowell Institute, was named an Outstanding Faculty Award recipient by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia — the highest state honor for faculty. Professor Price exemplifies the teacher-scholar model through his dedication to UR students and his field.

COMING TOGETHER TO LISTEN AND LEARN

One of my favorite things is interacting with so many people in our Spider community, especially our students. 

• I saw many of you when we hosted Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, to discuss his book The Bill of Obligations: Ten Habits of Good Citizens. Hundreds attended the talk, including via livestream. Haass also participated in dedicated discussions with student fellows from the Gary L. McDowell Institute and student interns from the Virginia General Assembly Internship Program, facilitated by political science professor Dan Palazzolo.
• Students from UR’s chapter of Mortar Board, a national honor society recognizing college seniors for exemplary scholarship, leadership, and service, recently hosted the annual President’s Forum. During this student-led event, alongside our Westhampton and Richmond College Presidents, I fielded questions on topics of interest to our students — from how decisions are made at the University to lessons learned through leadership. Students asked great questions, and I was excited to introduce members of the University’s senior leadership team, who each shared how they support the student experience.
• I recently met with senators from our Westhampton and Richmond College student government associations. They came prepared to discuss their priorities and ideas on how UR can continue to make progress. It was terrific to see our student leaders engaging constructively to benefit current and future Spiders. 

CELEBRATING SPIDER SPIRIT AND COMMUNITY

One of the things that makes Spiders so remarkable is that we are all so busy doing so many things and doing them well. It can be challenging to find the time, but when we do, showing up to celebrate and support one another can foster our well-being and a more profound sense of belonging and community. There will be many opportunities to celebrate what it means to be a Spider this semester, and I encourage you to participate when you can.

• This weekend is our third annual Spider Dash 5K, a campus tradition that continues to build interest and engagement with more participants each year. Tina and I will join the walking division and look forward to congratulating our competitors at the awards ceremony meal afterward at the Heilman Dining Center.
• Tina and I also love attending artistic performances when we can, especially those involving our students. The University Dancers 40th Annual Concert, featuring works, costumes, and choreography created by students, faculty, and guest artists, is coming up later this month.
• You’ll also find us at many practices and games to support our incredible student-athletes. Our women’s basketball team is currently in sole possession of first place in the A-10 and seeks to win back-to-back conference titles for the second time and the first since 1990–91. In January, our women’s team beat VCU in front of over 3,400 fans at the Robins Center. The A-10 tournaments will be here in just a few weeks. Join us for the women’s tournament in nearby Henrico and our men’s tournament in D.C.

PREPARING FOR AN EVEN BRIGHTER FUTURE

Many Spiders are also helping the University prepare for an even brighter future.

• Thanks to the ideas and suggestions of so many, we are now in the final stages of developing the 2025 University of Richmond Campus Plan. This plan is intended to be a flexible framework to guide University decision-making about our physical campus as we work to ensure it continues to support and strengthen the University’s academic mission.
• As we prepare Spiders for lives of purpose and flourishing careers, we have been making our award-winning Career Development program even Damon Yarnell, our inaugural associate provost and executive director for Career Development, joined UR in August. His efforts were recently spotlighted by Inside Higher Education’s Student Success section. I’ve also enjoyed hearing from many Spider students over the past several weeks, with exciting news of post-graduation plans, including acceptance into Ph.D. and law programs.
• It has been great seeing so many dedicated Spiders everywhere in Richmond and throughout the country. I’ll continue traveling this spring to share updates and reconnect with alumni, parents, and friends. We’ll be having receptions in Boston (April 3), Central New Jersey, Greenwich, New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. If you’re in the area, please join us!

I am excited to continue making the most of this semester together. Thanks so much for being an important part of our web. I continue to believe that our best days are ahead due to the strength of the Spider community.

Please remember to take care of yourselves and look out for others.

Kevin F. Hallock
President & Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Spiders,

We’re having another great academic year at UR and continuing our upward trajectory. We’ve welcomed an incredible cohort of students, and our semester is in full swing. As I begin my fourth year at Richmond, I’m more excited than ever to be a part of our Spider community.

This year marks my 30th as a faculty member, and this fall, I’m co-teaching a new course called “The Economics of the University” with Professor Jim Monks. Along with our students, we’re considering how to use economic thinking to advance UR’s mission and maximize opportunities for learning and growth. Our students’ thoughtful ideas and questions are inspiring me. As I often say, Spiders are remarkable.

And it’s been exciting to see many ideas from the University’s new strategic plan put into practice. For example, taking another step forward for access and affordability, we recently announced an expansion of Richmond’s Promise to Virginia. Beginning in fall 2025, qualified Virginians whose total parental income is $75,000 or less (an increase from the previous threshold of $60,000) will receive grant aid equal to 100% of tuition, housing, and food. Thanks to the generosity of scholarship donors across many generations, we are among a select few universities that can offer undergraduate admission to U.S. citizens and permanent residents without considering their financial circumstances and commit to meeting their full demonstrated financial need. Spider philanthropy is additionally fueling robust and growing merit scholarships. With your support, our work continues as we remain deeply committed to ensuring that talented students from all points of the family income distribution can envision themselves as Spiders.

We also continue to raise the bar for academic excellence by leading the way in innovative research and collaboration. UR was among only five schools in the nation awarded an exceptionally competitive $700,000 five-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to establish our new Center for Liberal Arts and Artificial Intelligence (CLAAI). Led by director Lauren Tilton, E. Claiborne Robins Professor of Liberal Arts and Digital Humanities, the CLAAI will facilitate collaboration and develop courses exploring artificial intelligence’s pressing social, cultural, and legal dimensions.

Raising the bar for academic excellence additionally means ensuring every Spider student develops the academic skills they need to flourish at UR and beyond. This summer, we welcomed Marco A. Ortiz as the inaugural executive director of our new Weinstein Learning Center (WLC), which provides core academic support services, such as writing, speech and communication, tutoring, and technology. The WLC will eventually be housed within the footprint of Boatwright Memorial Library. I envision it as the front door to academic support at UR, where students can go when they want to enhance their skills in specific areas or aspire to take their work to an even higher level.

We also remain focused on equipping all students to pursue purposeful lives and fulfilling careers. In August, we welcomed Damon Yarnell as our associate provost and executive director for Career Development to lead and strengthen these efforts. From his team’s new home in academic affairs, Damon will collaborate with campus partners, employers and recruiters, alumni and parents, and friends to help students make connections and develop pathways through transformative programs like the Richmond Guarantee. I believe that UR can be the best in this area, and I look forward to our continued progress.

As we cultivate a vibrant intellectual community that encourages the vigorous exchange of ideas, we will have many opportunities to come together, listen, learn, and share knowledge this year. For instance, we enjoyed our second annual staff and faculty research symposium last Friday, with participation from all five schools. I chaired the panel “Building Bridges: Innovations in Belonging, Entrepreneurship, and Global Learning.” It was incredible to think together and build off one another’s efforts. I’m so grateful to the symposium’s organizers, Elizabeth Outka and Lidia Radi, and the School of Arts & Sciences Dean Jenny Cavenaugh. The 2024–25 Jepson Leadership Forum is underway and will welcome scholars and experts to campus throughout the year to discuss how division and polarization affect the United States. And on Oct. 24, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, will cap off 2024’s Sharp Viewpoint Speaker Series, Speaking About Speech: Dialogue, Difference & Civil Discourse. As these programs and others at UR seek to model, a university campus is precisely where we should have open and sometimes difficult conversations about issues. As Spiders, how we listen and speak to and about one another matters. We will disagree, but we must do so while respecting the humanity of those with whom we disagree and considering our impact.

Gathering to celebrate our shared web is essential to fostering belonging and community. So far this fall, we’ve hosted Presidential Receptions for alumni, parents, and friends in Richmond and Denver. Next Tuesday, Oct. 8, we’ll visit St. Louis. On Dec. 11, we’ll be in D.C., and spring trips are in the works to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Central New Jersey, Boston, Greenwich, and New York City. And I hope you’ll join us on campus for Homecoming 2024. Festivities start on Friday, Nov. 1, with a Spider Day lunch and a Party Under the Lights in the evening. On Saturday, Nov. 2, before the Richmond Spiders football team takes on the Towson Tigers, we’ll offer a special Game Day Tailgate at Robins Stadium. Go Spiders!

Thank you for everything you do to support our Spider community. I remain confident that our best days are ahead. Please remember to take care of yourself and look out for each other.

With gratitude,

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Spiders,

As we prepare to welcome generations of alumni back to campus for our annual Reunion Weekend, I want to thank everyone who contributed to our university’s success this year and supported our continued momentum. I’m so proud to be part of our Spider community. 

Earlier this month, we had a celebratory and vibrant Commencement. Throughout the weekend, our graduates, families, friends, staff, and faculty were brimming with joy and pride. Spiders shared inspiring speeches and performances, from our Candlelight Ceremony around Westhampton Lake to our gatherings in Cannon Memorial Chapel to our graduations in the Robins Center. Just before Heidi Petz, ’97, took the stage to give the Commencement address, student speaker Kerry-Ann Moyo, ’24, found the words to tie it all together. She discussed her undergraduate journey at UR through the lens of “ubuntu,” a word derived from a Zulu phrase meaning a person is a person through other people. Kerry-Ann said ubuntu is “a willingness to grow while looking in the eyes of someone unfamiliar and saying, ‘I see you,’ but most importantly, it is seeing yourself in their eyes.” Stepping away from the microphone at the end of her speech, she was met with a standing ovation. 

This year at UR, I’m proud that we’ve fostered opportunities to strive to see and hear one another more clearly — an increasingly vital skill as we prepare our students for lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a diverse world. The Office of the Chaplaincy facilitated Multi-faith Dialogues, bringing Jewish and Muslim students together to discuss common readings, and the Office of the Provost coordinated a series called Learning Together, exploring the conflict in the Middle East through an academic lens, with discussions centered on guest speakers and shared texts. With funding from the Associated Colleges of the South, the University’s Faculty Hub collaborated with Washington and Lee University and Hendrix College on “Facilitating Constructive Dialogue in a Challenging World” to equip faculty with strategies for leading constructive conversations in the classroom. And, through this year’s Sharp Viewpoint Series, “Speaking About Speech: Dialogue, Difference & Civil Discourse,” we welcomed free speech experts to campus for discussions on the rights and responsibilities we exercise when we express ourselves and respond to the speech of others.

I’m also proud of how Spiders have supported each other during hard times. This has been a challenging year for our global community. We also lost several members of our Spider family this year, including beloved alumni, staff, faculty, and sophomore Christopher George Elvin Jr. — a classmate, teammate, and friend who would have celebrated his 20th birthday this week. I was moved by the outpouring of affection for Chris’ life and the many reflections on his impact at our campus memorial service. I am heartened that Spiders have contributed to a scholarship fund established in Chris’ memory. Just last Friday, Richmond Athletics Hall of Famer Greg Beckwith, R’86 and G’89, also suddenly passed away. We will gather as a community to celebrate Greg’s life at 1 p.m. this Monday, June 3, at Cannon Memorial Chapel. A reception will immediately follow the service in the Robins Center. Thanks to all who have shared their support.

Thank you also for continuing to raise the bar for academic excellence. Over the years, I’ve taught 15 unique courses, lectured at 33 universities, and supervised 49 Ph.D. students. I can honestly say that Spider students are remarkable, and I’m astonished by our students’ research and creative work. During research symposia on campus this spring, more than 300 students presented faculty-mentored research and collaborative and independent studies. Additionally, 28 graduating seniors and many rising students received prestigious scholarships or fellowships, including Beckman Awards and Goldwater and Boren scholarships; for the sixth year in a row, the University was a top producer of students selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, and recent graduate Robert Bentley was the first UR student ever to receive the Humbolt German Chancellor Fellowship, which will support his research on the history of German youth culture in Berlin.

Seeing our faculty lead the way in their fields has also been wonderful. Our faculty, across the schools, create outstanding research and creative work. A few examples: Carrie Wu, associate professor of biology, received a $200,000 grant from the USDA to continue researching the high-risk invasive spread of wavyleaf basketgrass into mid-Atlantic forests. Biology professor Colleen Carpenter-Swanson, who works closely with UR undergraduates to investigate the repurposing of FDA-approved drugs as anti-epileptic treatments, received funding from the STXBP1 Foundation to continue their research with zebrafish. Psychology professor Kelly Lambert was selected as a 2024–25 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for her work on the neurobiology of stress, resilience, depression, parenting, and natural enrichment. And Sandra Peart, dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies, received the 2024 Distinguished Fellow Prize from the History of Economics Society, honoring her substantial contributions to economics history. Reflecting on the prize, Dean Peart said, “As in so many areas, we learn surprising and useful insights when we examine the ideas of the past and look to the future. We also learn humility: I’m amazed and humbled by the ongoing contributions of those who came before us.” As I prepare to return to the classroom this fall to co-teach a course with Jim Monks, professor of economics, on “The Economics of the University,” I’m similarly humbled to be in the tremendous company of our current teaching faculty.

Throughout the year, Tina and I have also enjoyed sitting on the edge of our seats as we watched our 17 Division 1 teams compete and saw our student-athletes blaze through competitions. Four different Spider Athletics teams (football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and women’s lacrosse) won conference championships during the 2023–24 school year, with women’s basketball winning both the A-10 regular season and conference tournament titles! At the same time, Richmond maintained a high graduation success rate for student-athletes. Women’s swimming and diving was named a Scholar All-America Team, securing the second-highest GPA in the country among 783 teams. And our men’s and women’s basketball coaches were recognized as A-10 coaches of the year. I am so proud of our student-athletes, coaches, and athletics staff and appreciate their many contributions to our university. Athletics is and will continue to be an important part of the fabric of UR. Go Spiders! 

Thanks to the generosity of our community, in total, so far this year, we’ve raised nearly $45 million. Contributing to this success, we celebrated a record-breaking UR Giving Day, raising more than $2.2 million, surpassing the previous record of $1.6 million. During the UR Giving Day drive, more donors than ever — 4,350 — supported the University with a gift, an increase of 33% from 2023. We saw increased giving from staff, faculty, parents, and alumni — and gifts from current students grew by an incredible 63%. Thank you so much!

Among the enduring contributions to our endowment, anonymous donors also established a scholarship fund to honor Steve Bisese, our vice president for student development, who is retiring later this year after nearly 30 years at UR. Steve’s impact on the University has been profound. Among his countless accomplishments, Steve led the development of the Office of Residence Life & Housing and co-led efforts to develop our award-winning living-learning programs. He created our Health & Well-Being Unit, championed the creation of our Well-Being Center, and launched the Richmond Guarantee — which today is one of our greatest differentiators — helping to ensure that EVERY Spider can receive financial support for an unpaid or underpaid internship or faculty-mentored research project. I am so grateful to know Steve as a colleague and friend. I look forward to building upon his outstanding work as we continue to offer an unparalleled student experience.

There is so much to be proud of this year, but as I often say, our best days are ahead. With the strength and support of our Spider community, we will reach even greater heights. I look forward to reconnecting with alumni this weekend during Reunion and welcoming new and returning students, staff, and faculty in the fall. In the meantime, I wish Spiders everywhere a terrific summer. 

As always, please take care of yourself and look out for others.

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Spiders, 

We are on terrific footing at the University of Richmond near the mid-point of the spring semester. This past weekend, our University community championed well-being and traversed our breathtaking campus for our second annual Spider Dash 5K. We celebrated fifty years of contributions by the Student Organization for Black Awareness at our Black Excellence Gala. We enjoyed performances by UR’s Block Crew dance team and Choeur du Roi a cappella group. And we cheered on our student-athletes as Richmond tallied five home wins. Meanwhile, we have been continuing to lay the groundwork for an even brighter future at the University, and I am grateful to colleagues across campus for making important progress in advancing our strategic priorities. Among these efforts, we are developing a new campus space plan to serve as a roadmap for the future physical development of our campus. And we are seeing incredible growth in interest in UR from prospective students. There was a 6.25% increase in applications this year as part of a more significant long-term upward trend, and the quality of our applicants is off the charts.

Across our schools, our world-class faculty members continue to receive recognition. Elizabeth Outka, our Tucker-Boatwright Professor of Humanities and one of the co-organizers of our inaugural staff and faculty research symposium last semester, received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, its highest honor for faculty. The Virginia Law Foundation also recognized three faculty from the School of Law — Dean Wendy Perdue, Professor Hank Chambers, and Professor Emeritus Clark Williams — for leadership in their practices, communities, and the Commonwealth by including them in the Fellows Class of 2024. The Gary L. McDowell Institute, which encourages students to discuss important ethical, political, and legal questions — and continues to grow in popularity among Spider students, with thirty-six students across a dozen majors participating this year — received a $500,000 grant award to build upon its distinctive programming.

Our Sharp Viewpoint Speaker Series has also been inspiring. Established in 2011 to honor Richard L. Sharp, the Sharp Series presents competing views on topics crucial to our society. We started this year’s series, Speaking About Speech: Dialogue, Difference, and Civil Discourse, on February 15 with Robert P. George, professor and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. First, Professor George participated in a lively discussion with The Gary L. McDowell Institute’s student fellows. I was so proud to see Spiders challenging themselves and sharing their ideas on a topic that will remain important throughout their lives. Afterward, Professor George joined me on stage for a fireside chat in Camp Concert Hall. There, he challenged all members of our University community to welcome diverse viewpoints, interrogate ideas using evidence, reason, and argument, and support intellectual discourse by embracing UR’s Statement on Free Expression. Continuing our exploration of this crucial topic, on March 28, we will welcome Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. This year’s series will culminate on October 24 with Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law and co-author of Free Speech on Campus. Engaging across our differences is not always easy; it takes patience, grace, and practice. It can also help a great deal to understand the rights and responsibilities we exercise when we express ourselves. Along with this year’s speakers, I hope members of our community will reflect on why a commitment to free expression is essential to open inquiry and how we can use speech to navigate our differences, generate knowledge, advance our educational mission, and support the functioning of democratic societies. 

Spider Athletics is also having a terrific year. Earlier this week, at the Spring 2024 Scholar Athlete Breakfast, we celebrated Spider athletes with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5. Women’s swimming and diving maintained UR’s highest cumulative Spider Athletics team GPA for the third consecutive year. The team was also recognized for earning the second-highest GPA among all Division 1 competitors in the nation and being named a 2023 Fall Scholar All-America Team. Just last week, women’s swimming and diving and women’s track and field placed second in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships, with several Spiders taking home gold, silver, and bronze medals. Men’s and women’s basketball games at the Robins Center have been electrifying all season, with both teams at the top of their leagues. The A-10 Women’s Basketball Championship will return to the Richmond region in March, debuting as the first collegiate tournament in the new 3,500-seat Henrico Sports & Event Center. I encourage you to join Tina and me to cheer on our Spiders. And if you make it to Brooklyn for the A-10 men’s basketball tournament, please stop and say hello there, too.

Finally, it has been great to visit with alumni and families on campus and on the road, and we have hosted seven Presidential Receptions so far this year — Atlanta, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Richmond, Chicago, New Jersey, and D.C. — connecting with many people who love the University and are excited about our considerable momentum. We are in the Carolina Triangle tonight and head to Charlotte tomorrow. We have future receptions scheduled for New York City (April 3), Dallas (April 10), and London (May 23). If you are in one of these areas and your schedules align, please join us! I also hope you will mark your calendar for UR Here Giving Day, April 3–4, Commencement, May 11–12, and Reunion, May 31–June 2.

I am so grateful to be at the University and firmly believe our best days are ahead. Thanks so much for being an important part of our web.

Take care,

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Fellow Spiders,

A great fall semester is underway at the University of Richmond! It’s been invigorating to start a new academic year guided by our strategic plan, in partnership with our new provost, Joan Saab, and with such strong engagement from Spiders throughout our web.

In August, we welcomed our continuing students back to campus and oriented more than 1,100 new students. A record-breaking 382 students started the fall semester studying abroad. As part of a new tradition called New Spider Walk, incoming undergraduates marched from our University Welcome in the Robins Center to the Intramural Fields for a class photo. Richmond area leaders and alumni were featured in a Welcome to RVA video.

In the past few weeks, we’ve held Presidential Receptions in Charlottesville and Roanoke for alumni, parents, and friends. We’re hosting a reception tonight at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, where we’re anticipating nearly 400 attendees, and I will be visiting Chicago and New Jersey soon, as well as many other locations this year. We’ll also have many opportunities to celebrate as a Spider community during Homecoming Weekend. We’re kicking things off on Friday, Oct. 27, with Spider Day. A community festival on Millhiser Green will feature local food trucks, special appearances by award-winning Spider Athletics alumni, and live music by UR favorites. And, of course, a home football game on Saturday. I hope to see you there! 

Last Friday, during our inaugural Faculty & Staff Research Symposium, 144 staff and faculty from all five schools and multiple divisions volunteered to present, and an additional 34 chaired sessions. It was terrific! I had the honor of chairing a panel titled "New Ways to Think," where we spent some time thinking about thinking. Laura Knouse presented cognitive-behavioral research exploring how specific thoughts that are automatic and overly positive might lead us to avoid tasks or procrastinate and whether people who’ve been diagnosed with ADHD might be more prone to having these kinds of thoughts. Marcella Torres and Todd Lookingbill shared insights from UR’s current Integrative Learning Pilot, through which students practice techniques to reflect on, apply, and connect what they’ve learned in and outside the classroom and across the curriculum to construct more coherent educational journeys. The enthusiasm of our teacher-scholars was infectious, and it was wonderful to be among staff and faculty from all over campus who were sharing knowledge and asking questions. I’m so grateful to Elizabeth Outka and Lidia Radi for organizing this symposium and everyone who participated. I’m already looking forward to our next one!

We’ve welcomed new Spiders this fall, who will infuse our campus community with diverse experiences, values, and beliefs — including 34 new and visiting faculty who will expand learning and research opportunities in disciplines ranging from health studies to computer science to economics. Growing as a vibrant intellectual community that shares and develops knowledge, we are likely to disagree about things that matter to us along the way. We also live in disruptive times. A university is precisely where we can and should have open and sometimes challenging dialogues about issues. I believe Spiders can help lead the way in this area, and UR has joined twelve peer institutions, including Cornell University, Duke University, and James Madison University, in committing to the Institute for Citizens & Scholars Campus Call for Free Expression. As educators, we can model constructive disagreement and strive to help our students navigate fault lines in our community and broader society. As students and lifelong learners, we can grow and build greater understanding by being open to listening and learning from others and respecting the shared humanity behind different lived experiences, values, and beliefs. 

Thanks to each of you for being part of our incredible Spider community and helping to make it even better for the Spiders of today and tomorrow. 

Please remember to take care of yourself and look out for others. 

With gratitude,                                                       

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Fellow Spiders,

As I look back on the achievements and celebrations of the past academic year — I am so proud of what you’ve accomplished. To the Class of 2023, congratulations. You have joined the ranks of more than 55,000 Spiders worldwide. Please stay in touch with one another and stay connected with UR. I am also incredibly grateful to our staff, faculty, parents, alumni, and friends who encourage Spiders to persist in their learning, cultivate their well-being, and prepare to lead lives of purpose. Thank you for your inspiring ideas and generous contributions — they are deeply appreciated. Your engagement will continue to be critical as we accelerate our upward trajectory and make our university even more remarkable.

I am now very happy to share our road map forward, the University’s new Strategic Plan. As I have said from the beginning of the planning process, this plan is intended to be brief, clear, and attainable, inspire our community, and guide our future direction. It centers around five key areas, our “guiding lights”:

• Academic Excellence
• Belonging & Community
• Access & Affordability
• Well-Being
• Experiential Learning & Community Engagement

From Carole and Marcus Weinstein’s transformative gift — which will establish a new learning center — to the Spider Dash 5K — a new campus-wide tradition rooted in well-being — to all of the progress our students, staff, and faculty have made this year, we are already building momentum in these areas. I am hopeful this plan will further clarify our strategic objectives and streamline efforts across our five schools and many divisions so that together we can achieve our mission, embody our values, and realize our vision. We have already begun the development of a set of metrics to support and evaluate our progress. Over the coming year, we will also turn to comprehensive campus space planning efforts and philanthropic priorities. I look forward to updating you on how things are going and how you can help.

This summer, we are also delighted to welcome a new academic leader to Richmond. Starting July 1, Dr. A. Joan Saab will serve as the University of Richmond’s new executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. Provost Saab is an accomplished administrator and distinguished art history and visual culture scholar who serves as Susan B. Anthony Professor of Art History and executive vice provost of academic affairs at the University of Rochester.

As we prepare for Dr. Saab’s arrival later this summer, I hope you will join me in thanking Dr. Jeff Legro for his service as our provost these past six years and his continuing work at our university as an esteemed faculty member. I also hope you will have a chance to invest in your well-being and cherish special moments and people in your lives. It’s so important.

To those joining us for Reunion Weekend, I look forward to seeing you soon! To those remaining with us over the summer or returning in the fall, I’m enthusiastic about our continued work together welcoming and orienting our newest Spiders. And to all, please remember to take care of yourself and look out for others.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Fellow Spiders,

When preparing to join the University of Richmond in the summer of 2021, I spoke with many students, staff, faculty, parents, and alumni to better understand what makes our university so special and how we might reach new heights together. I haven’t stopped. At the inauguration in April 2022, I talked about five key areas of opportunity for continuing our upward trajectory. In August of that year, we launched a web portal to solicit ideas for enhancing our work in these areas to achieve our mission, values, and vision and make Richmond even more remarkable. And over the past several months, I’ve heard from and met with campus community members, alumni and parents, and friends of the University.

I am now happy to share our roadmap forward, the University of Richmond’s new Strategic Plan. This plan is intended to be brief, clear, and attainable, inspire our community, and guide our future direction. It centers around our “guiding lights”: Academic Excellence, Belonging & Community, Access & Affordability, Well-Being, and Experiential Learning & Community Engagement. I am hopeful this plan will further clarify our strategic objectives and streamline efforts across our university.

We have begun developing a set of metrics to support and evaluate our progress and, over the coming year, will turn to comprehensive campus space planning efforts and philanthropic priorities. I look forward to updating you on how things are going and how you can help. We will need our university community’s continued dedication, generosity, and support to continue our momentum.

We are grateful for your partnership as we shape Richmond’s future. And I am grateful to be part of our incredible university community.

Kevin F. Hallock

President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics
University of Richmond

Dear Fellow Spiders,

Happy New Year. To those of you returning, welcome back. To those Spiders joining us for the first time, welcome to our community; we’re so glad you’re here! I hope you all experienced moments of joy and rest over winter break. Tina and I were able to spend time with our friends and families, and I began chipping away at an old hobby, taking some photographs — one of which I actually like — with a new camera. 

I hope you are as excited as I am to embark on another semester at Richmond. Ours is an extraordinary institution. I have a ton of energy for 2023.

I believe the University of Richmond should be a place where people care about each other while striving for excellence. Each of us is part of this campus community because someone saw promise in what we could contribute and believed we would thrive together. While we have all come here at different points in our journeys, with different experiences and understandings, each of us is a Spider. We strengthen our web when we listen to one another, give each other the benefit of the doubt, and participate in programs, classes, and activities that broaden our perspectives. 

There will be many opportunities to learn from and connect with one another this semester. One example is our MLK Celebration, which kicks off next week and runs through Friday, January 20. From facilitated conversations to a gathering with live performances and food, there will be a variety of ways for us to come together as a community and celebrate the legacy and impact of Martin Luther King Jr. Thanks so much to our cross-campus committee of students, staff, and faculty for planning and facilitating UR’s celebration.

Our campus is brimming with smart and good people who do great work. I remain incredibly optimistic about our future. And I look forward to seeing you around campus.

Please continue to take care of yourselves and look out for others.

Kevin F. Hallock
President, University of Richmond

Dear Fellow Spiders,

It is exciting to have our campus community back together for a new academic year. It is also wonderful to welcome new students, staff, and faculty. The University of Richmond is teeming with enthusiasm and Spider Pride.

Our Star Is Rising

UR is remarkable, and our star is rising. Our university continues to grow in national distinction and rankings. Most recently, in U.S. News & World Report’s 2022–23 Best Colleges guide, we jumped for the first time into the top 20 among national liberal arts colleges, landing at #18. I’m not much of a fan of these sorts of rankings. At the same time, I believe rankings are positively correlated with important areas of strength and affirm our trajectory. The Princeton Review also ranked UR highly for the beauty of our campus, our classroom experience, and several other key areas that make Richmond’s academics and campus life truly special — including Career Services. I send a special thanks to Spider alumni and parents who are opening doors to recent graduates. I recently attended a Job and Internship Fair on campus; seeing so many Spiders among the recruiters was terrific.

As we look ahead, we must be clear about where we want to go and how we want to get there. I believe we can maximize our potential by converging around five areas of opportunity: Academic Excellence, Belonging, Access & Affordability, Well-Being, and Experiential Learning & Community Engagement. Community enthusiasm is building around these guiding lights.

We are now leveraging our collective wisdom and experience in these five areas to inform a strategic plan. The goal is to have a brief, clear, concrete plan by the end of the academic year. This should inspire our community and provide a roadmap for becoming known as, unquestionably, the best small university in the world. The planning webpage features a form for submitting ideas. So, if you have an idea, big or small, bring it on!

Our Students Are Amazing

I am currently teaching my first course at Richmond — a First-Year Seminar (FYS) on compensation. Every Monday and Wednesday at 9 a.m., I work with 16 undergraduates, and I am learning from each of them. In class, it has been heartening to see students share divergent viewpoints and engage in debate with bravery, compassion, and curiosity.

We can foster belonging at Richmond by listening, learning, and engaging across multiple perspectives — in classrooms and residence halls and everywhere else on campus. Tina and I have enjoyed getting to know students at the newly renovated Heilman Dining Center, and we are eagerly looking forward to hosting my FYS class for dinner at the President’s House next month.

In addition to classroom learning, our remarkable students are busy with various experiential learning and engagement opportunities. At the Civic Symposium on Sept. 13, civic fellows majoring in various fields — from anthropology to biology to computer science — presented their fellowship work. For example, Julia Brittain, ’23, and Natalie Benham, ’23, two of our Burhans Civic Fellows, shared a bit about their firsthand experience serving on the Health Wagon in Wise, Virginia, providing care to medically underserved people in the mountains of Appalachia. It was fantastic to hear so many interesting stories about real-world experiences and community engagement activities informing our students’ educational journeys and career aspirations.

There Is Great Community Energy

We’ve welcomed spectacular new Spiders to Richmond, and they are strengthening our web. Our new dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Jennifer Jones Cavenaugh, is a champion for Richmond’s teacher-scholar model and our commitment to undergraduate research. As she shared during her address at an event to celebrate the start of the academic year, “I haven’t been at the University of Richmond very long, but it is clear to me that this room is filled with people who awaken dreams, open minds, and change lives every day.” Cavenaugh is an accomplished scholar of theatre who has performed and directed for over 25 years. We are so glad she’s here with us.

Our Spider community has gathered for a variety of events since the start of the semester. At the recent SpiderFest, more than 1,100 students converged on the Forum to explore our vibrant ecosystem of over 175 student organizations. This event truly showcased the diversity of opportunities for Spiders to get involved in campus life. Some of our student leaders engaged me so much that I came close to joining a martial arts club! And I learned how to stream our awesome UR radio station, WDCE, on my phone. At Ring Dance, Tina and I joined many others in our community to congratulate our rising Spider seniors on their dedication, determination, and contributions. And, for the 30th anniversary of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, last Saturday we gathered outside of Jepson Hall on a beautiful Richmond evening to celebrate a trailblazing legacy with Bob and Alice Jepson, alumni, and students.

Tina and I have also been energized with Spider Pride at recent field hockey, rugby, women’s soccer, and football games. We’ve enjoyed meeting alumni, parents, and friends who love our university. And we’re excited that this year, our men’s lacrosse team will join the Atlantic 10 Conference — and UR will host the upcoming Atlantic 10 Conference Championships in men’s and women’s cross country on Oct. 29 at our home course at Pole Green in Mechanicsville. We continue to be so impressed with our student-athletes and remain eager to cheer them on with legions of Spider fans throughout the year.

Thank You

As we head into Family Weekend, I look forward to welcoming many more of you to campus. I am also excited to meet alumni across the country at upcoming receptions and to welcome Spiders back to campus for Homecoming, Nov. 3­–6.

Thanks to everyone in our Spider community for helping Richmond become so remarkable. Here’s to the continuation of a great semester, a great year, and an even brighter future!

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Spiders:   

I hope that your semester is off to a great start. As I embark on my second year serving the University of Richmond, I am happy to report that I am even more enthusiastic about the future of our university than on the day I started.

Over the past 54 weeks as president, I have spent a lot of time meeting with Spiders across campus and throughout the country. I am grateful for the ideas and aspirations so many of you have shared with me in person and after the fact in writing.

All of that input was extremely valuable in helping me to develop five “guiding lights” that I mentioned at the inauguration in April and that I firmly believe can help us to become, unquestionably, the best small university in the world. These areas are: academic excellence; belonging; access and affordability; well-being; and experiential learning and community engagement.

This academic year, I would like to push harder to think about and formalize our strategy in each of these areas, while avoiding a laborious process. The goal is to develop a clear, productive, yet brief plan that inspires progress. To begin, I invite you to visit the Office of the President’s Planning webpage, where you can find more information, and I hope you will share your ideas. As the year progresses, I will be using that site to share draft planning documents, and I hope you will comment on those as well.  

The Planning webpage is only one way to provide feedback. I will also be working closely with the deans of our schools and members of the President’s Cabinet and seeking input from groups such as the University’s Planning and Priorities Committee (which includes students, staff, and faculty representation), the President’s Student Advisory Board, and various other university constituents. 

I look forward to receiving your ideas and completing the plan by the end of the spring semester. The future of our university is so bright. Together, let’s shape the future to be even better.

Thanks so much. 

Kevin

Dear Fellow Spiders,

“What’s your favorite place on campus?” someone asked me last fall when I was new to Richmond. The answer came to mind instantly: wherever I find students!

Our students have so much energy, curiosity, creativity — and they also have a community spirit that is very Richmond. They turned out to support our men’s basketball team during the season and filled the Robins Center to watch the NCAA Tournament games together on our giant screens — and when the Spiders beat the Iowa Hawkeyes, the collective euphoria was incredible. Seeing our team shine in the tournament was a big boost for Spider Pride, in Richmond and around the nation. 

UR’s community spirit was also showcased beautifully earlier this month during inauguration weekend, a three-day celebration that brought together students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents, and friends of the University.

The weekend was planned as a celebration of the UR community, and that’s exactly what it felt like. We celebrated teaching and mentorship in a vibrant panel discussion with students and faculty who are engaged in exciting research together. In a second panel event, the presidents of four other institutions shared their ideas about the future of higher education.

The campus was a gorgeous backdrop for a community festival, which saw energetic student performances and a variety of family-friendly activities. That evening in front of the Well-Being Center, the fireworks were magical — and the community spirit even more so. In fact, throughout the weekend, you could feel the energy of the UR community, coming together to celebrate all that’s great about our university and all its potential to be even greater.

Where will this spirit take us in the years ahead? I’m hopeful we will harness our energy around a set of guiding lights: access and affordability, belonging, well-being, academic excellence, and experiential learning and community engagement.

We will invest in other things, too, and make progress in other ways. But I believe that by focusing on these areas we have an incredible opportunity to make Richmond even stronger than it is today.

We are already ahead of many universities in access and affordability. Thanks to generations of dedicated and generous Spiders, UR is one of the few institutions in the nation that is need-blind in admission and meets full demonstrated need. We offer amazing support for students from families at the lower end of the income and wealth distribution. And extremely wealthy families are well positioned to afford our exceptional education.

But there are many families in the middle for whom a college education demands considerable struggle and sacrifice. I want to make it easier for those students to access everything UR has to offer. Tina and I believe in this so strongly that we have personally committed to endowing a new scholarship at Richmond. And in the years ahead I’ll be working hard to encourage others to join us.

The second big opportunity I see is to strengthen the culture and support systems that enable every member of our community to feel a sense of belonging. UR has come a long way in building a more diverse and inclusive community, and we should recognize and celebrate this progress. But we must also acknowledge that, at the same time, not everyone feels they belong here.

We can develop more effective ways to support students from all backgrounds — students from underrepresented groups, international students, and first-generation students, among others. We can also model and encourage constructive dialogue across different viewpoints — listening openly and trying to learn from each other whenever possible. I look forward to collaborating with the entire community on continuing efforts to create a more inclusive UR, where all Spiders feel like they’re part of our web.

Another way we can advance our university is by further concentrating on well-being. We already have excellent programs in this area. We have hardworking, compassionate mental health professionals who care for those experiencing serious issues, as well as staff and faculty who work to help all of us incorporate into our lives key ingredients for well-being: exercise, nutrition, self-care, mindfulness, and sleep. But today our society is experiencing heightened division, the continuing scourge of racism, and an ongoing pandemic — all of which have contributed to stress and exacerbated a serious mental health crisis in higher education worldwide. It is more important than ever to continue to invest in and support the mental health of our campus community. And to create a culture of well-being at UR, we must also continue to invest in and support a holistic approach to health and wellness, as exemplified by our Well-Being Center. 

The fourth of our guiding lights is academic excellence. Part of our “secret sauce” at Richmond is our faculty’s deep commitment to teaching and mentoring as well as research. All of these things are part of our recipe for academic excellence, and they should be rewarded. In the coming years, we will reward excellence in teaching, mentoring, and research, and we will think carefully, together, about how investment in a few strategic areas can help us better realize our educational mission.

We also have an exciting opportunity in experiential learning and community engagement. UR already offers many opportunities for the real-world application of learning, including experiences that engage students with our home city and region. We learn from and contribute to the greater Richmond area in several ways — for example, through our Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. But there is more we can do to make the most of our location — including, possibly, creating the opportunity for a City Semester. So many of UR’s students — 2/3 of them, in fact — study abroad. Imagine if some of them were able to study and work in the City of Richmond during their time here. That and other ideas for community-engaged learning will be under discussion going forward.

Our university has a deep commitment to the student experience, and it’s one of our great strengths. In the years ahead, by concentrating on areas such as access and affordability, belonging and well-being, academic excellence, and experiential learning and community engagement, I believe we can provide an even more powerful and life-changing student experience. We can become — unquestionably — the best small university in the world. That’s my goal, and I am grateful and lucky to be on this journey with all of you. 

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Fellow Spiders, 

For the roughly 100 days I was preparing to join UR as president, I started nearly every morning taking a 6-mile walk and listening to an audiobook, rain or shine. I heard some viewpoints that I agreed with completely. Others I frankly thought were misguided and even offensive at times, but as tempting as it was to tune them out, I listened anyway.

Having spent my entire professional life in university communities, I’ve had the opportunity to learn from so many incredible people, including those with whom I have strongly disagreed. Such encounters have shaped my view that a university is, at heart, a place where we listen to and learn from one another. As I’ve said before, I believe actively listening to different points of view can help us grow and build understanding — sometimes in small steps, sometimes in greater leaps. We can disagree, but I think we should strive to do so compassionately.

My hope is that our entire community will embrace constructive dialogue as we continue to discuss complex issues this spring and going forward. We absolutely must foster and engage in difficult dialogues, but we can do so while also being kind, caring, empathetic, and patient. What I ask of all of you — and what I strive to do myself — is to give each other the benefit of the doubt. If we can do this, I’m confident we’ll continue our progress toward becoming a more inclusive community in which all can achieve an enormous sense of belonging.

MODELING DIALOGUE ACROSS DIFFERENCE

Our planet, nation, and university have been through a lot in the past two years. I’m especially concerned about the growing polarization in the United States and, frankly, on college campuses, including our own. As an educator, I believe we have a responsibility to model and teach our students how to better listen to one another and navigate the fault lines of our community and society. To that end, I’m delighted this spring to continue the Sharp Viewpoint Speaker Series, which brings together pairs of experts with opposing views to discuss the challenges of our time. On April 19, I will welcome to campus my former teacher Cecilia Rouse, who is chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and on leave from her role as a professor at Princeton, and my former student Michael Strain, who is director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. I know Ceci and Mike will do a terrific job of modeling constructive dialogue across political difference as we discuss the labor market and inequality. The event will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Camp Concert Hall, and I hope to see you there.   

CELEBRATING AND CONNECTING OUR COMMUNITY 

In many ways, the Sharp Series will serve as a link to my inaugural address, which I will deliver on April 8 in the Robins Center. There, I intend to speak about five areas around which I hope our community will converge: access and affordability, academic excellence, belonging, well-being, and stronger engagement with the greater Richmond community. We’ve already done so much terrific work in all of these areas, but as I’ve listened and learned from our community’s diverse views, I’ve recognized we can and should do even better and invest more of our energy and resources going forward. While I’m sure not everyone will agree with all of my ideas about these five big issues, I hope everyone knows that I will always have the community’s best interests in mind and do my very best to make the right decisions given the constraints we face. In fact, I believe this is the common thread that connects us all: Despite our differences, everyone cares and wants to make Richmond even better. I share that commitment and am so grateful to be a member of this amazing community.

I hope all of you will join me and my wife Tina for inauguration, which I intend to be a celebration of our community rather than a “prom” in honor of us (Tina and I went to the prom together back in the late 1980s). To that end, we have put together an exciting program, including a discussion celebrating mentored research at UR, a community festival with a student performance showcase, an evening celebration with food and music, and a conversation with university presidents about the future of higher education. To learn more about our schedule of events and register your attendance, please visit our inauguration website.

CONFRONTING OUR PAST

Confronting the past is challenging, especially when it surfaces uncomfortable truths, but it is the right thing to do, and I’m proud of our community’s efforts to tell a fuller, more inclusive history. Recently, the Burying Ground Memorialization Committee released its final report, recommending design concepts for a memorial to honor the enslaved persons who lived and labored on the land that is now our campus and the burying ground in which we believe some were laid to rest. I’m grateful to the Committee for so thoughtfully engaging our campus and broader community in constructive dialogue about this important history. I encourage each of you to carefully read and reflect on the report.

I’m also grateful to everyone in our community who participated in the recently released “Gallup Naming Survey for the University of Richmond.” More than 7,200 students, staff, faculty, alumni, and parents completed the survey, providing us with important data about our community’s views on naming and renaming at the University and reflecting our commitment to an open process. The Naming Principles Commission has just released draft naming principles informed by these and other data and invited our community to provide feedback through March 21. I encourage all of you to participate in this process before the Commission submits its final report to me and the Board of Trustees in mid-April. 

IN CLOSING 

Thanks so much for your commitment to the University of Richmond. I am proud to be a member of this web of 4,000 students, 1,800 staff and faculty, and 50,000 alumni. Thanks to your efforts and those of so many of our predecessors, our university is extraordinary. At the same time, I firmly believe that our best days are ahead of us. To be sure, we will encounter challenges and not always agree on the best path forward. But with so many smart, dedicated, and committed Spiders, the sky is the limit if we work together. I am so excited and grateful to work with all of you in writing the next chapters of our university’s history. 

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Members of the University Community,

I’m thrilled to be part of our Spider community. The campus is alive with activity, and it is great to be here. While August 15 was my first official day on the job, I have had the opportunity to meet with students, staff, faculty, and alumni for the past six months. These conversations have reinforced my first impressions of the University as a truly rare gem in higher education.

I say this from a place of experience. I’ve worked and studied at other great institutions and have visited scores of others, and there really is something different about the University of Richmond. Quite simply, it comes down to our amazing people. I’ve been blown away by the love and pride folks have for UR. Our staff and faculty are incredibly committed to mentoring students. Our students are awesome and brilliant. Our University leaders are terrific stewards of the institution. And our alumni are extraordinarily dedicated to the University and have had an amazing impact here and across the world.

These are just some of the reasons I believe we will be known as the best small university in America. Achieving this goal will take patience, perseverance, and giving each other the benefit of the doubt. And it won’t happen overnight. But together, we will get there. We will soundly and thoughtfully address issues immediately before us while always keeping our eyes on the future. Thanks so much for this incredible opportunity to work with you to strengthen the University and reaffirm the Spider pride we all share.

TRANSFORMING LIVES WITH ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Time and again, I’ve met people who have been transformed by their academic experience at Richmond. One student shared that "several of my professors have become incredible mentors to me, going out of their way to guide me not just through classes, but through internships, job applications, and life." Good mentors are rare and invaluable, and the Spider community is crawling with them.

I am especially impressed with how our faculty combine outstanding teaching with outstanding research. Consider, for example, Associate Professor of Political Science Jennifer Bowie, who received a grant from the National Science Foundation to continue her research on judicial decision-making in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. She and her collaborator will use a portion of the grant funds to support the hiring and mentoring of additional undergraduate research assistants from historically underrepresented and excluded groups.

I am equally impressed with our students’ profound commitment to excellence, service, and leadership. For example, three Jepson Scholars began graduate programs this fall at the University of Oxford. Through the program, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies awards up to three scholarships annually to cover the cost of tuition, room, board, and fees for students accepted to a one-year master’s program at Oxford.

Six University of Richmond students — the most we’ve ever had in one year — received U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships to study foreign languages abroad or virtually this summer. They will study languages including Chinese, Indonesian, Portuguese, Punjabi, and Urdu, all of which the State Department identifies as undertaught but critical for America’s future national security and economic prosperity.

CELEBRATING OUR NEWEST SPIDERS

My wife, Tina, and I spent our first official day on the job in our residence hall staff T-shirts, helping our first wave of new students carry suitcases (and refrigerators!) and move into their residence halls. We had so many interesting conversations with so many amazing students, and we know their future is rich with promise.

The Class of 2025 comes to Richmond with stellar academic credentials and from a wide variety of backgrounds. This year’s incoming class has the highest grade point average in our history and is also one of our most diverse. Domestic students of color comprise 29% of the class, international students are 10% of the class, and 14% of the class are first-generation college students. They have also had an impressive set of experiences. Our class includes a sailor who competes in overnight sailing regattas and a youth champion of Go, likely the world’s oldest board game. One has already published five research articles and participated in 16 science fairs. And another helped raise $150,000 for children living with chronic pain.

In my University welcome address, I told our new Spiders that we are all in this together; we can learn best and do our best work by working together. This was just the first step of a very important process — developing their sense of belonging as part of this extraordinary community now and for their entire lives.

WORKING TOWARD DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING

A community member recently asked me how many people at our university work in the DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) space. I think the real answer can and should be 5,700 because we have 4,000 students and 1,700 staff and faculty.

Last month, I saw a wonderful example of our community embracing DEIB as a shared responsibility when I had the honor of speaking at the grand opening of the Student Center for Equity and Inclusion in Whitehurst Hall. This new center will play a central role in enhancing the experiences of multicultural, LGBTQIA+, low-income, and first-generation students. And it will bolster our many other efforts to become a thriving and inclusive community. I cannot say it enough: We all belong here, and we should all work to ensure that others feel included and have the opportunity to thrive.

I’m excited to build on the University’s good work around DEIB, and I’d like to share two ways in which all of you can contribute to our efforts to fully and inclusively examine our past, discuss our present, and shape our future. First, consider engaging with the Naming Principles Commission. The Commission has been charged with offering an open and inclusive exchange of ideas as it develops clear and rigorous principles to guide decisions related to the naming of such things as buildings, professorships, and programs. As a member of our Spider community, you will be contacted directly in the coming weeks with an invitation to participate in a Gallup survey that will help inform future naming principles. We really, really want to hear from you. Please do complete the survey. You can also contact the Commission directly and learn more about the community engagement opportunities it will offer.

Second, consider connecting with the Burying Ground Memorialization Committee. The committee has continued to engage a range of stakeholders, most recently welcoming 78 possible descendants of people once enslaved on what is now campus land and sharing with them research about their families’ histories. The committee will host several events this October and November in which descendants and community members can share their ideas on the design of an enduring burying ground memorial. For more information and to register, please visit our Equity webpage here.

SPIDERS HELPING SPIDERS

One of the many things that drew me to UR during the presidential recruitment process was Spiders’ commitment to one another. I am grateful to our many alumni and friends of the University for their continued engagement and support of our students, staff, and faculty — from volunteering and representing UR in your communities and among potential students to hiring Spiders and providing financial support to the areas of campus you care most about. This generosity makes it possible for our university to transform the lives of our students and set them on a course to do good and make a positive impact on society.

I look forward to nurturing this strong UR tradition of support. From November 16–23, we will hold the annual Spiders Helping Spiders event. This weeklong event supports giving to financial aid, the Student Emergency Fund, and the Career Opportunity Fund; each directly impacts students. Support for these funds will play a critical role in leveling the playing field by empowering all our students to take full advantage of the opportunities available to them.

MAINTAINING THE HEALTH OF OUR WEB

Last weekend, I was simply delighted to welcome the Class of 2020 back to campus to celebrate their graduation from the University of Richmond. These students demonstrated remarkable grace and resilience when they had to finish the final few months of their college education from a distance and delay their commencement. I was thrilled that we could finally all be together, and I was grateful for the opportunity to congratulate our graduates and thank them and their wonderful families and friends for their patience and understanding as we responded to COVID-19. We are so very proud of the Class of 2020, and I can’t wait to follow their accomplishments as alumni and to welcome them back to Richmond when they visit.

This past month, I’ve heard from so many students about how excited they are to be on campus learning in the classrooms of our outstanding teacher-scholars. I am so grateful to all of our students, staff, and faculty for their collective efforts to make this in-person semester possible. As of September 16, 99.7% of students reported their vaccination status, and they reported a vaccination rate of 96.0%. The reporting and vaccination rates for staff and faculty at that time were 97.7% and 92.6%, respectively. Still, the course of the pandemic continues to be unpredictable, particularly because of the Delta variant. For this reason, we have temporarily implemented a policy requiring face coverings within buildings and continue to take other steps to minimize the spread of the virus.

At the same time, we are beginning to face the very real possibility that the virus will be with us for years to come and certainly through the end of this academic year. As such, while we will continue to monitor conditions and work to maintain the health of our web, it is my belief that we will also need to learn to live with this on our campus and in society. Rest assured, this virus will not deter our university from continuing to transform lives and contribute to society. Our best days are ahead.

CHEERING ON OUR STUDENT-ATHLETES

While I’m only a month into my role as president, I am already a rabid Spider fan. I love athletics, both as an observer and as a participant.

It is clear that so many members of our campus community are thrilled to return to regular athletic competition. Tina and I — and our two rescue dogs, Mabel and Matilda — have loved experiencing our community’s Spider Pride in our student-athletes. The first game we attended was Women’s Soccer’s win against Longwood University. We had a chance to attend a team picnic afterward and talk with many wonderful families supporting these amazing student-athletes.

I’ve also had the chance to watch our football, men’s and women’s cross country, and field hockey teams in action, as well as to attend our Athletics leadership kickoff reception; I even recently fielded some ground balls and took some swings at bat with the baseball team! These events have reinforced the enormous respect I have for our student-athletes. They are leaders not just in athletics but also in our greater Spider community. I will always be an enthusiastic fan and supporter of our student-athletes, and I can’t wait to see everything they accomplish in athletics and academics and their future careers.

SOME CLOSING THOUGHTS

As I close this first quarterly letter to the Spider community, I want to say how grateful and lucky I feel to serve as the 11th president of the University of Richmond. I am excited that Tina and I are finally here on campus and am eager for the work ahead. I pledge to you that I will remain guided by the core leadership values that I often express. One of them is effort. I believe that our outcomes are a combination of luck, ability, and effort. Given I cannot control my luck and I’ve long thought that my ability is largely fixed, I work very hard, and I respect hard work. You can count on me to serve the University with the best I have to offer.

Over the coming year, I plan to meet as many Spiders as I can on campus and off. As part of this effort, I am partnering with the University of Richmond Alumni Association in support of events that will help us gather with Spiders in various cities across the country once we can safely do so. I’m also excited for Family Weekend, October 1–3, my first UR Homecoming, November 5–7, and the many other opportunities we will have to get to know one another.

I believe deeply that the best way for us to make Richmond even better is to make it better together. Please continue to take care of yourselves and look out for others.

Best wishes, 

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Spider Alumni:

This week marks my first as a Spider, and I couldn’t be prouder to be joining this incredible community, which extends far beyond this beautiful campus. I have much to learn about UR, but I can plainly see that in addition to our outstanding students, faculty, and staff, part of the secret of the University’s success is the dedication of its alumni.

I am so impressed with the breadth and depth of the work being done by our staff, faculty, and students, and the impact Spiders have on the world as alumni. I am proud of the excellence that we have achieved and will continue to achieve together. I also know how much is enabled by the support of our alumni and the many ways you are involved in helping our students.  

It is, indeed, an honor to serve as both a faculty member and as the 11th president of UR. I recognize the enormity of this privilege as I continue to reflect on the many opportunities that have come to me and the series of mentors who helped me along the way. As president, I pledge to pay forward the generous help I’ve received and to serve and support others in the important work that they do.

I am grateful and excited to work alongside all in our dedicated Spider community to strengthen this amazing university. Today, UR is not only a leading liberal arts institution defined by academic excellence, but also by high standards and strong values, outstanding athletics and extracurricular opportunities, vibrant professional schools and community engagement, and the genuine intellectual curiosity I see in so many. I would like to thank my predecessors — and all Spiders — for laying this foundation of excellence, especially President Ron and Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher, who welcomed my wife, Tina, and me with generous hearts and open arms.

I am also grateful and excited to join a university with such strong values, including intellectual curiosity, resilience, integrity, and responsibility for the ethical consequences of our ideas and actions. They align with leadership values I hold dear: integrity, transparency, effort, inclusion, well-being, collegiality, and giving the benefit of the doubt.

On this last one, I believe being kind, caring, empathetic, and patient as much as possible is essential. People are often so busy that we sometimes work at cross purposes and don’t take the time to truly hear one another. Universities can and must serve as models of constructive dialogue, especially across differences. As is often the case in complex institutions, not everyone here agrees on everything — and that is good — but everyone cares and wants to make Richmond even better. I believe the best way to do so is to make it better together, and alumni participation in the life of the campus is critical to that success.

As I begin my presidency, I promise to listen and learn from our community. I want to be very deliberate about taking the time to understand the needs, concerns, and culture of the University, including its alumni. I have so much to learn from so many people here, and I intend to do just that and look forward to doing it as we work together to forge an even brighter future for UR.

With your help, I envision Richmond continuing its progress and becoming the nation’s best small university and a place where everyone feels the enormous sense of belonging that Tina and I have experienced thus far. Achieving this goal will take patience, perseverance, and giving each other the benefit of the doubt. And it won’t happen overnight. But together, we can get there. I am grateful and lucky to be embarking on this journey with all of you. I believe that the best days for our university are ahead.

I look forward to meeting alumni across the country as I travel this year and to welcoming you home to Richmond when you’re next able to visit campus. Please remember to take care of yourself and look out for others, and thank you for everything you do for Richmond. 

With gratitude,

Kevin F. Hallock
Professor and President