Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I am deeply saddened to share with you that I learned last night that Louise Barnett from Palo Alto, California, passed away on Saturday following a brief hospitalization here in Tacoma over the past several days. I was able to join Rev. Dave Wright to spend time with Louise and her family on Thursday, and offer them our support. Louise’s passing is heartbreaking, and our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and colleagues across campus who knew, lived, loved, and worked with her.

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I am deeply saddened by reports of several incidents on campus since the beginning of the semester that have involved vandalism in the form of written harassment that is anti-Semitic in nature—including writing found in a library carrel today. These acts are unacceptable and an affront to our entire university community, are in violation of the university’s discrimination and harassment policy, and are being addressed and investigated through our established policies and protocols.

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

Over the past year, the campus community has been engaged in an iterative process to create a strategic plan that will guide Puget Sound over the next decade.

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As shared with you over the course of my “listening and learning” tour of campus last year, the university will embark this year on a process to create a strategic plan that will advance our mission and establish our vision for the next decade.

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

We begin our first day of classes mindful of family members, friends, and others in southeast Texas affected by the devastating impact of Hurricane Harvey.

Colleagues in Student Affairs will be reaching out today to students from the region to offer support. We encourage any student in need of the services of Counseling, Health, and Wellness to contact the office at 253.879.1555 or take advantage of walk-in hours, Monday–Friday, 1–4 p.m.

Dear Members of the Camus Community:

Author, scholar, and former director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will join our own Professor Benjamin Tromly (Department of History) this evening for the Spring 2018 Susan Resneck Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs. Prof. Tromly will interview Secretary Gates in an conversation format that is sure to be fascinating, insightful and timely.

Students, faculty and staff may attend at no charge. Some tickets are still available but won’t be for long.

I hope to see you at tonight’s lecture.

Sincerely,

Dear members of the campus community,

Dear members of the Puget Sound campus community,

I am pleased to announce the Commencement speaker for Puget Sound’s 126th Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 13, 2018. As a community with a strong and continuing commitment to sustainability and the environment, we are especially honored this year to have Sally Jewell, the 51st U.S. Secretary of the Interior, deliver this year’s Commencement address.

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I write to you from Washington, D.C., where I am in engaged in bringing forward concerns about the impact the proposed tax reform legislation under consideration by Congress would have on our ability to fulfill our mission of service to students. It is clear that the proposed legislation would negatively impact students and their families, as well as our faculty and staff members and the higher education community at large.

The proposed reforms are significant and include, among other changes, the following:

Dear Members of the Campus Community,

I am pleased to inform you that we have just received notification that the University of Puget Sound’s accreditation has been reaffirmed by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. As I shared with you earlier this year, we have been working as part of a collaborative “demonstration project” with Columbia Basin College, University of Montana, and University of Oregon, in an effort to address how colleges can best provide evidence of assessment of student learning outcomes and mission fulfillment.