Top 10(ish) for Spring 2024
Dear Lumberjacks,
Another semester is in the books! Just last week, more than 5,700 graduates gathered in the Skydome to celebrate with family, friends, and mentors and prepared to embark on the next phase of their lives’ journeys. This spring has been filled with achievements for our institution and for many individuals in our Lumberjack community.
While we celebrate another banner year, we also acknowledge that our work is as crucial as it is complex. We must position our students to launch careers of consequence and live lives of purpose while also focusing on advancing our academic disciplines and better serving our communities. To do so, we must ensure that our university remains a place where the most challenging issues of our time can be discussed and debated, and solutions advanced by building on the strength of our ideas, the civility of our discourse, and the diversity of our lived experiences. I am proud of our collective dedication to this work yet know we must recommit ourselves every day to reaching higher.
But today, as the work of the academic year ends with the submission of final grades and we stand poised to enjoy the summer season, let us celebrate together: inspired by the accomplishments of our dedicated students, faculty, and staff, reflecting on the semester that was, and feeling optimism toward the year that will be.
So, in keeping with our tradition, I have sought to capture 10(ish) highlights that encapsulate this past year for our NAU community.
Let’s draw strength from this work, re-energize, re-connect, and come back stronger for our 125th year. I am more confident than ever in NAU’s potential to truly be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of upward mobility, and driver of social impact.
I am grateful to all in our Lumberjack community for the work you do on behalf of our university, our students, and our communities.
With warm regards,
José Luis Cruz Rivera
President