Messages to the University Community

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 Spiders, 

Happy New Year. To those of you returning to our beautiful campus, welcome back. To those joining us for the first time, we’re so glad you’re here! Every single one of us is part of this campus community because someone saw promise in what we could individually contribute and believed we would thrive together. As we embark on a new year, I invite you to reflect on the things that make our University community so special, and consider ways to meaningfully contribute to our web in 2024.

At the University of Richmond, we see our size as our strength. We have a tight-knit, residential campus, full of remarkable people, including extraordinary staff, world-class teacher-scholars, and dedicated mentors. And we are teeming with opportunities for personal and professional growth, inside and outside of the classroom. We are well positioned to cultivate an academically challenging and intellectually vibrant community that values the dignity, perspectives, experiences, and contributions of all students, staff, and faculty. 

Last spring, our community finalized a new Strategic Plan — a roadmap to build on our momentum, propel UR to even greater heights, and ensure we can continue to meet our mission to prepare students for “lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a diverse world.” I am excited to continue our work together this year to advance the plan’s five priorities: Academic Excellence; Belonging & Community; Well-Being; Access & Affordability; and Experiential Learning & Community Engagement. You may notice that the word "community" comes up twice, even among this short list of priorities. Our engagement with and support of one another is and will continue to be fundamental to our continued success. 

We strengthen our web when we listen to one another, give each other the benefit of the doubt, learn, and participate in programs, classes, and activities that broaden our scope of understanding. We experience growth when we exchange ideas and beliefs, including across lines of significant difference. We can also grow by showing compassion for those with whom we disagree and honoring the humanity in someone else’s story. I recognize this is not always easy — it takes patience, grace, and practice. Thanks to the ongoing work of our staff and faculty, we will have several opportunities to engage across our differences and grow together this semester. As just a few examples:

• The Office of the Provost will launch a new Learning Together series exploring the complex narratives emerging amid the war in the Middle East. The academic series will explore perspectives through workshops centered around shared texts and guest speakers. 
• Building off last fall’s efforts, the Office of the Chaplaincy will continue to offer a Multifaith Dialogue on Current Events, helping Spiders to grow more deeply in their faith while also learning about the faith of others.
• Through our Sharp Viewpoint Series, we will welcome leading public intellectuals with expertise in civil liberties and constitutional law to discuss the importance of speech as a tool for understanding and navigating differences in a democratic society.

Offices across campus will share details on these initiatives in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, I send my best wishes as you settle in for the start of the year. Thanks so much for being part of our web. 

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

I look forward to seeing you around campus,

Kevin 

Dear Spider Community:

Since Saturday’s abhorrent attacks by Hamas on Israelis and the subsequent declaration of war, we have been witness to horrific violence and profound pain suffered by the people of Israel and Gaza. As a community, we are called to meet this moment with deep compassion, empathy, and grace. The attacks and the subsequent war are affecting many members of our community and are particularly difficult for those with friends and loved ones who are in harm’s way, or who have a deep personal or communal connection to the region.

Our primary focus, since Saturday, has been to care for all members of our community who are directly affected by this conflict and are hurting. The University Chaplaincy and particularly our Jewish Chaplain and Muslim Chaplain, among other colleagues, have engaged with students to provide ongoing support and space to process in the form of group discussions, one-on-one meetings, and counseling sessions. We encourage those who need support to reach out to the available resources, which include:

• The Chaplaincy, (804) 289-8500
• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), (804) 289-8119
• College Deans offices
  • Dr. Mia Reinoso Genoni, Westhampton College, (804) 289-8468
  • Dr. Joe Boehman, Richmond College, (804) 289-8061
• UR Employee Assistance Program, 1-877-622-4327

The University of Richmond is a community that values the dignity, worth, and contributions of all individuals. Our community includes people of many religious backgrounds, national origins, and political perspectives. At our best, we exist to encourage the exchange of ideas and beliefs, perhaps especially those that are deeply contested across lines of significant difference. We also exist as a community of the heart. We can care for those we disagree with and honor the heartache in someone else’s story. I encourage us to continue to listen and learn from each other and create pathways for understanding. And I encourage us to engage in thoughtful, compassionate dialogue and respect our shared humanity.

In times like these, it is more important than ever that we take care of ourselves and look out for others.

Kevin F. Hallock
President
Distinguished University Professor of Economics

Dear Fellow Spiders, 

Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled on two cases of importance to higher education involving the consideration of race as part of a holistic admissions process, Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. 

The Court held that the admission practices of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and, as a result, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

To ensure compliance with the Court’s decision, we will closely review the opinion and consider its implications for our admissions process.  

While the Court’s decision affects the admission practices of many colleges and universities and, thus, one aspect of enhancing diversity, it does not change our ongoing commitment to building a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive University community and ensuring that all Spiders feel as though they belong in our web and can fully and authentically participate in University life.

The University of Richmond is a remarkable place because of the people that make up our community. We are stronger together because we continue to learn from each other and our varied and diverse set of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives.

We will continue our important work to advance our mission — to educate in an academically challenging, intellectually vibrant, and collaborative community, preparing our students for lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a diverse world.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. Hallock
President, 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:

I hope this message finds you well and feeling excited about our academic year together.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the start of the new school year. I love thinking about new ideas, making new friends, meeting new colleagues, and considering all of the new opportunities ahead.

I feel especially enthusiastic to be part of our university community right now. The University of Richmond is exceptional, and the possibilities here are limitless. I had such high expectations of UR when I moved here last summer with my wife Tina and our dogs, Mabel and Matilda — and those expectations have been wildly exceeded at every turn.

I still have plenty to learn about UR, but I can plainly see that a key ingredient of our secret sauce is our campus community. Each one of us — our 4,000 students and 1,800 staff and faculty — enrich our Spider community and make important contributions to this extraordinary institution. We all belong in the web that is the University of Richmond, and we all strengthen it.

I believe strongly in the following values: integrity, transparency, effort, inclusion, well-being, collegiality, and giving the benefit of the doubt. I think this last one is particularly important, especially in a community as close-knit as ours. A university campus is precisely where we should have open and sometimes difficult dialogue about issues. Listening is learning.

So, as we embark upon this new academic year together, I encourage you to listen openly and learn actively from one another. We have a great deal to gain from engaging in respectful, compassionate dialogue, and assuming positive intent. I have learned so much in my life from so many people, including from those with whom I disagree. 

I also ask you to include one another. Help your fellow Spiders participate fully in our incredible community. Invite one another in and find ways to connect. Imagine how we will flourish even more as a community if we all, regularly, look for ways to make others feel welcome.

I look forward to seeing you on campus soon! And if you are a student in my first-year seminar, I am super excited to see you on Monday at 9 a.m. for our class.

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

Thanks so much,

Kevin

Welcome back, returning staff and faculty. Welcome to Richmond, incoming Spiders. One year ago this week, I officially started at Richmond. In my short time here, I have grown to admire the extraordinary community of people who make up our university. I am honored to serve as professor and president and to celebrate the start of our academic year by presenting awards for excellence in teaching and scholarship.

Last year at this event, I spoke about my core leadership values: integrity, transparency, effort, well-being, belonging and giving the benefit of the doubt. I continue to hold each dear. Today, I want to share just two points with you. This being Colloquy, I will focus on appreciation for our faculty.

First, I am proud to be a faculty member at Richmond. Many of you spent considerable time this past year meeting with me. I loved these meetings. We met all over campus, from the Humanities Building to the depths of the Modlin Center to Jepson, Robins, SPCS, the School of Law, Gottwald, the Faculty Hub, and everywhere in between. 

While welcoming new law students in the Moot Court Room yesterday, I reminded them to connect with faculty early and often. I’ll say the same to incoming undergraduates in the Robins Center tonight. Our faculty are extraordinary, and they are extraordinarily committed to mentoring, teaching, and research. This is a hallmark of Richmond’s academic experience.

On April 22, the mentorship of our faculty was on display during the 37th Arts & Science Student Symposium. Seeing our undergraduates gaining experience, skills, and self-esteem while presenting their faculty-mentored research projects was rewarding. The intellectual curiosity was infectious. I loved it. As one example, Sana Azem presented “The Story She Holds,” a series of stories about Syrian refugee women. This presentation, like many others, was a culmination of research, writing, and collaboration guided by a dedicated faculty mentor — in this case, Professor Sonja Bertucci. It was inspiring.

Our faculty are having an impact here and in so many other places in the world, and so are our students, thanks to our faculty. We have all witnessed the journey of Absurd Snacks from a good idea in the Benchtop Innovations Course to product placement at Libbie Market to national pitch competitions. And that is just one product of our faculty’s commitment to experiential learning opportunities.

There is also incredible work happening in our classrooms. Last month, I spent an entire morning with students and faculty in physics, chemistry, and biology. Despite enormously high expectations — given all I’d learned about Richmond — I was blown away. The bonds between our students and faculty and among Richmond faculty themselves and the simple wonder of what is being studied were all remarkable.

In addition to teaching and mentoring, Richmond faculty elevate the student experience as scholars and experts on topics of national and international significance. You strengthen our university by incubating research right here on campus. I look forward to continuing to learn about your inspiring work.

To put it simply: You, our faculty members, are awesome!

As a second point, I recognize and appreciate how much effort and care it takes for you to teach our students. This summer, I’ve been gearing up to teach my first First-Year Seminar. I can’t wait to be back in the classroom on Monday! I am engaging more closely with our academic mission and growing in appreciation of our faculty’s dedication to our students.

Over the past few months, I spent a lot of time reading new work, organizing lectures and assignments, and exercising atrophying cerebral muscles. For example, I downloaded 41 unique years of the Current Population Survey, each with more than a few hundred thousand respondents, and wrote code just to plot three graphs for one lecture! Preparing for this course was, in some ways, a joy. It was also a painful reminder that teaching well can be hard. Getting the last little bit of a lecture or discussion plan just right is challenging. 

But I’m hopeful that my efforts at the beginning of the school year will pay dividends for the experience of the 16 first-year students enrolled in my class.

After earning tenure in 2001, I committed to remembering how hard it was to be untenured. These past 21 years, I’ve done my best to keep remembering. Even those who enjoy the privilege of tenure navigate competing demands on their work and lives. I can’t possibly suggest that I know what it is like for you individually to balance your days and weeks, and years. But I remain committed to empathy for all members of our campus community.  

I was a faculty member, and I am a faculty member. I understand something about how hard your work is, and I aim never to forget it. All our faculty play a foundational role in Richmond’s academic excellence and our student experience, and I couldn’t be more appreciative of your efforts.

I wish all of you the very best as we embark on a new academic year together. I am grateful to be your colleague.

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

Introduction

Thank you, David, for the introduction. I’m so honored and grateful that you are here today. As evidenced most recently with his Nobel Prize this year, David is a remarkable economist. He is also a polymath.  But, perhaps his greatest professional achievement is his tireless mentoring of students (including this one); something that is so Richmond. Thank you, Dave, for supporting me for so many years.

And thanks to every one of you for being here to celebrate the University of Richmond and our community.

I want to start by thanking our students. Students — you’re the reason we’re all gathered here today. You inspire our work, and you make those of us who work here proud to do so.

I’d also like to thank

• our amazing staff and faculty
• our dedicated Spider alumni, parents, and friends
• the members of the Board of Trustees and Trustees Emeriti
• government officials from our region and state, and our community partners from the Richmond area
• all the delegates from colleges, universities, and organizations who are here today
• my friends, colleagues, and students and many mentors who have supported me
• and my predecessors at UR, three of whom are here today. Thank you Rich Morrill, Ed Ayers and Ron Crutcher for your many contributions to our university.

I promise all of you that I will work as hard as I can to help our university become even more remarkable than it is today.

A Few Personal Moments

Today is a celebration of our university and our community and all that makes it both distinctive and distinguished. 

But I’d like to begin with a few personal recollections that may help you understand why coming to the University of Richmond means so much to me.

I grew up in a tiny town in western Massachusetts, and there were only 42 people in my high school class. My first job was a paper route for the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

For FOUR GRUELING summers I picked cucumbers and harvested tobacco at Kelly Farms.

In college, I worked in the office of the provost — my first job with air conditioning — and then as an undergraduate teaching assistant in statistics. 

Whatever professional success I’ve enjoyed, I often attribute to simply the result of a series of lucky accidents.

The truth is that I have been fortunate enough to be around a cast of characters who have supported me for the past 53 years — some of whom are here, some who have sadly passed away — and some who simply blew this off.

Over this weekend, I will try to individually thank as many of the people who have supported and mentored me from high school to today. Here, I would simply like to acknowledge a few family members.

My mother, sitting right over there with my father, was a nurse and then pediatric nurse practitioner for 50 years. And my father was a Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for 50 consecutive years.

My professional life was made much easier by having these two smart, loving people as parents — and having a father who is an academic as a mentor.

Another teacher of mine — my brother Bob. I have looked up to him for as long as I can remember.

He was like a blocker in football, clearing a path in front of me. He studied French, so I studied French — he played baseball so I played baseball. He went to UMass, so I went to UMass. He grew a mustache in college, and I couldn’t — so I went to graduate school in economics. Thanks Bob.

Carla and Mike Grabiec were terrific supporters of mine from the day I started dating their daughter, when Tina and I were 16. Mike was a big, brash police detective and was so smart and funny — I wish he were still with us. He would have thought this was all awesome — and — completely ridiculous.

Carla has been a wonderful and loving supporter. I’m SO glad she is here with us today.

Tina and I have two children, and they are also here — Emily and Tyler. I am SO proud of you.   

Emily is a nurse on Cape Cod, and Tyler is a firefighter and paramedic in Northampton, MA. Both are dedicating their professional lives to serving others — and I couldn’t be more grateful.

And then there’s Tina. I met Tina when we were four years old, 49 years ago. We were married at age 22.  Being married at such an early age is not something I would normally recommend. 

But if you find someone like her — do it. Tina, you are the best.

So, as you can see, I have surrounded myself with a wonderful support network. Students, I know this isn’t a commencement address, but I’ll give you a bit of advice: find an amazing set of people and hang on to them; it’s very hard to make progress on just about anything by yourself.

Our Community

Now that you’ve heard a little bit about the steadfast community that has been a part of my life, I’d like to say a few things about the community that I have come to know here at the University of Richmond.

It’s a community that, like the rest of the world, has confronted many issues over the past year, including the pandemic, racism, and war. Yet it has remained strong and focused on our educational mission. 

I have spent a significant amount of time this year listening and learning from this resilient community. I’m grateful to all of you for everything you’ve shared with me. Feedback is a gift — and I get a lot of feedback.  

Over 34 years in higher education, I’ve worked and studied at other great institutions and have visited scores of others.

This morning, I would like to begin by sharing what I see as the great things we’ve got going for us at UR. An economist might call these comparative advantages.

So, let’s now turn to some of UR’s comparative advantages: our people; our resources; our special array of offerings; and our city and region. 

Comparative Advantage One: Our People

Comparative advantage number one — our people. In my time here, I’ve been impressed by the love and pride folks have for UR — and by the quality of the work being done here.

Who could help but be deeply impressed by Richmond students? I’ve spent thousands of hours with, literally, thousands of students at other institutions.

And while I had high expectations coming in, I’m struck by the character, maturity, drive, and intellectual strength of UR’s students.

Tina and I have enjoyed getting to know so many smart, wonderful students these past 8 months — at theater and dance performances; at athletic competitions and practices; in the Well-Being Center; in the dining hall; at events in our home — all over this stunning campus.

It’s an honor and pleasure to be here to support our students — and to see their intellectual curiosity, and their commitment to excellence, service, and leadership.

In so many ways, staff are the lifeblood of any university — and

I’m impressed with how focused our hardworking staff are on the student experience, including those who:

• provide great meals
• who keep the grounds looking beautiful and our facilities clean and working efficiently
• who help to put on events that bring us together
• who provide medical and counseling services for our students
• who directly support students by providing academic skills mentoring
• or who do any of the countless other tasks that are central to a well-running university — their focus is on making our campus a great place to study and work.

Each of us has an important job to do. And we each play a role in Richmond’s success.

I am also excited to be a faculty member at Richmond — and to work alongside such remarkable teacher-scholars to enrich our students’ lives through the power of a liberal arts education.

Part of Richmond’s secret sauce is our faculty’s engagement with our students and their deep commitment to fostering a culture of mentored research, scholarship, and learning.

Our faculty wake up thinking about how to expand the minds of our students, often by drawing on their own terrific research and creative efforts.

I could probably give you an example from every single department on campus, but let me just say this for now:

Having met with so many UR faculty, I can plainly see that I would love to take multiple courses from faculty in each and every department.

Many of our faculty employ difficult and time-consuming teaching strategies.

But they are precisely the sorts of things that pay off and positively impact our students.

I applied to teach a first-year seminar in the fall and am delighted that my course was approved last month!

I’m looking forward to getting back into the classroom — there’s nothing like it, and there’s nothing like a Richmond education.

I’ve met many Spider alumni here in Richmond and around the country. Like our students, staff, and faculty, our alumni are extraordinarily dedicated to the university.

I’m grateful to them all for their leadership here at the university and beyond.

Everyone I’ve met — students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents, and friends of the university — seems to be universally committed to strengthening our great institution.

I share that commitment and look forward to our continued work together.

Comparative Advantage Two: Our Resources

Comparative advantage two — our resources. Our endowment is large.

Why are we in such a great financial position? First, our alumni and friends have been incredibly generous for decades — starting with Claiborne and Lora Robins’ transformative gift; to subsequent gifts from the Robins family, to those of the Weinsteins, the Jepsons, the Gottwalds, the Queallys, and the Ukrops — to literally thousands of others.

Second is the careful stewardship of our resources by our institution’s leaders.

Our endowment, last fiscal year, increased from $2.4 billion to $3.3 billion. This is an extraordinary increase and can have a profound impact on our future. Of course, we are also mindful that endowments can lose value in the investment markets as well, so deploying these assets wisely is an important obligation for us.

I’ve been grateful to talk with many community members about meaningful ways to deploy our increased resources, including those gained via our investment returns and the significant resources our university will raise in the coming years.

At the same time, it’s very important to remember that every time we spend a dollar on something, we’ve decided not to spend that dollar on everything else.

I’m thinking, nearly constantly, about where a significant investment of time and resources in the near term will make a disproportionate long-term difference in the university’s ability to excel. I’ll share more on that in a bit.

Comparative Advantage Three: Our Special Array of Offerings 

Comparative advantage number three — our special array of offerings. This is one of the many things that drew me to Richmond. I love the mix.

At our heart, we are an exceptional liberal arts university — given our terrific School of Arts and Sciences.

But we are even more than that.

• We have a top-20 business school (The Robins School); a terrific law school, whose national reputation keeps rising; America’s first school of leadership studies (The Jepson School); and a School of Professional and Continuing Studies that serves non-traditional students in our community.
• Our internship program, community-based learning opportunities, and mentored research are hallmarks.
• We also have outstanding and seemingly limitless extracurricular offerings
• And 17 Division I Spider athletics programs
• We provide opportunities for international education — 2/3 of our students study abroad during their time here.
• And, underpinning our robust selection of offerings, we are a community of care — where we try to take care of ourselves and look out for each other.

Our higher purpose is to educate people who will flourish in their personal and intellectual lives, engage whole-heartedly in meaningful work, and have a positive impact on their communities and indeed the world.

We have a lot going for us at the University of Richmond. And all of this excitement is happening within a city with which we share a name.

Comparative Advantage Four: City of Richmond and the Surrounding Region

Comparative advantage number four — clearly our connections to the city of Richmond and the surrounding region.

There are many elite liberal arts colleges — maybe 20 or so — in our orbit. But few of them are so close to such a diverse and interesting community.

I’m grateful that some of our community partners are here with us today and that the City of Richmond’s mayor, Levar Stoney, has joined us for this celebration. Thanks again, Mayor Stoney, for being here and for your work on behalf of our city and in our region.

I’m proud to join a university in which civic engagement is a cornerstone of the educational experience, helping our students become active and informed participants in society.

In organizations across the region, our community partners mentor, advise, and teach our students.

But this is a two-way street — just as our community partners improve the educational experience for our students, so do our students, staff, and faculty help improve our partner organizations.

The University of Richmond and the Richmond region are truly better together.

Guiding Lights and Opportunities

Due to the tireless efforts of my predecessors, including Presidents Morrill, Ayers, and Crutcher, our institution is in excellent shape. But our university has enormous opportunity to be even more remarkable.

In particular, I hope our community will converge around five areas of opportunity:

• Access and Affordability
• Belonging
• Well-being
• Academic Excellence, and
• Community Engagement

Opportunity 1: Access and Affordability

Opportunity 1 is access and affordability. For many families, including at Richmond, the costs of education, and related experiences, can come at significant financial sacrifice. 

My aim is for all UR students to be able to pursue their educational goals without feeling so constrained by costs.

This community has worked hard to empower students of all backgrounds to take full advantage of the education we offer.

Thanks to generations of dedicated and generous Spiders, we stand today as one of the few institutions in the nation that is need-blind in admission and meets full demonstrated need.

And we’ve ensured that every undergraduate is eligible for a fellowship of up to $5,000 for a summer internship or faculty-mentored research project through what we call the Richmond Guarantee.

We do well in supporting students from families at the lower end of the income and wealth distribution. And very wealthy families are well-positioned to afford our exceptional education.

What does concern me — and where I intend to work very, very hard — is expanding financial aid opportunities for families in the “middle income” category. And there are very many in this position.

Yes, Richmond does have a lot of resources. Nevertheless, we need more to fund even more generous aid. That’s right: we need to raise more resources.

Tina and I have decided to put our money where my mouth is. We have committed to endowing a new scholarship at Richmond to make this remarkable education more affordable.

Opportunity 2: Belonging

Our second opportunity — Just as I love UR’s commitment to opening the door of opportunity to talented students of all backgrounds, so too do I love our university’s energy around building a true community of care and belonging.  

We all belong in the web that is the University of Richmond. And yet, we should acknowledge that not everyone feels like they belong here.

1,800 people work here, 4,000 students study here, and we have nearly 55,000 alumni. Imagine how much progress could be made if every Spider made a special effort to help people around them feel a stronger sense of belonging.  And imagine if we took a closer look at ourselves as an institution and identified ways to advance belonging — and then put time, effort, and resources into making it happen.

Not all of this will be easy. If it were easy, we’d have already done it. And not everyone will agree on some of these next steps. But that is okay. Disagreement can be healthy.

What is important — and what I ask of all of you — is to listen to each other, and to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Seek to understand — and whenever possible, assume positive intent.

Engaging with different points of view can help one grow and build understanding. We can disagree, but we should strive to do so with compassion, care, empathy, and patience.

This alone is a powerful step toward becoming a more inclusive community in which all can achieve a sense of belonging.

Another way we strive to be more inclusive is fully understanding our institution’s history.

Some early leaders of our university enslaved others. And prior to our university moving here in 1914, enslaved people lived and labored here. 

Less than two weeks ago, following a process that started last summer, our Board of Trustees voted to change the names of six buildings on this campus.

I recognize that the path to this decision was rocky and that not all members of our community agree with this decision. And I recognize that the university would not exist today without the efforts of some of the people whose names have been removed. 

We are an institution that cares about learning. We intend to preserve and make accessible a full historical record related to those six buildings and their previous namesakes — and I am committed to following through.

It’s important to acknowledge that our university has come a long way in building a more diverse and inclusive community — and we must not shy away from recognizing and celebrating this progress. At the same time we must continue our ongoing and deep commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

I am proud of our new Student Center for Equity and Inclusion, opened just this academic year.

And I have been focusing on new ways to support international students, first-generation college students, and other groups, including raising new resources.

I pledge to remain steadfast in this work — and I look forward to collaborating with members of our community on our continuing efforts to create a more inclusive UR, where all Spiders see and feel themselves as part of our web. 

Opportunity 3: Well-Being

Opportunity three — well-being. From the time I was first recruited to join UR, the university’s commitment to this work has stood out to me.    

I’ve always had a passion for promoting well-being — and in part, that’s because someone very close to Tina and me has struggled with their mental health.

I only wish we’d had access to the amazing resources Richmond has when we first faced these issues many years ago.

The university’s commitment is, of course, physically manifested in our spectacular Well-Being Center. But it’s backed up by so much more, including:

Our dedicated staff and faculty who work hard every day to provide our students with tremendous care and support.

A first-year course called WELL 100, that is required of all new students

And a thoughtful focus on five key areas of well-being:

• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Self-care
• Mindfulness, and
• Sleep

Today our society is experiencing heightened division, the continuing scourge of racism, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — all of which have exacerbated a serious mental health crisis in higher education worldwide — not just for students but also for staff and faculty. It’s a big challenge.

We must continue to invest in and support both mental and physical health.

Opportunity 4: Academic Excellence

Opportunity four — academic excellence. Prior to Richmond, I spent 16 years at Cornell University. Cornell is full of smart people, doing high-quality work, trying to make the world a better place.

The people at UR and the work being done here are every bit as impressive.

I was once told by a teacher in graduate school: “If you ever get a chance to not teach, take it” (this was not David). This person meant research was the only priority.

But teaching matters at Richmond.

And, mentoring matters at Richmond.

And, research matters at Richmond.

We care about all of these things at Richmond. They are part of our recipe for academic excellence, and they should be rewarded. 

We will incentivize excellence in teaching, mentoring, and research in the coming years.

Simply put, we must support faculty who are doing extraordinary work to positively impact our students and enhance our academic reputation.

Also, we should make a large investment in a few strategic academic priorities for our university. This would start with critical hires in important future-looking areas.

We must think carefully, together, about the strategic investments that are necessary to help us realize our educational mission.

Opportunity 5: Community Engagement 

Finally, opportunity five — community engagement.

As I said before, this is a clear comparative advantage for us. We have an extraordinary city and region right here and many of our competitors do not have this.

We already learn from and contribute to the greater Richmond area, for example, through our Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.

What’s more, our academic programs are strengthening our region’s workforce pipeline, including through our Law School, School of Professional and Continuing Studies, and MBA program.

And among our bachelor’s degree graduates, the city with the second most placements (behind New York City) is NOT Chicago, or LA, or Boston, or Philly, or Atlanta or even Washington DC — it’s Richmond, Virginia!

But beyond these commitments, I believe we can deepen our engagement with our greater community.

One way to invest more in the city is through thoughtfully considering new programs such as something like a “City Semester.” Just as we send students to Rome, or Paris, or Geneva on a semester abroad, we might want to consider providing the same experience right down the street in the City of Richmond.

And I don’t mean students will simply depart our leafy campus each morning and return in the evening. I mean they’ll really engage with and live in the city.

But this must be done carefully and well, with faculty developing the academic programs — and with significant leadership and input from our staff and community partners.

I believe that putting the University of Richmond firmly on the national and international map could very well start right here at home.

Conclusion

To conclude, we have a lot to be proud of at the University of Richmond, and so much to look forward to.

My view is that, together, we can become unquestionably the best small university in the world – where access and affordability, belonging and well-being, academic excellence and community engagement are synonymous with the Richmond name.

I am grateful and lucky to be embarking on this journey with all of you. We are part of something really special here, and I believe the best days for our university are ahead.

I’m only 53 years old and have a lot of energy. I really look forward to seeing what this amazing institution is like in 15 years and being part of our continued progress. 

I promise I’ll work incredibly hard — in collaboration with you — to make Richmond an even more outstanding place to study, learn, and work — and where all feel welcome and a deep sense of belonging.

It 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.

Thanks again for joining me today.

Please take care of yourself and look out for each other.

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 Fellow Spiders,

I hope you are having a wonderful new year so far and are feeling as encouraged as I am for the spring semester. We have so much to look forward to in the coming months at UR. To be sure, we continue to face challenges in this moment, such as the current Omicron surge across the country. We will need to continue to work together on COVID-19 mitigation efforts, and we will need to show each other grace and patience whenever possible. But we are in a far better place compared to the beginning of the pandemic. We are largely back together, and that has been and will continue to be a source of energy and community.

This January I’m especially looking forward to our community’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. The theme is "We cannot walk alone,” a fitting reminder that we must lean on and collaborate with one another to strengthen our university and create a better world. I hope you will consider joining one or more of the many community conversations and events, which span the first weeks of the spring semester. I’m grateful to the Equity & Community team for so thoughtfully planning the celebration, as well as to the Office of the Chaplaincy and the former Office of Common Ground for their leadership of this celebration in years past.

Thanks again for everything you do to help foster a community of care, well-being, and belonging. We are all part of something special here at UR, and I look forward to our continued collaboration as we forge a bright future for our university.

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

Kevin F. Hallock

Dear Fellow Spiders,

As we complete our first semester together, I write to acknowledge all the amazing work you did to make these past few months possible. It has been a pleasure getting to know so many of you and experiencing your deep commitment to one another and this amazing institution. We’ve certainly faced some significant challenges together, and there will be more to address in the new year. But you’ve demonstrated that we have the intellectual power, problem-solving spirit, and determination to continue to build community and fulfill our educational mission. I recognize the sacrifices you’ve made along the way and want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for doing your part to strengthen our community.

Breaks are quite simply for breaks. I hope our winter break will be a time of rest and renewal for you. We all are constantly moving along some continuum of well-being throughout our days and lives, and it’s so important to take time to care for ourselves and connect with others. I really believe in our university’s focus on five key areas of well-being: exercise, nutrition, self-care, mindfulness, and sleep. And I agree that all these areas are essential to thrive. I for one look forward to some days of sleeping late and taking long walks with my family and our dogs.

Thanks again for all your hard work this semester. I continue to feel grateful and proud to be a member of this community. We are all in this together, and I look forward to seeing you in the new year.

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

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Members of the Campus Community:

I hope that you all had a restorative break for Thanksgiving.

In the message I sent to you all on my first day as president — just over 100 days ago — I indicated that I was excited to join a university with strong values that align well with my own leadership values, including integrity, transparency, effort, inclusion, well-being, collegiality, and giving the benefit of the doubt.

With respect to the last one, I said that “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.”           

I believe in listening actively and openly, and in free and open debate. At its heart, a university is a place where we listen to each other and seek to learn from each other. Having spent my entire professional life in university communities, I have learned a great deal from so many people, including those with whom I have disagreed strongly. I believe that engaging with different points of view can help one 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.

This brings me to the Naming Principles Commission. As I have said many times, I am grateful to the members of this group, which includes a student, a staff member, a faculty member, an alumni representative, four trustees, and an external expert with deep experience navigating similar issues and related community input processes. Many of us expected their work would be difficult, and it has been. The Naming Principles Commission, announced in April, was not set up to opine on specific building names; rather, they have been charged to propose a set of abiding principles and a process to apply them, both for consideration by the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees can then use those principles for decisions pertaining to campus names (including past names and future names).

Some have asked me, “Why is this taking so long?” My response to that is the Commission was asked to seek broad and deliberate input from the University of Richmond community, and it is doing just that. More than 7,000 people responded to the Gallup Survey, more than 300 people attended open listening sessions, and many others provided input to Commission members directly or through the web portal. The Commission will now delve deeply and thoughtfully into this input in order to begin to formulate recommendations on naming principles, proceeding as expeditiously as possible.

I ask for your continued patience to allow the Commission to do its work. It is extremely important work being done by nine dedicated volunteers, and it is hard work. I am grateful to the members of the Commission and to all who have contributed thoughts and ideas.           

Thanks so much for being a member of our campus community. We are all part of something special here at UR. I continue to give thanks for being among you, and I look forward to a bright future for our university. 

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Fellow Spiders,

As we approach Thanksgiving, I would like to express my gratitude to our amazing community. During my first three months here, I’ve had the privilege to meet with so many of you. I continue to be struck by the immense love and pride folks have for UR, and my awe for this place has only grown over time.

My wife, Tina, and I are especially impressed with our community’s commitment to looking out for one another. Time and again, we’ve seen students out and about on campus cheering on their friends, from arts performances to athletics competitions. We’ve met community members who have hired our students and supported our institution. And we’ve met so many remarkable staff and faculty committed to caring for and mentoring our students. We truly have something extremely special here at UR, and Tina and I are so proud and grateful to call ourselves Spiders.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to share with you some remarkable examples of Spiders helping Spiders. These stories remind me how fortunate we all are to be part of such a caring community, and I hope they inspire you as they inspire me. Thanks so much for everything you do to support this place we all love. As we say in my home state of Massachusetts, Spiders’ commitment to UR is wicked awesome!

STRENGTHENING A CULTURE OF MENTORED RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP

I think that part of Richmond’s secret sauce is our faculty’s commitment to fostering a culture of mentored research and scholarship for our students. Before I even started at UR, I met a group of undergraduate students who were not only doing academic research in a faculty member’s science lab, they also had the opportunity to publish a scholarly article with their professor. I was inspired by this collaborative work — Spider faculty helping Spider students, and vice versa — and it soon became clear to me that we were doing something truly special at Richmond.

Unlike so many other great universities, which only offer mentored research and scholarship opportunities to Ph.D. students, this practice is part of our DNA for our undergraduates. Take, for example, the work of Assistant Professor of Health Psychology Camilla Nonterah. She recently received a $100,000 grant that will support two UR undergraduate researchers for her project on breaking down barriers in access to kidney transplantation. Such mentored research is happening all across our university, and it is just one more reason why I’m so proud to be part of this community. 

BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH THE ARTS

Tina and I experienced another terrific example of UR’s commitment to supporting one another last month at the 11th Annual Celebration of Dance in the Modlin Center for the Arts. We were so impressed not only with the incredible talent of our students but also by the wonderful sense of community that permeated the auditorium. As dance clubs, dance companies, and independent choreographers took to the stage over the course of the evening, my attention was split between the beauty of the performances and the groundswell of support from so many students from across campus. They cheered on such performers as the Bollywood Jhatkas, Ngoma African Dance Company, the Block Crew, Ritmo Latino, and SpinnURs Dance Team. It was inspiring to see community being built before our very eyes, and we look forward to attending many more student performances and cheering on our Spiders. 

FOSTERING A CULTURE OF WELL-BEING

Tina and I saw a moving example of Spiders helping Spiders at last month’s dedication of our new Well-Being Center. Members of our community spoke candidly about why they supported the project, including one who opened up about the sudden and tragic death of her brother. She persevered by talking to a therapist and going on long walks. By supporting the Well-Being Center, she hoped to help equip current and future Spiders with the emotional, physical, and spiritual strength to live resilient and successful lives.

Our amazing Well-Being Center simply wouldn’t exist without the generosity of our donors. At the same time, I am also thankful for our students — past and present — who were an important driving force behind the project. Their stories and enthusiasm for the project helped to inspire our donors. 

BRINGING THE WORLD TO RICHMOND

We have amazing staff and faculty who support our students’ international experiences through programs such as study abroad and who support international students who come to Richmond. I feel privileged and proud to call all of them my colleagues.

I learned of an amazing story at our International Student Welcome event earlier this semester. After delivering some remarks, I met two students from two different countries who had the same major and asked if they had been introduced. It turned out that they not only knew each other, but after being accepted to UR, had ended up living together. 

To respect their privacy, I will call them Student A and Student B. Student A couldn’t get a visa to come to the U.S. directly from their country, so they reached out to Student B (they had only met online since they were both accepted students) and asked, “Can I come live with you to try to get the visa in your country?” Student B’s family enthusiastically said yes, and eventually it all worked out. Now both students are at UR, helping to foster greater cross-cultural understanding and experiencing the transformative power of a Richmond education.

SPIDERS NOURISHING SPIDERS

Like so many other places across the country, we are currently experiencing staff shortages, especially in dining. So, I recently volunteered to work an evening shift in Heilman Dining Center, and it was at once eye-opening and amazing. I say eye-opening because I served one student who asked for four hot dogs and covered them in chili, cheese sauce, and fries! I say amazing because I had an opportunity to speak with all the staff that evening and see them so capably fulfill Dining Services’ mission of “nourishing a global community.” 

As I reflected on my shift, I once again felt so lucky to be one of the 1,700 people who work here. Everyone contributes to the success of our extraordinary institution, and it was a pleasure to work side by side with colleagues who are so good and thoughtful about caring for our students. I want to give them a special shoutout for helping our university run so well. 

IN CLOSING

These are just some of the stories of how Spiders help Spiders every day in so many ways. I feel so grateful and lucky to be part of such a supportive community. In our labs, classrooms, and theaters, and on our fields and courts, Spiders help Spiders. By continuing to look out for each other and work together, I’m confident we can make UR unquestionably the best small university in the world, where excellence, access, affordability, belonging, and educational opportunity are synonymous with the Richmond name.  

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

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty:

Late last week, antisemitic and white supremacist symbols were discovered in two bathroom stalls on campus. This was reported to the URPD and is being thoroughly investigated as acts of vandalism. The sentiments represented by the graffiti are deplorable, and we condemn these beliefs and actions in the strongest possible terms. The graffiti appears to have been done by a single person and in no way represents the perspective of our community.

This reminds us that we must continue to be steadfast to foster a community of caring and belonging and do what is needed to ensure opportunity for people of all traditions and backgrounds to thrive on our campus. In this final week before Thanksgiving, let’s commit as a community once more to creating a campus environment where all are welcome and feel an enormous sense of belonging.  

The following resources are available to members of our community seeking support at this time:

• The Chaplaincy, including Dr. Craig Kocher, University Chaplain, and Josh Jeffreys, Jewish Chaplain
• College Deans offices, including Dr. Mia Reinoso Genoni, Westhampton College, and Dr. Joe Boehman, Richmond College
• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), 804-289-8119
• Student Center for Equity and Inclusion, including Dr. Tina Cade, Dr. Morgan Russell, Lee Dyer, and Lisa Miles

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

Kevin F. Hallock
President

Dear Students:

Today we write to reaffirm our commitment to building a community of care, well-being, and belonging in the wake of our most recent timely warning about sexual misconduct.

Incidents of sexual assault are abhorrent and have no place in society. No one should ever be sexually assaulted or harassed on our campus or anywhere. Our university is working hard each day to provide an environment where students are comfortable reporting incidents of sexual misconduct, and we deeply appreciate the conviction and courage of students who come forward with reports. We investigate thoroughly and respond promptly to all reports of sexual misconduct and provide a wide variety of resources both on and off our campus to survivors.  

On October 24, UR police notified our campus community via a timely warning of a report of a sexual assault that occurred on campus the day prior. On October 25, an arrest was made. The University confirmed the arrest to the Collegian and subsequently wrote to students to remind them of the many resources available both on and off campus to support survivors and others affected by sexual misconduct. Such resources can be found here.

We understand that some in our campus community want to learn more about the recent case. We are, however, prevented by law from discussing specific reports of sexual misconduct. We are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of such information and, importantly, have a commitment to respect the privacy of community members who report sexual misconduct and to allow time and space for the healing process to begin. The University also does not want to take any action that would impact a pending criminal or Title IX investigation.

We have many systems and programs that are designed to prevent sexual assault and harassment. These begin at orientation and include programming on consent, sexual assault prevention, and bystander intervention. More information on sexual misconduct education can be found here. We also strongly encourage members of our community to report sexual misconduct and have a process for responding to any report of sexual misconduct, which is described here. We continue to try to improve and do more to stamp out the scourge of sexual misconduct, assault, and harassment and welcome feedback and ideas for improvement. 

If you wish to get involved in our efforts to prevent incidents of sexual misconduct, please contact Kaylin Tingle, healthy relationship and violence prevention educator, and consider joining URWell Peer Educators to support the development and implementation of programs such as Spiders for Spiders bystander intervention training, Red Flag Campaign, and My Costume is Not My Consent.

Please know that we will continue to work diligently to prevent sexual misconduct on our campus, to strongly encourage reports of any assault or harassment, to support survivors of sexual misconduct, and to investigate and adjudicate reports in a manner that is fair and prioritizes the safety and well-being of our students. 

Continue to take care of yourselves and look out for others.

Steve Bisese
Vice President for Student Development 

Kevin Hallock
President

By Kevin F. Hallock, president

I feel grateful and lucky.

When I was finishing graduate school, a mentor told me that to be a successful academic, I would have to be excellent not only at teaching and research, but also service. That advice resonated powerfully with me, for I had grown up admiring how my mother and father served their community as a nurse practitioner and professor, respectively.

Throughout my career, I have aspired to lead a life of service. That is why I couldn’t look away when I was offered the UR presidency. I felt enormously grateful and lucky to have the opportunity to join a community with the same profound commitment to service instilled in me by my parents.

I have much to learn about UR, but I can plainly see that part of the secret of the university’s success is the staff and faculty’s near obsession with serving our educational mission. I met a Spider parent this summer who credited her children’s rich learning with the deep “access and relationships” they have with their professors. I was moved but not surprised, given that time and again, I have heard from faculty about innovative teaching that undoubtedly inspires students. Good mentors are rare and invaluable, and the Spider community is crawling with them.

I am grateful and excited to work alongside UR’s students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends to make this great institution even greater. Today, UR is a leading liberal arts institution defined not only by academic excellence, but also by high standards and strong values, terrific 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 open arms.

I am also grateful for the university’s values, including intellectual curiosity, resilience, integrity, inclusivity and equity, 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 hear one another. Universities can and must serve as models of constructive dialogue, especially across difference. 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.

Thank you, Spider community, for entrusting me to help lead UR in its next chapter of success. I envision Richmond becoming the nation’s best small university, where everyone feels the enormous sense of belonging Tina and I have experienced thus far. It 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. I am grateful and lucky to be embarking on this journey with all of you.

Originally appeared in the Autumn 2021 issue of University of Richmond Magazine

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

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for being here.  I am so happy to see you all. 

I have enjoyed getting to know various members of our staff and faculty this summer, and I look forward to meeting every single one of you in the coming days, weeks and months. 

Thank you all for your amazing work for this university, our students and each other. And my congratulations to this year’s Distinguished Educator and Distinguished Scholarship Award recipients – and our newly appointed Endowed Chairs.

I am proud to be among the 1700 people who work at the University of Richmond.

I also want to thank President Crutcher and Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher for all of their efforts in advancing the University of Richmond over the past six years. 

They welcomed my wife, Tina, and me with generous hearts and open arms.

We look forward to spending more time with them – and know they will continue to be deeply valued members of our community. 

Before I say too much more, I also want to take a moment and acknowledge where we are right now – still fighting a pandemic – and to thank all of you for working together to support each other.

Heading into the new academic year, I realize that we are not where we had hoped we would be by now. COVID continues to disrupt all of our lives, causing stress, anxiety and fatigue – and exacerbating inequalities in our society and across the world.  

There are no perfect answers, but we are all in this together.

Please do join us for a virtual Staff and Faculty Townhall meeting about health and safety on campus tomorrow at 11:30 am. And let’s continue to take care of ourselves and each other.

We Just Got Here, and are grateful:

I moved to Richmond less than three weeks ago with Tina, and our two dogs, Mabel and Matilda.  And I have served as president for just under 100 hours. 

People have been asking me: “How’s it going”? 

My response to them is often a lot like when I’m asked about my marriage of 30 years: “so far, so good”.  

In all seriousness, though, I am absolutely delighted to be president … and with the marriage.  I am grateful and feel lucky for both.

I’d like to tell you a little bit about why I am particularly grateful to serve as a faculty member and as president at the University of Richmond. 

For the last 16 years, Tina and I lived in Ithaca, NY.  Eleven months ago, we bought a new house there and planned to be there for a very long time. 

We were happy in Ithaca, and I was leading a large college that had roughly the same size budget as Richmond – and just about the same number of students.

Just a few months later, however, I received a call that you were searching for a new colleague to serve as president.

So, what did I do?  As an economist, I immediately read your tax returns.  And then your webpages.  And just about every other thing I could find. 

Then, I began speaking with staff, faculty, students, trustees, parents, and other friends of the university, and I learned about what makes this institution so remarkable.  And before I knew it, I couldn’t look away.

Everyone I met loved the University of Richmond.  Everyone.  To be sure, not everyone agreed on everything. 

And of course, we were being recruited, so I was not introduced to a random selection of staff, students, faculty or alumni.  But the overwhelming enthusiasm seemed strange. 

That is until I started noticing the following theme in nearly every single conversation I had: Richmond’s staff and faculty are extraordinarily devoted to teaching, mentoring and supporting our students. 

I was inspired by what I heard, what I read, and what I saw. I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity to be part of this community of teacher-scholars and serve this remarkable university.

And sure enough, I’ve continued to meet people who were transformed by their experience here.

I met a Spider parent this summer who credited her children’s rich learning with the deep “access and relationships” they have with their professors.

I was moved but not surprised, given that time and again, I’ve also heard from faculty about innovative teaching that inspires students.

Good mentors are rare and invaluable, and the Spider community is crawling with them.  I am grateful and delighted to be standing in front of so many of them today. 

What else do I love about Richmond?

There is so much more I love about Richmond:

• The intellectual curiosity, ability and drive of our academic community.
• The high standards and strong ethics of our institution.
• The wonderful values that Spiders hold dear – from student growth and responsible stewardship, to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
• The teacher-scholar mentality – which I first thought was just a slogan. It is real, and it is amazing.
• The unique and unusual make-up of our university, with its amazing focus on the liberal arts and sciences but also with excellent professional schools. Few can compete with us here.
• And our outstanding academics, complemented by excellent co-curricular and extra-curricular activities – from our terrific athletics programs, to our robust community engagement opportunities, to our wonderful study abroad programs.

I could go on and on.

I am grateful and excited to work alongside you all to build on Richmond’s many strengths and forge an even brighter future.

Leadership Values:

As we embark on this journey together, I believe I owe it to all of you, who have done so much to shape this fine institution, to give you a sense of how I plan to lead. 

In particular, I would like to share with you some of my guiding values. There are six I will mention.

1. Integrity. Everything we do should be done honestly, objectively, fairly and by the book. I cannot stress this enough.  Indeed, if we are to fulfill our mission of preparing students for responsible citizenship and leadership, we must now and always model integrity.
2. Transparency. We are all better off when all university constituents are well-informed. To that end, I pledge to always be as transparent with you as I can. I have worked hard throughout my career to be transparent and will continue to do so.
3. Effort. Working hard is important, plain and simple. I think that our outcomes are some function of ability, effort and luck.  I can’t do much about my ability or my luck, but I can control my effort.  So, I work very hard, and I respect hard work.  But I don’t expect anyone to sacrifice their well-being. We must strive to find balance, which brings me to my next value.   
4. Well-Being. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we must always take time to care for ourselves and look out for one another. Which is why I intend to continue the university’s good work of fostering a culture of well-being. We are so fortunate to have a beautiful new Well-Being Center and excellent programs such as U-R WELL. I will strive to model behavior that speaks to our university’s focus on well-being.
5. Inclusion and Belonging. To speak of a true community is to speak of an inclusive community in which all members can thrive and achieve an enormous sense of belonging. This is a particularly salient issue at our university and in our country.

We should all be proud that our students increasingly hail from diverse backgrounds; represent diverse beliefs; and come from all over this nation and planet, as do our staff, faculty, and alumni.

But there is more work to do.

I intend to build on the university’s good work ensuring everyone feels a true sense of belonging – and ask that you join me and embrace this endeavor as a shared responsibility. 

6. Collegiality and giving the benefit of the doubt. 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 hear one another.

Universities can and must serve as models of constructive dialogue, especially across difference.

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 it is to do it together.

Liberal Arts and Coming from a Business School:

Now, in addition to my values, I bring with me life experiences that will shape my leadership at Richmond.

Some may ask: what business does a former business college dean have leading a liberal arts college? And how will his economics background inform his leadership? 

I understand that question, and I’d answer it by saying that an economist isn’t necessarily about studying how to make money. 

In fact, economists think about the allocation of scarce resources, subject to constraints.  Economists think about maximizing things, not only profits. 

It could be maximizing student performance, reducing poverty, and even happiness.  And it could be minimizing things, such as poverty or violence.

I have spent my career studying labor markets, including issues such as the gender wage gap and how people are paid.

And I have greatly benefitted from working side by side with colleagues studying creativity, psychology, development, poverty, history and ethics. 

Indeed, my colleagues in these fields have shaped my thinking on liberal education.

Hunter Rawlings, a classicist and former president of two major universities – including one I just left – writes eloquently about a “liberal education” in the true Latin sense.

He describes it as “an education for [a] free people … to think for themselves as individuals, to develop their creative capacities, and to contribute to public life”.  He notes, and I completely agree, that we need people to:

• Read closely and think critically.
• Reason intelligently and ethically.
• Speak and write clearly and persuasively.
• Be able to do independent research
• And analyze quantitative arguments common to math and the sciences 

After just a few short months of having inspiring conversations with so many of you, I am confident that we at Richmond are preparing our students to do exactly these things.

Yes, I am economist by training, but I firmly believe that to continue preparing students for a diverse and complex world, we must keep at bay the forces calling to measure everything as an economic rate of return. 

Economists like to measure the net present value.  In this context, that might mean measuring how much does it “cost” to go to college and how much more will one earn in their lifetime after going to college, relative to not going. 

Of course, it is natural to think of these things.  But they often miss two very important issues: 

• First, people might actually enjoy being a college student.

The experiences our students have learning in our classrooms and participating in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities are undoubtedly rewards in and of themselves. These benefits are often not included in cost-benefit calculations. 

• Second, there are enormous benefits to a college education beyond a larger paycheck. These benefits, too, are often ignored in the cost-benefit calculations. And that’s a shame. 

To instill a sense of wonder and cultivate lifelong learning are perhaps the greatest gifts that a liberal arts education bestows on students;

For such gifts will help our students appreciate art and music in new ways; engage across difference and recognize our common humanity; lead happier and more fulfilling lives; and so much more.

I am incredibly excited to be a faculty member at Richmond – and to work alongside each of you to enrich our students lives through the power of a liberal arts education.   

Privilege: 

Now, just as my background as an economist has shaped who I am today – I must acknowledge that my privilege helped me get to where I am today.   

My parents grew up with very modest means and were the first in their families to attend college, but I didn’t grow up in difficult social or financial circumstances.

I grew up in a small farming town in western Massachusetts.  For five summers in junior high and high school, I earned what I thought was a lot of money working 48-hour weeks in cucumber and tobacco fields. 

It was miserable work, and I much prefer what I do today.  But it gave me an appreciation for different kinds of work – and a view of a part of the labor market that I might never have seen had I grown up in another time and place.  I have picked a lot of cucumbers.

But the fact remains that I didn’t need to pick cucumbers or work in the tobacco fields.  I had every possible advantage to get to where I am standing today, and I understand that and don’t take it for granted. 

I recognize and acknowledge the enormous privilege and advantages I have had.  I am a white male born in the United States in 1969. 

My father was a professor of physics at the same institution for 50 consecutive years.  My mother was a pediatric nurse practitioner.  They instilled in me an enormous work ethic and wonder of learning. 

I decided I wanted to be a professor when I was in middle school, and I have had advice from amazing mentors on how to do it pretty much every day since. 

Yet, as much as I have learned in my life, I do not know what it is like to walk in the shoes of many others.  But I do strive to have the intellectual curiosity, empathy, and interest to listen and try to understand.

We must seek out opportunities to listen to, learn from, and support one other. And we must work together to eliminate racism and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

I don’t say this lightly. 

I understand that racism and oppression are multi-dimensional, and, as the past year shows, must be combatted on many fronts –including for example anti-Black racism and anti-Asian racism, antisemitism and xenophobia.

I look forward to listening to and learning from all of you about how we can continue and improve the university’s good work advancing its interconnected goals of representation, belonging, and capability.

Goals that will help us to become a community where each member can thrive.

The Commission and Naming Principles: 

Most immediately, I look forward to listening to and learning from the Naming Principles Commission. 

I want to thank the members of the commission, which includes student, staff, faculty, alumni and greater Richmond community representatives.

This is extraordinarily important work and will take time, patience and great effort. 

I am grateful to the commission’s members for sharing their time to serve our university. 

Fundamental to the commission’s charge is to offer an open exchange of ideas and views.

I want to encourage you all to share your views with the commission, during listening sessions this fall, through the Gallup survey, or by contacting the commission directly.

The commission is charged with delivering a report to the board of trustees and to me. 

I look forward to receiving that report later this academic year, and I pledge to listen and learn from the community as the commission conducts its very important work.

Early Ideas for an Agenda:

I hope I have given you all a sense of where I come from, why I accepted the University of Richmond presidency, and how I plan to lead.

I would now like to say a few words about how I think this remarkable university can be even more remarkable. 

My aim here is to be transparent with you about some of the ideas that are top of mind as I begin my presidency.

• First and foremost, I have no intention of getting ahead of the community in setting priorities.

I want to be very deliberate about taking the time to understand the needs, concerns and culture of the university.

So, as I have said before and will say again, my first priority is to listen and learn.  I have so much to learn from so many people, and I intend to do just that and look forward to doing it.

• Second, I very much intend to continue the university’s efforts to foster well-being and belonging for every - single - member of our community: students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

I mentioned earlier the amazing outpouring of support that Tina and I have enjoyed.  This should be true for every person who joins our Spider community. 

If we embrace this work as a shared responsibility, I am confident that well-being and belonging can be a hallmark of the Richmond experience.

• Third, I want to spend more time thinking about affordability and cost. This is a serious problem, but we are amazingly fortunate to have remarkable resources to help families defray the costs of education. 

Still, as prices continue to go up, we can always use more resources. To make a Richmond education more affordable and accessible, I imagine dedicating significant time to thinking carefully about raising money for scholarships. 

• Fourth, I’d like to think carefully about our connections to the city with which we share a name.

There are numerous opportunities for the University of Richmond community to build on its good work learning from and contributing to the City of Richmond, and vice versa.

This could well be a comparative advantage for us.  We are like other liberal arts universities and colleges in some ways, but we have an extraordinary city right here that many of our competitors do not have. 

Putting Richmond firmly on the national and international map could very well start right at home.

• Finally, I want to think carefully about defining our other comparative advantages. Our close proximity to an amazing city is one; others may be the Richmond Guarantee – and the amazing mentoring relationships you have with our students.

Let’s continue to ask ourselves: How can we do even more to enrich our students’ lives through holistic development?

Conclusion

To conclude, I have been so incredibly impressed with the breadth and depth of the work being done by our staff, faculty and students.  The University of Richmond is truly an amazing institution. 

Everyone I’ve met feels great pride in – and a special connection to – the university.  

They don’t all agree on the issues – including very important ones – but they seem universally committed to strengthening this great institution.  I share that commitment.

As I think about where we might go next, and how we might get there, I invite you all to join me in this endeavor – and encourage you to think differently and contribute ideas.

Times of leadership change are times to think anew.  If you have an idea for how to transform or improve the lives of our students, staff or faculty, tell someone…tell me.  

If you had the same idea five years ago and it was shot down, try again.  If you had that idea 5 weeks ago and it was shot down, try again.

And if you have a big idea that will take a long time, bring it on.  I am only 52 years old, have a lot of energy, and imagine myself here for a very long time.

As I’ve said today, I have a lot to learn about our Spider community. But working side by side with you, I am confident we can make the University of Richmond the best small university in America, where everyone feels an enormous sense of belonging and where we all thrive. 

It 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. I am grateful and lucky to be embarking on this journey with all of you.

Thank you.

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

Dear Students, Staff, and Faculty: 

Yesterday was my first official day as a Spider, and I was so excited to spend time with students and their families and experience the energy of our first move-in day of the academic year. Today is my first official day in the office, and I couldn’t be prouder to be working alongside our outstanding staff and faculty to support the holistic development of our students and the production of scholarly and creative work. I have much to learn about UR, but I can plainly see that part of the secret of the University’s success is the staff and faculty’s profound commitment to our educational mission — and our students’ equally profound commitment to excellence.

I am so impressed with the breadth and depth of the work being done by our staff, faculty, and students, and I am proud of the excellence that we have achieved and will continue to achieve together. Each of our 4,000 students and 1,700 staff and faculty make important contributions to this extraordinary institution. Everyone on this campus shares in its success.

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 of you 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.  

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. 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 seeing you all on our campus soon! Please remember to take care of yourself and look out for others. 

With gratitude,

Kevin F. Hallock
Professor and President