Launching the New Academic Year with Inspiration and Information
Opening a new academic year is an important opportunity for presidents and their leadership team to share values, initiatives, and campus resources with the campus...
Opening a new academic year is an important opportunity for presidents and their leadership team to share values, initiatives, and campus resources with the campus community, especially newly hired faculty and entering students. It is even more critical in the current environment, in which the institution’s goals and priorities (though not its core values) may have shifted to meet the moment. The campus will want to know how leadership is responding to, for example, the enrollment cliff, NIH funding cuts, or political winds in an increasingly polarized society.
Opening assemblies — whether attended only by new students, new faculty, or the entire campus community — allow college presidents to foster a sense of community and belonging. Each campus has its own traditions and protocols in terms of the nature of such semester launches, but all have the ability to inspire and set the tone for the year. With 2025 no different, each year is a new chapter to be written.
In my lengthy tenure as a president, I had 18 such opportunities and learned with each passing year. The following are five key elements to consider as you plan your own event(s).
Clear Purpose and Goals
Perhaps the most important goal of an opening assembly is to make sure that new and returning faculty, staff and students feel welcomed, valued and safe. Although it will take time and actual interactions to validate your campus’s inclusivity, articulating the importance that your institution places in supporting the well-being and worth of each community member is a critical message coming from the President. This is also an appropriate time to share other campus values that guide the daily life of the college/university, as well as the institution’s stated mission and vision. These are the governing principles that inspire and direct the daily work of the campus, and serve to unify the community in a common purpose no matter how much the landscape shifts.
While community members will appreciate being welcomed, they will also have many questions and need to get up to speed quickly on campus operations. Providing information on essential resources, policies, and support systems should also be a central goal of opening ceremonies. This can take the form of break-out sessions, a dedicated website, information tables, and other means.
Another key purpose of events to open the school year is to facilitate connections among faculty, students, and staff. These serve to “break the ice” and provide new members of the community with opportunities to make friends, meet colleagues, and discover the many ways in which they can interact with others in their new home. The most effective welcome in my experience was when I hosted a fall picnic for the entire campus community and bundled it with a “Clubs Fair” during which new students learned about and signed up for membership in one of our more than 100 student organizations. We also used faculty roundtables to allow new faculty members the opportunity to brainstorm innovative ways to implement our reengineered Liberal Arts Curriculum.
Thoughtful Planning and Logistics
The best message in the world can be undone by poor planning. Logistical details include timing — schedule opening activities early in the semester to avoid conflicts with other major events. Seating that promotes networking and interactivity is an important consideration, as are the room’s acoustics. (We all know how frustrating it can be to sit in an audience and not be able to understand the speaker.)
Successful events and forums should balance formal presentations by the president and other leaders with interactive sessions that allow the assembled opportunities to make their contributions. Table exercises, breakout sessions, and follow-up meetings can address topical issues while encouraging idea-sharing and community-building.
Finally, as part of logistical planning, ensuring that A/V systems, live streaming (if needed), and accessibility provisions are in place and operational is fundamental to event success. Accessibility logistics should include those for faculty and students with disabilities and language needs. I learned this once the hard way, when the PowerPoint presentation I was using developed a mysterious glitch that rendered it useless. While we were able to recreate and distribute printouts of the presentation, it was a good reminder to have contingency plans in place where technology is concerned.
Engaging Content
Whether you choose to have the President, Provost, or other campus leader give major remarks, the principal task of their opening comments is to welcome new faculty, staff, and students to the campus community and set a tone of transparency and engagement. During such semester-opening presentations, a President should also review “hot topics” such as artificial intelligence, current attacks on higher education, ensuring campus safety, and other current issues and how the institution is addressing them. Other issues such as budgeting and strategic planning can also be discussed to demonstrate that the administration is transparent.
Given today’s challenges, it is critically important to let the community know how you will be keeping them abreast of important topics during the academic year. Additionally, the President or designee should invite people to join committees and task forces to participate in addressing many topics of interest to them.
Another way to engage your audience is to organize panel discussions with veteran faculty and returning student leaders. The topics they discuss should balance current campus issues with areas that the community is interested in. Ideas for sessions that would resonate today include those on campus speech and protests, the appropriate use of AI in study and research, and available institutional resources to support research.
Throughout your opening events, care should be taken to ensure that a “diversity of voices” is achieved, with speakers included from various backgrounds and disciplines. Such assemblies are wonderful opportunities to acknowledge and celebrate the wealth of support and opportunities offered within the campus community, no matter a student’s interests and values. If your campus has a women’s center, a Pride center, and/or a multicultural center, these and other resources should be introduced during semester-opening events. How your campus is addressing DEI in the face of new federal (and in some cases, state) directives is also an important consideration.
Resource Sharing
In addition to reviewing campus resources with new faculty and students during opening remarks, you should also be prepared to provide additional details using multiple distribution channels. Those can include welcome packets — equally important to new students or faculty — that have maps, contact lists, academic calendars, and support services. For faculty, information can be provided on faculty development resources, research grants, library resources, and other important information. Access to LMS platforms and other online resources should also be readily available. The best resource I recall using was a compelling review of our Academic Success Center, which was used by most of our students each year, independent of their overall academic standing.
Students should quickly know where to find tutoring services, financial aid, academic advising, and computing resources, as well as information on dining services and residential life. Supplementing written materials should be a dedicated website (separately for new faculty and new students), complete with links to on- and off-campus resources, calendars, important dates and deadlines, relevant forms, FAQs, and other essential information. New students will also want to know about volunteering opportunities, student clubs, and other engagement activities.
Finally, the start of the fall semester is a perfect time to introduce mentoring programs and other peer support to faculty, staff and newly arriving students alike. These can include formal mentoring programs for new faculty and students, informal mentoring opportunities, social events, and other methods for ensuring that new members of the community have the resources and support they need to be successful on your campus.
Follow-Up and Feedback
How do you know if your opening events have been successful in meeting your goals and addressing the needs of your newly arriving faculty and students? Taking time to gather feedback is critical to improve future events, while also suggesting any additional measures that are immediately needed to fill in information gaps.
Finally, make sure that additional events in the future are scheduled and communicated to the campus on a frequent basis. Promoting an atmosphere of collegiality, open communications, and collaboration can help to make sure that your campus is aware of its common purpose, dedicated to a standard of excellence, and determined to work together toward a common goal in what are difficult and divisive times.
