Dear Colleague,

Welcome back. As we begin a new academic year, thank you for the many ways you have contributed to the momentum UMass Dartmouth is experiencing. Our enrollment is growing because of strong academic programs, meaningful research and hands-on learning opportunities, excellent advising, and a supportive, intellectually engaging environment. These outcomes reflect your time, talent, and dedication—thank you.

Our reputation as a destination of choice is also rising because your scholarship and creative work are being recognized nationally and globally for advancing knowledge and the public good. This visibility strengthens our ability to attract outstanding students, faculty, and staff.

New Academic Leadership
This growing reputation enabled us to attract strong national candidate pools and recruit three dynamic new Deans who joined us this summer. It was great seeing so many of you gathered on Tuesday evening to welcome Dr. Denise Baxter (Visual & Performing Arts), Dr. Rob Griffin (Engineering), and Dr. Phil Scher (Arts & Sciences) to UMass Dartmouth. I’m excited to partner with them as they help elevate the teaching, learning, scholarship, and creative work happening across our colleges.

Priorities for 2025-2026
Over the last year, I’ve engaged in thoughtful conversations with the Deans, Chairs, the Faculty Senate President, and a wide range of faculty and staff about how my team can continue supporting the academic enterprise.

Faculty Development
We remain committed to timely, meaningful support for the professional growth of our faculty and staff. Last year, the new Director of Faculty Development, Dr. Michael Sherriff, refreshed the content and format of the New Faculty Institute. We also expanded competitive internal funding for research and creative activity and found additional ways to celebrate a range of faculty accomplishments. We will continue and build on these efforts.

Student Success
Many of you contributed to the various initiatives to improve student success, including a new system for math placement testing, an expanded summer bridge program, a new academic orientation course for first-year students (UMassD Ready), advising tools that facilitate better communication between students and advisors, the re-institution of an early engagement survey, and the pilot of an on-demand, online on-demand tutoring service (BrainFuse) to supplement the work of the ARC this academic year. I’d also like to commend faculty for increasingly providing early feedback to students so they can adjust their approach and make every effort to succeed in their courses. These collective efforts are starting to make a real difference. For the first time in a decade, we are on track to see a meaningful increase in first-to-second year retention rate—I look forward to sharing the data when it is final later this fall. This is a great outcome for our students—we all want to see them continue to make good academic progress and earn their degrees.

AI Task Force
One strong theme that emerged from my conversations with the Deans and Chairs is the rapidly evolving impact of AI on higher education and the future of work. Many of you are already experimenting with AI to enrich your teaching, research, and the student learning experience. These discussions have surfaced some creative approaches as well as some important questions. I plan on convening an AI Taskforce with faculty, staff, and students from across our academic units to explore and build on these ideas, provide guidance and practical resources on effective and responsible use of AI, and help ensure that our students graduate prepared to use AI thoughtfully in their professional and civic lives. I will convene the task force this month and share more information about its membership and work soon.

Assessing Program Resource Needs
With rising enrollment and improving retention, we must ensure our colleges and schools have the resources to meet student demand while maintaining quality and investing in areas of distinctiveness that make UMass Dartmouth a destination of choice. This year, I will partner with the Faculty Senate and our Deans to launch a collaborative process—establishing a committee, timeline, and criteria—to strengthen and position our academic programs for near-term and long-term success.

In closing, I am deeply grateful for everything you do for our students and community. Our progress last year—on faculty development, research, student success, and college-level milestones—gives us real momentum. I look forward to working with you this year to continue investing in our faculty and staff, our academic enterprise, and—most importantly—our students.

Best wishes for a productive and inspiring semester.

Ramprasad Balasubramanian
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs