Welcome back to campus, and Happy New Year!
As we begin 2024, we have the opportunity to look back at the past year, celebrate our many successes and evaluate our progress against our ambitious institutional goals. I am immensely proud of all we have accomplished.
Together, we expanded our education, research and health enterprise and continued to serve our students, patients and the community in line with our mission as a world-class public research institution. These strides would not have been possible without our dedicated students, faculty, staff, alumni, community and philanthropic partners. We see your hard work and your Triton pride, and we have much to look forward to in the upcoming year and beyond.
Strategic Plan Refresh
We are starting the new year by refreshing our UC San Diego Strategic Plan. We will be seeking your input to the process as we update the university’s Strategic Plan, which I implemented in 2014 as a framework and guide for our campus transformation.
Initial sessions with deans and my leadership Cabinet began in the fall, and we look forward to incorporating input from faculty, staff, students and the community. Because our plan has been successful, we are not undertaking a complete overhaul, rather refining strategies and incorporating new ideas and lessons learned to fuel our growth into the future.
I look forward to reflecting upon the tremendous growth and progress we have forged together over the past 10 years and am excited to engage with you in the new year. We hope you will be a part of it.
Campus Life and Student Experience
In 2023, we celebrated many traditional campus gatherings, such as Convocation, Homecoming, Triton Weeks of Welcome and many exciting Division I sporting events – including a first-ever Big West championship for men’s baseball. We are providing more and more world-class performances and art exhibits, along with interactive studios such as the Craft Center and the upcoming Glass Center to cultivate creativity among our campus community and visitors.
Our living and learning neighborhoods and unique college system are intentionally designed to foster connections and strong communities, and we want students to enjoy their educational experiences, express their creativity, deepen friendships and have fun as they learn and grow together. Moving forward, you will see and experience the many ways we are fostering an even more vibrant destination campus with every thoughtfully planned investment we make.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
We welcomed outstanding underrepresented faculty who are not only changing the makeup of academia, but who also are contributing new teaching methodologies and filling critical role model gaps for our historically underrepresented students. We also integrated equity, diversity and inclusion into our campus art selection, cultural events, new building developments and designs and virtually every aspect of university operations. We remain committed to taking bold actions that build and maintain an inclusive culture that celebrates unique perspectives and contributions and advances equality. We will continue to ensure that every member of our Triton community can thrive and reach their full potential.
Campus Transformation and On-Campus Housing
Our campus continues to transform physically, culturally and intellectually before our eyes – all with student support and success at the center – and empowered through philanthropic support, which reached an all-time high of $565.7 million this past fiscal year. 2023 also marked several milestones on student-centered projects currently underway, which are all part of our commitment to serve as a regional destination for arts, culture, education, research and patient care as a valued public asset.
Access and a more affordable cost-of-living for students are two main priorities as we serve the community, and creating bustling and welcoming neighborhoods is an integral part of this effort. We know students thrive on campus, and in such an expensive regional housing market, on-campus housing helps to lower the overall cost of a top quality university education.
While we are currently the third largest provider of on-campus housing in the country and offer a two-year housing guarantee, we are on track to become the single largest on-campus housing provider by 2025. Our ultimate goal is to provide a four-year housing guarantee at 20% or more below market rates.
I am grateful for your patience and flexibility amid the ongoing construction as we bring this vision to life.
Research Progress and Rankings
UC San Diego continues to rise in rankings as a globally recognized leader in education, research, medical care, innovation and discovery that expands scientific understanding and propels our society forward. This year, our research enterprise grew $1.76 billion in sponsored research – our tenth consecutive year of more than $1 billion. And prospective students are eager to learn – UC San Diego is the second-most applied to university in the entire country.
We continue to contribute to global economic development through our groundbreaking work related to inventions, startups, patents and licenses. In fact, in fiscal year 2023, we filed 390 unique disclosures of viable inventions, placing us among the world’s top innovation universities. We are gaining more global recognition for our research leadership and impact. We continue to rank among the top public universities and health systems in the nation and worldwide. U.S. News & World Report ranked UC San Diego as the No. 6 public university, and Forbes ranked us at No. 3. We are also ranked by the Princeton Review as the No. 8 Best Value College in the nation, signifying our high-quality, affordable education that sets up our students for future career success. We should all be very proud of our progress and well-deserved recognition as an engine of socioeconomic mobility, scientific discovery, patient care excellence and transformative impact for the greater good.
UC San Diego Health
We recently acquired Alvarado Hospital in eastern San Diego and are finalizing a joint powers agreement to operate Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside. Together, these projects add more than 650 beds to the health system in key parts of the region. East Campus and Tri-City community hospitals will provide quality, comprehensive care closer to home for many more county residents, while allowing our flagship destination medicine programs to develop and expand at our academic medical centers in Hillcrest and La Jolla. Patients from around the state and across the country travel to UC San Diego Health to receive the latest in world-class care. We are truly fortunate to have this level of care growing ever stronger, right here in our own backyard.
This year, Student Health and Well-Being also launched the Triton Compassionate Response team, known as Triton CORE, a team of interdisciplinary mental health professionals that works in partnership with UC San Diego Police to respond to students experiencing mental or behavioral health crises that do not require a law-enforcement response.
Supporting an Inclusive Campus Environment
Ongoing and devastating wars and terrorist attacks have caused pain and fear among many and has sparked many passionate protests and conversations on university campuses, including ours, with many raising their voices in support of issues and causes close to their hearts. Throughout this time, campus leadership has met with our students, faculty and staff to listen and offer assistance, worked to support members of our community and ensured that security and safety measures are in place. In 2024, we will be offering a series of educational events featuring experts to help educate and offer productive ways to counter Antisemitism and Islamophobia, while upholding free speech and strengthening our campus community.
As we recommit ourselves to the constitutional protection of free speech, we also recognize that the right of free speech is not absolute, and violations of policy or law will not be tolerated. UC San Diego firmly stands against hate and intolerance wherever it emerges and will hold accountable to the maximum extent of its abilities anyone who engages in conduct that violates the law or university policy, such as disruptions of university activity, violence or vandalism. The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our top priority and all reports of violations will be reviewed. Support resources are also available to our community members.
The Year Ahead
Thank you and Happy New Year
To our outstanding students, patients, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, volunteers and community partners, thank you for your steadfast commitment to UC San Diego and each other. I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful 2024 filled with good health, happiness, peace and prosperity.
