Welcome New and Returning Students, Faculty and Staff Monday, August 26, 2019, at 1:57 p.m.

Dear Campus Community —

Welcome to an exciting new academic year at your Jacksonville University!

For those of you returning from summer break, welcome back to our beautiful campus. You’ll notice plenty of upgrades to enhance your experience. I’m also proud to welcome a truly stellar class of incoming freshmen this year. I am honored you chose JU and it’s a privilege to welcome you to our Dolphin community.

We are unleashing a most exciting era in the 85-year history of Jacksonville University. This week, your campus looks and feels different. Over the summer, we’ve invested in classroom technology upgrades, major residence hall renovations, and extensive facility improvements. We’ve expanded your dining options with enhancements at the River House Grill, enhanced the Phillips Fine Arts building, and reimagined our campus grounds, study spaces and walking paths for your safety and enjoyment.

You’ll also notice new buildings on campus. This past spring, many of you were here for the grand opening of our Frisch Welcome Center -- the impressive new gateway to campus for all visitors and honored guests. Construction is also progressing at the north end of campus, where the brand new, 104,000-square-foot Healthcare Sciences Academic Center is scheduled to open in January.

Beyond the physical upgrades, we are gaining momentum in an energizing journey that will redefine and reshape our future. Our University is exploring greater flexibility and innovation within academic programs to break through historic boundaries that once served to limit possibility and imagination. You are no longer constrained to being "only a nurse," or "only an engineer." Future success will require more agility from you. It will stretch you, and we are prepared for that challenge. Our goal is to remove the barriers; to tear down any silos or obstacles so you can run unencumbered and reach your full potential.

Students, we want you to pursue your passions wholeheartedly, push yourselves to go farther and discover what drives you. You are only limited by your own will to succeed. I believe -- and look forward to the day -- I will see each of you proudly accept your degree and walk across the Commencement stage.

To our faculty and staff, thank you for your continued dedication to our collective work. We will push hard to invest in the people, places, ideas and technology that enable you to pursue your passion for excellence in higher education.

Here’s to an outstanding year of discovery and growth for us all.

With determination for a vigorous year ahead,

Tim Cost
President
Jacksonville University
Class of 1981