I also want to highlight some examples of the ongoing work that we have accomplished this past year (Phase II) that I did not get to fully address in remarks. During this time, we have:

1. hired and onboarded 30 staff since July 1, 2022.
2. filled important leadership roles in areas such as GT1000/2000; Retention and Completion Initiatives; Strategic Initiatives and Operations; Academic Success and Advising; Undergraduate Research; Assessment; Tutoring and Peer Learning; and more (since January 2023).
3. implemented and nearly completed staffing our strategic initiatives and operations team, which includes central support for administrative operations, communication/marketing, and data/analytics/assessment. (That said: I heard loud and clear that our HR/finance/and administrative staffing and operations are important areas of priority)!
4. completed the Career Center/Graduate Career Services study that was led by GTSC. Of importance to OUE is defining focused leadership for Undergraduate Career Education and aligning Career Center operations with a formal dual report to OUE administrative operations team.
5. strengthened OUE’s capacity to provide leadership for broader undergraduate curricular and policy matters, through a full time AVPUE (Dr. Roberta Berry) dedicated to these matters and a new Director of Undergraduate Curricular Initiatives faculty position that will soon be posted to focus on general education and related matters. 
6. institutionalized our last QEP, Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS). A newly established faculty position of Director of Community-Based Learning (CBL) will work to advance academic service learning in the undergraduate curriculum.
7. established a re-branded “Office of Experiential and Engaged Learning” (“E2L”) to provide leadership for high-impact practices and advance goals around transformative teaching and learning. This unit shares leadership of the undergraduate coop and internship program with the Career Center.
8. begun preparing to integrate our next (2025) QEP, Leadership in Progress and Service into OUE, under the leadership of the AVPUE.
9. expanded technology-focused solutions to innovate and scale the delivery of student services, including MentorCollective for first-generation and now transfer student mentoring and Knack for peer tutoring; we are working with OIT, Enrollment Management, and others to explore adopting a new advising technology platform.
10. done so much more—too many great things to note here thanks to the collective work of all of you! 

In closing, I want to reiterate my gratitude to all of you for the work you are doing and the constructive and valued contributions you have made yesterday (and will continue to make) in this work.

I also want to give another “shout out” to Jo Beth Cup, Lacy Hodges, Cory Hopkins (and their teams), as well as Martha Greenway from Greenway Strategy Group (and her team) for the great work facilitating this process. 

Please don't hesitate to reach out to any of them or me if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for how you would like to be engaged in this process. I would love to hear from you directly.

Warmly,

Steven