Dear Colleagues,
Once again, I find myself amazed at how quickly another academic year has passed. But now, even as a new academic year quickly approaches, I have been able to reflect a bit on all that we accomplished together in the past year.
And what a great year we had!
The 2016-17 academic year was filled with memorable moments and milestones that made a positive difference in the lives of our students and which will strengthen the university for years to come.
From an exhilarating football national championship run to the completion of our record-setting “Will to Lead” capital campaign; from the exceptional success of our students, including a record number who earned national recognition for their work, to the research efforts of our outstanding faculty that led to Clemson being named an R1 “highest research activity” university by the Carnegie Classification – and much more – 2016-2017 truly was a year for the record books at Clemson.
The hard work of everyone associated with the university continues to gain national attention. As you may know, Clemson ranked among the top 25 public universities in the country for the ninth consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report and we have renewed our focus on cracking the top 20 as we continue to be guided by our ClemsonForward strategic plan. Similarly, Clemson was ranked 12th by Money magazine in 2016 for value returned to students.
These accolades are among the many types of recognition Clemson continues to receive for its academic quality, great student experience, and sound financial and operational management, but honors alone don’t nearly tell the entire Clemson story.
In fact, the latest chapter of that story, now in its 128th year, contained so many notable events and accomplishments that we built a web site to capture and share as many of them as possible.
Our new “Moments that Matter” site contains videos, stories and facts about the 2016-17 academic year that will make any member of the Clemson Family proud, and I encourage you to visit the site: https://www.clemson.edu/administration/president/highlights.
You may also view a highlight reel in this brief video: https://youtu.be/KxNa6Mx78JQ
We are a championship university in so many ways, and that is because of each and every one of you. Thank you again for all that you do to keep Clemson strong. I am proud to call each of you my teammates.
I hope you have a wonderful summer and find time to recharge for what I am sure will be another exciting year starting in the fall.
Go Tigers!!!
Sincerely,
Jim Clements
