President Ono:
Hello, students, friends, staff and faculty. I’m so excited that we’ve joined together for the start of a new academic year. I’m so excited to be with you. There’s such a sense of purpose, of energy, of possibility in the air. It’s a season of new beginnings for each of us.

Whether you are returning as a student or a first year member of our faculty, it is a time to learn and to grow, to dream and to do, to aspire and to achieve. We welcome you. Welcome to our university. Welcome to our community. Welcome to our family. A bright year awaits. Brilliant days filled with shining moments and shared memories. Yet it is also a moment of profound responsibility to ourselves, to one another, to our university. Together we are embarking upon the year of democracy, civic empowerment, and global engagement. It’s a year in which we will listen thoughtfully, deliberate respectfully, and engage constructively and creatively.

Together becoming more exemplary citizens, changing lives, and shaping the future of our nation and world. For in this time of growing polarization and faltering faith in the foundations of our democracy, here at Michigan, we can rise, we can lead, and we can show a better way. So let us do so. Let us listen, learn and lead with excellence, honor and integrity. Let us treat each person we meet with respect and dignity. Let us hold true to our acclaimed traditions at this exceptional university. That brings us to this month’s Portrait of a Wolverine – Laura Blake Jones, our Associate Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students.

Laura Blake Jones:
Thank you, President Ono. I’m so honored to have been selected to be highlighted in this month’s Portrait of a Wolverine. End even more honored to serve as AVP and Dean of Students at the University of Michigan for the past 16 years. At Michigan, we have an incredible depth and breadth of support available to our students as well as an exceptionally caring faculty and staff. We are here for anything a student might need. The teams I work with provide services that remove obstacles that could stand in the way of our students achieving their full potential. These services range from Campus Climate Support to Beyond the Diag and our Parent and Family Engagement Program in the Dean of Students office. My role also works alongside leaders in Student Legal Services, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, and Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services, and includes building community and supporting self-governance and fraternity and sorority life, and the efforts of our national championship winning U-M Debate Program. It’s an interconnected web of support for U-M students that I’ve helped to create. But even more important than the programs we provide are the lives of students and their parents and families who we hope to uplift, inspire, and transform. As a first generation college student myself, I’m a testament to the transformative power of education.

When I was first inspired to become an RA, to be able to help afford to attend college, I had no idea that it would provide the foundation for a life changing journey and career of service and education. Our Michigan students are amazing. They’re truly the reason I’m motivated to come to campus each day and do my part to work to ensure their success. There’s a saying, that if you love what you’re doing, are inspired each day by the transformative nature of your work and understand the hope it provides for the future, that you will never work a day in your life. Walking alongside our extraordinary Michigan students every day in their journeys as they grow and develop as leaders, challenging the present and preparing to change and enrich the future is a great joy, privilege and inspiration.

Quite simply, I have one of the best jobs a person could have. I have to end by highlighting that the team of committed student affairs professionals I work alongside every day and help inspire to be leaders at their best are the unsung heroes at Michigan. Their tireless dedication to serving our students in the achievement of their goals is what makes the Michigan experience unparalleled. Each of them could easily be highlighted here today, and I’m blessed to work alongside them as well. Thank you for this opportunity to share what I love about my work at Michigan. I wish everyone the best as they begin the fall term. Please remember to take good care of yourself and others and engage with the resources that are here to support you at Michigan. And of course, Go Blue.

President Ono:
Laura, thank you and your entire team for all that you do, for the support you offer and the opportunities that you provide. It is thanks to you that we aspire, we will grow, we will achieve. The fall awaits full of Maize and Blue possibilities. So let’s join together. Let’s dare and let’s dream. Thanks again and welcome home to Michigan.