I’d again like to express our gratitude to Chancellor Laurence Alexander and his team for hosting us today.

I’d also like to again congratulate him on U of M Flint achieving an increase in fall enrollment for the second year in a row.

Coupled to our gains at U of M Dearborn and increases in Ann Arbor, nearly 53,000 students are now attending the University of Michigan. That makes us the largest and most sought-after public research institution in the state.

I’m also pleased to report that last week, in the prestigious Times Higher Education World Rankings, we moved up a spot, and are #22 in the world today.

Two weeks ago, we announced our Campus Plan 2050, which will animate the impact areas of our Vision 2034, modernizing our facilities and developing new ones, even as it empowers us to connect and collaborate more deeply.

At the same time, here at U of M Flint, the new Innovation and Technology Complex is beginning to take shape and rise.

U of M Flint broke ground on the CIT this past June, and it will be built in two phases, eventually becoming a place that prepares and educates students in high-demand fields with outstanding opportunities such as cybersecurity and clean energy, artificial intelligence and smart manufacturing.

The university is also continuing to grow in other ways, ranging from expanding an assault survivor care program in rural Michigan to strengthening K-5 math education to advancing efforts in conservation.

Here as well as in Dearborn and Ann Arbor, we are lifting, reaching and achieving.

To briefly mention a few other highlights, we recently received a nearly $7M grant from NIH to establish a health equity hub to reverse health disparities.

We are leading a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional effort to harness the power of wave energy. And we developed a versatile knee exo which is safer to use and better at countering fatigue.

Today, we have great strengths as an institution in the biomedical sciences, and a growing impact in innovation and technology-driven economic development.

Now, we are seeking to galvanize and accelerate our efforts. As part of our Vision 2034 and Campus Plan 2050, we are actively engaging in discussions around developing an innovation district and expanding our research enterprise.

We have also evaluated, and are in the midst of developing plans to launch a new bioinnovation institute on the North Campus. The institute will synergize with existing academic departments and build upon our world-class capabilities to shape the future of medicine.

We hope that this will accelerate the translation of discoveries from the bench to the bedside as articulated in our Vision 2034.

I’m so proud of all that we are doing together as a university.

And I’m especially proud of the achievements of our 45 Olympic and Paralympic athletes. We have a storied history in gymnastics at U of M, and this year, two of our athletes – Paul Juda and Fred Richard – were part of the historic bronze-winning men’s gymnastics team.

Fred was also recently named to Time’s 100 Next list, of 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future of science, health, sports and more.

So congratulations again to Fred, and to all of our highly achieving student athletes.