01/11/2022
By Jacquie Moloney

We’re about a week away from the start of the semester and I wanted to welcome you back to campus and share with you some of the reasons I am hopeful that we’re headed for a successful spring semester.

Our fall semester demonstrated our ability to advance the teaching and research missions of UMass Lowell in the face of unique challenges, and I believe we will do so again.

Our students have shown their commitment to learning in the classroom, the lab, in student clubs and alongside professionals in the workplace. And, as our community gathered together safely last semester, it was a joy to hear our Chamber Singers serenade a gathering of alumni outdoors during the holiday season.

Our faculty have continued to create and advance new scholarship and pass that knowledge to our students preparing for their future.

And our staff have — repeatedly — taken challenging situations and found solutions to ensure this university’s core mission can continue.

And this news is getting out. In the face of a difficult enrollment climate in New England and nationally, our admissions numbers thus far are looking strong for fall, showing an ongoing interest by prospective students and families to pursue an education at UMass Lowell.

We have shown that by working together and following our protocols based on CDC and Massachusetts Department of Public Health guidance, we will continue the progress we made last semester. Through vaccinations and booster shots, maintaining our use of face coverings while indoors, staying home if ill and the entire campus conducting daily symptom self-checks to determine if they should come to campus, I remain hopeful that UMass Lowell will continue to keep our numbers manageable. Though it appears that the Omicron variant remains a more contagious, but less virulent strain for those vaccinated, as case counts rise across the region, we all need to do our part.

Please continue to regularly visit our COVID-19 website, as the university will continue to monitor and adjust its public health procedures as state and federal agencies adjust their guidance.

I admire your strength and resilience as a community and your determination to face the challenges together as we search for normalcy during a time that offers little of it. I recognize and appreciate that you are all doing your best to support those around you, and we are stronger for it. Our commitment to move our mission forward is steadfast and I thank you for your service to each other and to this university.