Supporting you in advancing Kentucky

Dear Colleagues,

As faculty teaching in classrooms and leading in your laboratories and research spaces, you have a unique position guiding our students to be able to achieve their goals. 

Last academic year, 11,228 degrees and certificates were earned by our students, as a direct result of your efforts to educate and prepare them for future careers. This represents a 14.8% increase from the previous academic year.

Our six-year graduation rate has reached 73.4%, placing us among only 92 public, four-year institutions with a six-year graduation rate of at least 73.4%.

These are historic achievements, and we are continuing to make tremendous progress in serving our students as educators and mentors. But none of these milestones would be attainable without what you do — both inside and outside the classroom.

To support you in this vital work you perform, I encourage you to explore the wide array of resources and services that UK provides for our faculty and instructors to develop as professionals while simultaneously taking care of your own well-being. 

• Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) — Provides resources and hands-on learning opportunities for faculty and instructors to acquire new skills as well as more deeply nurture their craft in the classroom and beyond.
• Office for Faculty Advancement — Supports faculty through all stages of their careers, whether new faculty learning the promotion and tenure process or experienced faculty seeking new avenues to deepen their research efforts through collaboration and partnership.
• UK Human Resources Work-life and Well-being — Aids UK employees in caring for their own well-being to support healthy and well-balanced lives. Take advantage of personalized, one-on-one support or other resources to ensure you can bring your best each day. 

I also encourage each of you to help provide the support and resources to our students to help them succeed and achieve their goals. The Office for Student Success provides services like academic tutoring, involvement advising and integrated success coaching to ensure they can become healthy, well-rounded and successful individuals. Find ways to connect your students to resources here: https://studentsuccess.uky.edu/get-help.

In order for us to continue serving our Commonwealth, we must make sure that we are caring for each other, as well. Thank you for creating this community of caring at UK.

Robert DiPaola

Provost