Good morning. Thank you, Dean Galván.
I also want to thank our esteemed community members who spoke before me — Naomi Hammonds, Megan McEvoy and Michael McCormack-Colón. Each of you reflects the excellence and spirit of UCLA, and we are grateful for your voices.
I am delighted to welcome our faculty, staff, students, alumni and community partners. Your presence speaks to the extraordinary breadth and strength of the UCLA community.
We are honored to be joined by Jenny Kao, vice president and chief of staff to UC President James Milliken.
I also want to acknowledge my partner, Dr. Felicia Knaul.
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Before moving to the substantive portion of my address, I would like to begin a new tradition. I plan to deliver a State of the Campus every year, and with each, I would like to celebrate a milestone in UCLA’s history.
Just three days ago, UCLA turned 107 years old.
A century ago, in 1926, UCLA was not yet in Westwood. The campus we know today existed only in vision and in planning. It lived first in imagination — in the conviction that a great public university could take root here and serve generations to come.
That same year, Founders’ Rock was placed at what would become our Westwood campus. It marked a future that still had to be built, yet was already believed in. It stood as a promise — one that would be realized through public investment, collective effort and an unwavering commitment to education, discovery and service.
What those early Bruins imagined — and began to build — became one of the great public universities in the world.
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When we gathered for my inauguration nearly one year ago, I spoke about three aspirations that define UCLA at its best: to be connective, impactful and exemplary.
The past year has been marked by an unprecedented mix of pressure and promise. In navigating these uncharted waters, we have made meaningful progress, and — even more importantly — we have clarified how we move forward together.
To that end, we have refreshed our strategic plan through the lens of a collective vision: One UCLA. This direction is brought to life through four flagship initiatives: UCLA Connects, UCLA Research and Innovation Blueprint, UCLA for Life, and Effective UCLA. Together, these efforts align our strengths and position us to meet this moment with clarity and ambition.
The renewed strategy guides our shared journey in pursuit of each of our three aspirations. Today, I would like to reflect on how those aspirations have guided us — and where they can take us next.
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First, the connective university. To be connective is to bring people together — across communities, disciplines, geographies and generations.
Throughout UCLA, we are strengthening the ties that bind us to one another. We are creating spaces where students, faculty and staff engage across roles and perspectives. These connections are essential to a university whose strength lies in the exchange of ideas.
One of the most dynamic expressions of this work has been our Campus Community Conversations, announced at my inauguration. These gatherings have created a forum where difficult questions are engaged and embraced — where dialogue becomes a pathway to understanding and where trust is built through respectful exchange of diverse viewpoints.
The Common Experience also continues to bring students together through a shared intellectual journey that connects academic and residential life. Each year, students, faculty, staff and alumni select a book, film or other work for the Bruin community to engage with together. This creates opportunities for reflection, discussion and discovery that extend beyond the classroom.
And this year, through Hope Connects Us, we convened a campuswide summit focused on student mental health, bringing together students, faculty, clinicians and national leaders to advance a conversation that is both urgent and compassionate. It puts students first.
We are now building on these efforts through the UCLA Connects Council, a new coordinating body designed to align and elevate this work across the university. The council will strengthen belonging, expand dialogue and connect our academic mission to the broader world. It will position UCLA as a model for how a university can bridge differences and contribute to a more connected society.
That commitment extends beyond our campus. At the Community Partnership Summit in March, we convened leaders from across Los Angeles to deepen UCLA’s role as an anchor institution — one that listens, collaborates and works in partnership to address common challenges.
In classrooms, laboratories, and on our playing fields, we continue to come together as one Bruin community. This year has brought breathtaking moments of shared pride. Undergraduate Alysa Liu won two Olympic gold medals. Men’s water polo and beach volleyball won national titles, as did our women’s basketball team in a gritty, glorious run. After their historic victory, I took great pleasure in telling everyone that UCLA also stands for the University of Champions, Los Angeles.
Today, we are joined by the leader of that team. Coach Cori Close, I would like to ask you to please stand and be recognized.
Connection brings us together. It creates the conditions for something larger.
That something is impact.
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To be an impactful university — our second aspiration — is to ensure that what we do matters, beyond our campus and beyond this moment.
Earlier this year, we marked the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles wildfires with a Moment of Reflection on the steps of Schoenberg Hall, where the voices of our music students reminded us that even in times of loss, Bruins find ways to come together. At the same time, our faculty and researchers have been deeply engaged in recovery efforts, helping communities rebuild and developing strategies to mitigate future risk.
At the core of positive impact is research. Through the UCLA Research and Innovation Blueprint, we are strengthening our ability to generate knowledge and translate it into solutions. We are expanding industry partnerships and advancing entrepreneurship. We are ensuring that discoveries made on this campus improve and save lives. This strengthens our economy and security, because research powers progress.
We are building on a long tradition of excellence. In 2025, the University of California experienced a remarkable milestone, with five Nobel Prizes awarded to its faculty and alumni in a single week — the most ever for one institution anywhere in the world. That historic moment included Fred Ramsdell, whose achievement brought the total number of Nobel laureates affiliated with UCLA to eighteen, including Andrea Ghez of our Department of Physics and Astronomy.
I would like to ask Andrea Ghez to please stand and be recognized.
Excellence continues to define UCLA. We remain the most applied-to university in the nation. Our faculty continue to be elected to national academies, reflecting their leadership and distinction at the highest levels of their fields. And last month, five faculty from across the arts, humanities, law and sciences were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.
Impact also takes the form of creativity and artistic expression — essential dimensions of how we understand and shape the world around us.
Our commitment to excellence must also extend to the way we operate. Through the Effective UCLA initiative, we are strengthening our ability to deliver on our mission with responsibility and purpose.
None of this work happens alone. Philanthropy reflects confidence in our mission, trust in our institution and a shared commitment to the future we are building.
Last year, our fundraising reached a total sum of $775.4 million.
Among others, we are deeply grateful for the transformational $100 million gift from Stewart and Lynda Resnick. Their support will expand access to mental and behavioral health care, advance research into the causes and treatment of mental illness and support the development of a new UCLA neuropsychiatric hospital to address unmet needs in a field that many commercial providers have neglected or abandoned.
And just last week, we announced a game-changing gift from Henry Samueli and partners to support the launch of a Semiconductor Hub at our Samueli School of Engineering, positioning UCLA at the forefront of innovation in a field critical to the economy and national security.
At UCLA, our impact extends across the full arc of life. Today, we are joined by one of the most senior members of our graduating class, Mayu Sasame, and one of the youngest, August Maturo. Both have excelled inside and outside the classroom, and will earn their degrees in just over two weeks. I would like to ask them to please stand and be recognized.
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While we continue to move forward with focus and determination, this is also a time of significant challenge for higher education.
Like many universities across the country, UCLA is facing serious financial headwinds. A perfect storm of financial pressures is driven by the combination of curtailed state funding levels, rising operating costs that outpace revenue, and an unprecedented attack on higher education. This perilous mix is further compounded by a climate of political polarization, which deepens the erosion of trust in universities.
In this climate, we have been subject to scrutiny from external actors who question different aspects of the way we conduct our academic work. While we always welcome constructive criticism, I want to be very clear: At UCLA, we stand behind our faculty.
We must be clear-eyed about the gravity of this moment and about the difficult decisions that lie ahead. At the same time, we cannot allow immediate pressures to narrow our sense of purpose or distract from the long-range work required to sustain UCLA’s mission.
In this complex environment, our response must be strategic and thoughtful. Our North Star will be to ensure that the resources entrusted to us by society add maximum value back to society, while always protecting our academic core mission.
Unprecedented challenges demand bold ways of thinking and acting. Today, I am announcing a series of concrete steps to strengthen our financial position.
First, we are moving firmly to improve efficiency, starting with my own team. My office is consolidating key administrative functions to sharpen execution and reduce overhead. Two vice chancellor roles — finance and administration — will now be merged into a single position reporting to me. In addition to the savings it will generate, this consolidation strengthens our ability to connect strategy with operations and ensures that decisions move forward with focus and discipline.
Second, the unprecedented disruption of intercollegiate athletics demands decisive actions. We are taking an important step in that direction. Four years ago, UCLA resolved a legal dispute with Under Armour and invested $50 million from the settlement into a Regental fund. I have decided to use the bond funds to pay down the majority of the Athletics deficit. By reducing this financial burden, we will be in a stronger position to move toward sustainability through new revenue generation and cost-containment strategies. The motivation driving our search for bold and innovative solutions will be to ensure that, far from being a drag on our academic mission, athletics continues its crucial contribution toward expanding access to higher education, enriching student experience, building community within and beyond our campus, and offering a platform to showcase values we hold dear, such as fair competition, team work and service-oriented leadership.
Third, we are currently undertaking a comprehensive review of UCLA’s entire real estate portfolio to make sure that our holdings are strategically aligned with the university’s core academic mission. This review includes evaluating the long-term purpose and financial performance of university-owned properties, as well as opportunities for disposition, redevelopment, and alternative uses. Our objective is not to operate as a real estate enterprise, but rather to steward university assets to maximize our mission’s impact, strengthen our financial sustainability, and enable us to focus our resources on UCLA’s highest aspirations.
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All the aforementioned actions reflect a clear strategy — one that aligns our resources with our mission and positions UCLA to continue to serve as an exemplary institution — the third of our aspirations. To be exemplary is to lead — not only in what we achieve, but in how we conduct ourselves.
Shortly after my arrival at UCLA, I announced the Initiative to Combat Antisemitism. This standing effort is focused on addressing all forms of hatred and bigotry across our campus.
Earlier this month, an action group released a report outlining the path ahead, focused on three main areas: education, reporting and enforcement.
But even before its release, we replaced good intentions with specific actions. We recruited an associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety. We reorganized our Civil Rights Office. We appointed a Title VI officer. And we strengthened our policies to protect both free expression and the safety of every member of our community, while enhancing disciplinary processes for those who violate laws and policies.
Combating antisemitism and all other forms of hatred is a moral imperative — one rooted, for me, in personal history that makes indifference unthinkable.
We are defining, together, the values that guide us. Over the past two years, thousands of members of our community have helped refresh UCLA’s True Bruin Values. Through surveys, conversations and campuswide engagement — including our final Campus Community Conversation earlier this month — we have worked to ensure that these values reflect who we are and who we aspire to be.
Those values are Integrity, Excellence and Belonging.
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Nearly one year ago, following a listening exercise that took me to every corner of our campus, and brought together more than 8,600 Bruin voices, I articulated our collective vision for UCLA. Today we are advancing that vision with your active involvement.
UCLA creates knowledge. It serves society. And it brings people together in pursuit of something larger than themselves.
We are a connective university. An impactful university. An exemplary university.
As I mentioned at my inauguration, the unprecedented challenges and opportunities we are facing demand that we embrace a spirit of boldness — one rooted in the legacy of devotion and talent of those who have come before us to build this great institution. That spirit calls on each of us to think in new ways, to act with purpose and to move forward with conviction.
The work ahead will require dedication, resilience and a shared sense of purpose.
Let us continue to build together a university worthy of the public trust we must strive to earn every single day.
For our students.
For our communities.
And for the generations of Bruins yet to come.
We are bold.
We are purposeful.
And we are One UCLA.