With the start of 2021 and a new semester, I have a renewed hope for Mizzou’s future. There are so many excellent things happening at our university. As President, I have the unique opportunity to see and experience so much of this excellence, and hear the remarkable stories of our students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members.

I started this blog to bring these insights into the spotlight. I’ll create new posts a couple of times each week as I underscore the individual passion and principles that create the collective impact Mizzou makes on the world. We need this impact more than ever now. Professor David Rose at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a friend and colleague, recently published an op-ed to explore two core ideals that are of particular importance these days. Individualism and empathy are essential components that have served the American democratic experiment so well. Universities have an important role in providing the rigorous education to our students that explores and supports these principles.

I see this role playing out every day in our classrooms and across our campus. I’ll continue to explore these ideas and much more in future blogs.

With great respect and admiration — and of course, M-I-Z!

— Mun