President's Messages

Tigers often refer to themselves as lifelong learners—but did you know that the University itself has been learning for a lifetime, too? Beginning with its first class of teachers-in-training and leading to today’s students and alumni who use hands-on opportunities to solve real-world challenges, Trinity’s foundation is built on the concept of experiential learning.

August wraps up our video series exploring Trinity's values through conversations across campus, and my discussion with Experiential Learning director Jacob Tingle ’95 and biology professor Michele Johnson came at the perfect time. Together, we explored our values of discovery and impact, or “perpetual discovery”: the continuous desire to seek and create new knowledge, learn from it, and start the process all over again.

Thank you for continuing the journey with me as we explore Trinity’s values through conversations across campus. This month, I had a conversation with Alli Roman, director for Trinity’s Diversity and Inclusion Office, about our values of the individual and community. In a breath, we call this “intentional inclusion.”

I am proud to share this journey with you as we explore together Trinity’s mission and values through conversations around campus. This month, I talk with four members of the University community about Trinity’s values of excellence and impact. In a breath, we call this “enduring excellence.”

This Saturday is Founders' Day, a day that honors the pioneering spirit of a group of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers who sought to establish "a University of the highest order." On April 20, 1869, they selected Tehuacana, Texas, as the site of a school that would train students in body, mind, and spirit: Trinity University.

The spring semester is in full swing, and the energy on campus is palpable. On Feb. 1, Trinity kicked off its 150th anniversary with a day of service and celebration. It was remarkable to see hundreds of members of the great Trinity community come together in celebration and fellowship.

Most of us welcome January as a time of new beginnings, as an opportunity to resolve to live, think, or behave differently. Winter—even in Texas—reinforces our sense that we can be stripped to our bare branches, only to bloom anew. It is an act of supreme optimism, this belief that a fresh start lies just ahead. As a new semester begins, I hope each of us will embrace this renewed sense of the possible. What will you do to make this year and this semester better than the last?

I am excited to welcome you to 2019 and the beginning of Trinity University's 150th anniversary. This year promises to be a time of celebration and reflection for the many accomplishments and momentous occasions that have defined our past.

This year, campus will be transformed with signage designed to take you through Trinity's 150-year history. And, we will share special events and memories chronicling our University's rich culture and enterprising faculty, staff, and alumni, that are now synonymous as one of the nation's premier universities.