Happy New Year, Buckeyes.
I hope you had a restful winter break and that your 2026 is off to a great start. I'm so excited to welcome you back to our campus for what I know will be an amazing spring semester.
Ohio State is a special place because of our people. The thing that makes me especially proud to be a Buckeye is that all of us, whether students, faculty, or staff, have chosen to be part of this great community.
We've seen that in this time of significant change for higher education, Ohio State is the university that's redefining what it means to create opportunity for a better future, and we've made a choice to be part of it.
As Buckeyes, we believe in writing our own story. We believe in the transformative power of higher education because we see it come to life every day in the students we serve, the patients we care for, the Ohioans in all 88 counties whose lives are improved through our work.
I can tell 2026 is going to be quite the chapter. We've already admitted more than 10,000 future Buckeyes into our next incoming class, including 184 with a perfect ACT or SAT score, our very first cohort of President's Ohio Scholarship recipients.
On campus, students have access to reimagined spaces like the new Al and Linda Vrable Student Learning Center, 22,000 square feet of enhanced classroom and engagement space at the College of Pharmacy.
We're attracting and retaining the world's best faculty, including hundreds of scholars with expertise in artificial intelligence, who will help us prepare the workforce of the future.
Later today, we'll cut the ribbon on the new University Hospital, the largest single facilities project in our history, where every detail has been designed to provide world-class care for every patient.
There are so many more achievements yet to be written. The best part is we're doing it together. This kind of success wouldn't be possible without the shared commitment of so many people who believe in Ohio State's mission and are ready to seize the opportunity to take our excellence to the next level.
Thank you for all you do for Ohio State.
Let's have a great year and as always, Go Bucks!