Catching up with Cody: A New Energy

Dear Colleagues,

“Whatever you are doing, that which makes you feel the most alive...that is where God is.” – St. Ignatius of Loyola

The hustle and bustle of students back on campus has infused a new energy with the traditional academic year now upon us. During the Town Hall last week, we discussed several issues on how we can come together to improve the Regis experience as a whole. It was joyful to see not only the faces of our first year students but also their proud parents. Consider this lifelong memory and milestone in their lives – special for sure. I would be remiss if I did not also provide a “shout out” of appreciation to our hundreds of faculty, staff and athletes who supported our Regis wide weekend event.

How we came together is just one example of how we bring our Regis Mission to life. Our community demonstrated Cura Personalis in our actions by Day 1, building relationships with students. We recognize that many students who are new or returning have been challenged like many of us, going through school during a pandemic. Some of their formative years were stripped away. With this new academic year ahead of us, we have the opportunity to create a sense of normalcy once again. This also means finding additional ways to better connect with students and making sure they are having a remarkable experience while here at Regis.

Another key element of student success is to continually improve retention. The survey data that Dr. Riley and Dr. Wilcots shared, outline key information around why students leave Regis and their need of belonging. We must break down silos and work collectively to forge stronger relationships with each other and especially with our students. They are the heart of the university. Whether they are students commuting, living on campus or virtual, our commitment and resolve to them must remain a top priority. We must remember that it is because students and their parents choose Regis that we all earn a paycheck. Longer term we can work to minimize tuition dependency. Yet today, in our current reality, we have the honor of working at Regis because students choose us over other possibilities. We are truly thankful for this. While we may take it for granted, look for opportunities to speak with students when you see them in hallways, answer those calls and emails when they reach out and help them find the person / service they are seeking. We must strive to find ways to help bridge that gap of belonging.

As we all continue working to improve the student experience, we are thrilled to launch MyRegis, a new portal that centralizes where students can find their class schedule, check email, find their advisors, look for information about billing and a number of other items. Rather than logging into separate sites, we wanted to make this process easier, more efficient, and student centric.  For most students, MyRegis will allow them to log into the main page and access all of the necessary information through the portal. As the university dove into this work, the cross functional team was given a five-month runway to ensure we were ready for the kickoff of the fall semester. I am grateful to Judy Lukjan and the team that led the efforts to implement and test MyRegis in time for students to use this year. And ... we’re not done yet. You can look for additional upgrades and enhancements through the remainder of 2022. 

As we look to the year ahead, let’s remember to take the time to get to know our students and continue to find ways to make sure each of us is helping them feel like they belong to this wonderful community, Regis University.