Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Message from the President

Dear Campus Community,

As we have been dealing with the task of realigning our budget at the University of New Orleans, just about everyone on campus has probably been asked by at least one friend, neighbor, or community member, "How Can I Help?" Indeed, our own Pierre Champagne--who lives, breathes (and probably bleeds) silver and blue--was featured on the front page of the Sunday, March 9th edition of The Times-Picayune--asking just that, and declaring, "All hands on deck, Privateers!"

Yet the task of aligning volunteers with the myriad tasks that could be completed can be quite daunting. Recently I sat down with Pierre and his wife Cheryl, Dr. Dennis McSeveney, Skip Miller, and Richard Foran, to discuss how we might create better infrastructure for deploying volunteers across a range of areas. As a result, we now have a public "How Can I Help?" MS Teams site that will support coordination of volunteers, and I am so grateful to Pierre, Cheryl, Dennis, and Skip for their creative energy and enthusiastic support.

Here's where you come in. We need to begin to put together an array of tasks that could be supported by a small army of volunteers. From weeding flower beds to greeting students and their family members as they visit campus – no job is too small or insignificant. Please complete this "I Need Help" form - https://forms.office.com/r/AvD2nHNr9W, which Richard Foran will be monitoring regularly to help match our volunteers to specific needs.

And if you have a friend or family member that is anxious to help - here is the link to the "How Can I Help?" volunteer application - https://forms.office.com/r/zHT3igtsgV. I look forward to beginning a tradition of an annual reception to help celebrate and recognize the volunteers that support the University of New Orleans in so many ways.

Thank you to all the Privateers that lent their hands on deck thus far; you have provided us with light and hope throughout a very difficult period in our university's history.

With UNO Pride,

Kathy Johnson, Ph.D.
President
The University of New Orleans