 I welcome you all to our fall campus assembly. It is certainly a special day for many, many reasons, but not only are we recognizing and celebrating the achievements of our award recipients, it's just great to be back together, to be back together in person so that we can visit with one another, but also to congratulate again our folks who we wanna recognize today and to do that in person. So I'm very, very thankful for that and I wanna thank each of you for joining us this afternoon on what I think is one of the most important things that we do at the University of Alabama and that is to recognize our people who make a difference every day for our students, for our colleagues, and you all are that group. So today's assembly is an opportunity, it's even getting louder, it's an opportunity to commend you, our faculty and staff for all that you have done, the dedications that you've provided again to the university and to our students over the past year, the awards that we're going to be providing today, I think our recognition to the resiliency and the dedication that you have for this campus, for the mission that our campus undertakes every day and every year, and that is to educate and to work with our students so that they have great careers and great futures that we are all so intent on providing here at the University of Alabama. So to begin our program I do want to welcome Dr. Jim Dalton who's our Executive Vice President and Provost here at the University of Alabama and he's going to introduce some of our special guests from the National Alumni Association. So with that I'll turn it over to Dr. Dalton and then I'll be back a little bit later in the program. Thank you Dr. Ballots, it's an honor to be here today to commemorate our award winners. Joining us in our celebration are Mandy Wyatt, President of the National Alumni Association from Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Denise Woods, Vice President of the National Alumni Association from Tuscumbia, Alabama. And Mr. Calvin Brown, Director of Alumni Affairs and Associate Vice President for University of Atlanta. Thank you all for your ongoing contributions to the university and all you do to promote a spirit of community of excellence among our many alumni, friends, students, parents. I appreciate you being here today to help us honor our esteemed faculty and staff. Now I'd like to invite Dr. Woods to the podium to present the University of Alabama's Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Awards, Dr. Woods. On behalf of nearly 200,000 alumni and friends of the University of Alabama, please join me today in recognizing, thanking and congratulating our 2021 Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award recipients. These awards are presented each year by the University of Alabama National Alumni Association based on the faculty member's commitment to teaching and the impact they have on students. This year, a number of highly qualified educators were nominated. These finalists were selected not only for their commitment to teaching but also for their hard work, dedication and overall interest in the success of their students. Each recipient will be presented with a commemorative plaque and a stipend. Today, I am proud to present our 2021 recipients of the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award. Dr. Natalie Adams, New College and College of Education. Dr. Adams is a professor in the New College and the College of Education and focuses on social inequalities, particularly in education. She has worked diligently to integrate her research and teaching and to disseminate her scholarship to a wide diverse audience. Adams earned her bachelor's degree in English Education at Louisiana State University in 1984. Her master's degree in Gifted Education in 1988 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Louisiana State University in 1994. Adams joined the UA faculty in 2000. Dr. Natalie Adams. Dr. Luke Brewer, College of Engineering. Dr. Brewer is an associate professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. As an accomplished researcher, Brewer has conducted 34 external research projects and leads development for new experimental capabilities and laboratories in the college. Brewer earned his two bachelor's degrees in Material Science and Engineering and Applied Mathematics as well as his PhD in Material Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. Brewer joined the UA faculty in 2015. Dr. Luke Brewer. Dr. Lawrence Capello, College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Capello is unable to be here today because he is attending a mandatory NEH Grant Award Committee meeting. Dr. Capello is an assistant professor of U.S. Legal and Constitutional History and Director of the History Department's Legal History Concentration, which he helped start in 2020 to give UA undergraduates a competitive edge when applying to elite law schools and policy-oriented graduate programs. Capello earned his bachelor's degree in History, English and American Studies from the City University of New York, Queens College and his PhD in History from CUNY Graduate Center and holds professional accreditations from the International Association of Privacy Professionals in U.S. Privacy Law and Privacy Program Management. Capello joined the UA faculty in 2018. Dr. Lawrence Capello. Dr. Catherine Chu, College of Arts and Science. Dr. Chu is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology where she oversees the Ancient People and Plants Laboratory. Her research focuses primarily on prehistoric food ways and cuisines, the role of plants in ancient life ways and the domestication of the chili pepper in the Americas. Chu completed her bachelor's degree in Anthropology from New York University and her master's degree and PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Chu joined the UA faculty in 2017. Dr. Catherine Chu, congratulations to all the recipients. Thank you, Dr. Woods and congratulations to our four faculty recipients for all you do every day to serve our students. Now I would like to welcome to the stage Dr. Jennifer Humber, adjunct instructor and the director of student services for the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Dr. Humber is responsible for providing direction and leadership to the College of Human Environmental Sciences. She directs student service initiatives, including advising, retention, recruitment, orientation, freshman year experience and student organizations. Dr. Humber will be presenting the Outstanding Commitment to Advising Awards. Good afternoon, it is my pleasure to stand here and in front of you as a representation and on behalf of the UA AAA organization on campus is the university's organization for academic advisors across campus and we really work together to serve faculty members, administrators, counselors, academic advisors, graduate students and others in academic and in student affairs, those that are concerned with the intellectual, personal and vocational growth of all of our students. Each spring semester, organization offers the opportunity to students to nominate their advisor for the positive impact that they've had throughout their academic journey. The Outstanding Commitment to Academic Advising recognizes the importance of academic advising at the University of Alabama by celebrating outstanding academic advisors and their service to all students and campus as a whole. After reviewing hundreds of nominations, the awards committee selects one professional academic advisor and also one faculty academic advisor each academic year. I first want to recognize the 2021, 2020, 2021 academic professional advisor, Jessica Richardson. Ms. Richardson has been with the Capstone College of Nursing since July, 2018. Jessica advises incoming transfer students, freshman students and postgraduate second degree students in the lower division of the Capstone College of Nursing. Her advisies describe her as kind, caring and supportive with a warm personality and an eagerness to help students. She is known for her attention to detail, extensive knowledge of the nursing curriculum and her fast response to email. Most importantly, one says that she gets to know her students on a personal level which further promotes her ability to advocate for their needs within their program. Thank you, Jessie, for your outstanding commitment to academic advising. Next, I want to recognize the 2020, 2021 Outstanding Faculty Advisor, Dr. Amy Trailer. Dr. Trailer is an associate professor and a Bachelor of Social Work program director with 10 years of experience in social work education at the University of Alabama School of Social Work. She had served students within the BSW program in multiple roles, including academic advising, student organization advising and departmental honors capstone project advising. She particularly enjoys academic advising as it allows her the opportunity to forge strong relationships with students and witness their growth and development over time. Students were ultimately oppressed by Dr. Trailer's open line of communication and the fact that she is always available by email or Zoom appointment. They also stated that she goes above and beyond their expectations to make sure their concerns are addressed. One student said, Dr. Trailer taught me that my dreams are very attainable and that I will always have someone back at UA supporting me wherever I go. Please join me in also celebrating Dr. Amy Trailer for her outstanding commitment to academic advising. Thank you, Dr. Humber and congratulations to both our recipients for your commitment to advising our students at the capstone. You're a crucial part of their success. Each fall we also award the Sam S. May commitment to service awards. It is my privilege to present these service awards in honor of Sam S. May, a very special man who worked for the university as a custodian in the chemistry department from 1911 to 1941. During his lunch hours, Mr. May would learn the subject matter from instructors and armed with the knowledge he acquired, he volunteered many of his own hours to tutor generations of students. The Sam S. May commitment to service award recognizes a department, team or center that provides exceptional service through commitment, innovation, creativity and continuous improvement in customer relations. As I call out our award winners, I ask them to please stand and be recognized. Our fall 2021 honorees are as follows. From the College of Human Environmental Sciences, the department staff from the RISE Center. Congratulations to you all. This is a very large team that includes administrators, therapists, nurses, teachers, teacher assistants, reach employees and additional staff. I know many could not be here today because they're doing what they love to do. Teach and love the students at the RISE Center. This compassionate group of individuals currently conserves close to 100 students and their families. 50% of the children they serve are traditional learners and 50% of the children have a diagnosis from birth or delay in an area of development. At RISE, children can attend school and receive medical care. The RISE model is considered unique and is nationally recognized as a model program and the UA RISE Center is the only RISE program in the country that does not charge families with special needs fees for tuition. In addition, the RISE Center is committed to UA students as well as the UA and Tuscaloosa communities. RISE provides opportunities for evidence-based research for over 500 UA students in the fields of early childhood education and early childhood special education. Though presented with many challenges over the past year, the RISE team work to meet the needs of all stakeholders through innovation and an unyielding sense of responsibility to the community that they serve. Their staff sees possibilities in challenging situations rather than limitations. The RISE Center is more than just a school, it's a place for this team to provide the foundation for an inclusive community that celebrates diversity and helps each and every child reach their maximum potential. Thank you for your commitment and service. Next, from Academic Affairs, please help me congratulate the next recipient of the SAMAS May Commitment to Service Award, the Office of Disability Services. Excellent work, everyone. I know what a difficult year you had. This tier theme from ODS provides critical accommodation services to UA students with disabilities, serving more than 500 students during academic year 2020 to 2021. During the summer 2021 sessions, this team provided critical adjustments and handled over 600 requests from students who needed accommodations. In spring 2021, they revised the process and successfully managed over 400 cases. Throughout the unprecedented circumstances, ODS demonstrated an extraordinary commitment and creative approach to providing outstanding service. The staff also customized and launched a data management system and a virtual reception desk to serve students. In addition, the team developed and implemented compliance training for all faculty and instructors, which is included in UA's learning management system and available for anyone who teaches a course at the University of Alabama. Thank you all for your outstanding work and for your ongoing commitment to success. The next SAMAS May Commitment to Service Award is presented to the Gift Accounting Team within the Office of Advancement Services. Well done. This dedicated team not only has to accurately process thousands of transactions every year, but their work equates to tens of millions of dollars in charitable commitments to the university on an annual basis. Paramount to their success is their attention to detail and their commitment to the capstone. Their function is profoundly important to the financial success of the institution and timely processing of gifts is critical to both supporting UA faculty and students and in building confidence among our alumni and donors. The Gift Accounting Team must continually seek innovative ways to save time and streamline processes, including around 100,000 gift transactions from around 60,000 donors. They also often interact with other departments on campus as well as external donors. Through their ongoing focus, they demonstrate excellent stewardship in their relationships with these partners. On behalf of the University of Alabama, we thank you for your service. The next SAMAS May Commitment to Service Award is presented to the Facilities and Grounds Department within the Division of Finance and Operations, another well deserving group. This team serves to help the university flourish through exceptional services, administrative leadership and operational efficiency by professionally maintaining a world-class campus environment and delivering the highest quality service to our university community. During the past year, they've transitioned smoothly back to near normal operations, ensuring that our facilities and building systems are clean, functional and reliable, and grounds provide superb maintenance to over 1,500 acres on campus. They received and processed over 3,200 ground use permits before the start of football season as one example. They kept our students safe during the pandemic with custodial services making sure all areas of a campus were disinfected for in-person classes. With the number of buildings on campus, this was a huge undertaking, as you might imagine. To manage energy more efficiently, this team also spearheaded the implementation of an energy curtailment plan to reduce UA energy consumption, reducing costs by more than $4 million. The Facilities and Grounds Department continually seeks new ways to improve relations with the campus community by providing top notch services, maintenance, repairs and upgrades. Their sanitation efforts in Coleman Coliseum also helped to ensure that UA student athletes remained healthy. No events were canceled this year due to COVID protocols. Congratulations for this well-deserved honor and thank you for your commitment to the capstone. Our next service award is presented to the Department of Ceremonies and Events in the Division of Strategic Communications. Congratulations. This two-person dynamic duo goes above and beyond every year to plan several high-profile university events, including but not limited to campus assembly and commencement. During the pandemic, while other universities were postponing graduation ceremonies, shifting to virtual celebrations or canceling commencement altogether, the University of Alabama held 22 in-person commencement ceremonies for summer 2020, fall 2020 and spring 2021 graduates. UA's ability to host in-person commencement for close to 10,000 graduates during the pandemic was a direct result of their hard work and dedication of this team. They worked long hours drafting plans for how to successfully host socially distanced ceremonies that met or exceeded local, state, or national health and safety protocols. It was important to UA leadership to find ways to honor our students and maintain the cherished commencement tradition for our graduates and their families. This team's commitment to finding solutions required innovation and creativity and their contributions to their department and their division and the university. We're nothing short of miraculous. Congratulations to you both and thank you for your demonstrated leadership. The final SAMS May award is presented today to each and every employee of the College of Community Health Sciences. Anybody in the room? Dean Friend is in the back, none of the others are. They're still working, I imagine. CCHS has always established exceptional patient care as the focus of everything that they do. The staff and employees of the University Medical Center remain firmly committed to their mission of improving and promoting the health of individuals in communities in Alabama and the region through leadership in medical education and primary care, the provision of high quality, accessible healthcare services and scholarship. Numerous sacrifices during the pandemic from all departments at CCHS further exhibit the engagement and pledge the college has always taken towards the care of others. CCHS creatively pivoted in many ways to provide that care during the pandemic, including the completion of over 75,000 COVID tests today, establishing locations for mass testing, traveling for geographic testing, providing outreach to five black belt counties, staffing student quarantine dorms, executing telemedicine appointments and serving on the system's office task force. The individuals in CCHS have demonstrated a genuine commitment to excellence in the face of adversity. On behalf of our campus community, thank you all for your legendary commitment to service. We're very proud of everyone who received the SAMS May Commitment to Service Award today. We celebrate with you and thank you again for your important contributions and service to the capstone. One final award is being presented today to three innovative and resourceful employees who by action or idea, contribute to the University of Alabama's mission of changing lives through impactful teaching, research and service. The Virgil Parks McKinley Senior Employee Award was established by John K. McKinley and the late Helen H. McKinley. The award honors Dr. Virgil Parks McKinley a longtime UA professor who began his tenure in 1918 and retired in 1945 as the head of the Trade and Industrial Development Department in the College of Education. When I call your name, please come forward to accept your award. The Virgil Parks McKinley Senior Employee Recipients are James Donahoe, research specialist in the Department of Geological Sciences for the College of Arts and Sciences. Highly esteemed by both his students and his peers, Jim is described as one who embodies the very idea of enterprising. For over 37 years, he's provided support, brainstorm solutions, fixed instrumentation and completed projects for his department. The supervisor said, if he doesn't know how to do something, he figures out quickly how to do it. Jim is also portrayed by his colleagues as the glue that holds everything together through his innovation and creativity with his role expanding and adapting over his career to meet the evolving needs of the university and its students and faculty. He also provides critical career preparation for UA students in the x-ray diffraction lab, enabling them to most deeply understand the data they generate and advance their careers. Mr. Donahoe, on behalf of the University of Alabama, thank you for your dedicated service. The next recipient of the Virgil Parks McKinley Senior Employee Award is Holly Groff, coordinator for dining services and enterprise operations for the Division of Finance and Operations. As a registered dietitian nutritionist, Holly serves as liaison between UA students and Bama Dining, particularly those with food allergies. Through her interactions with students, she develops individualized plans based on their dietary restrictions. She personally takes each student to dining locations to introduce them to management and facilitate communication so they will feel comfortable when they need to make special meal requests. Holly also oversees the dining services website, social media posts, marketing brochures, and mobile apps. In addition, she's an adjunct professor in the College of Environmental Sciences. She assumed a management role within the new Transac Mobile Ordering System, which provides students the ability to order ahead from all on-campus dining locations, as well as from Bama Dining markets with no fee charged to students. She has described in her nomination letters as one who is respected by everyone, always has a positive attitude, can-do attitude. Her peers say no job is ever too big for Holly. Thank you, Holly, for embracing UA's mission and vision, for continuing to add value to our dining program and our student experience. The final Virgil Parks McKinley Senior Employee Award is presented to Christina Patridge, Director of the University Dining Services in the Enterprise Operations. Christina is described in her nomination packet as one who works tirelessly to take care of student needs. When the pandemic first changed the day-to-day operations of the campus, it did not change her focus. She did not take a spring break and continue to work on campus daily through the spring, summer, and fall semesters to ensure dining services were always ready to serve UA students. Praise for her compassion and caring personality. She purchased and personally delivered birthday cakes to students in quarantine on their birthday to bring them happiness so that they felt cared for and special. She also made sure that they had a steak dinner that night. I didn't get that for my birthday. Christina's peers depict her as a champion for student projects, an expert communicator when dealing with a vast array of people and one who always has fresh and creative ideas. Thank you, Christina, for truly embodying UA's mission to your work and actions. Congratulations. Again, sincere congratulations to all our honorees who are recognized today. You're not only prominent members of our community, but you serve as ambassadors for a combined mission. We are very fortunate to have you teaching and working at the University of Alabama. With the awards portion of our assembly completed, we will now transition to hearing from the presidents of several organizations on campus who loyally serve our community. These four dedicated leaders will share important assembly updates. We will begin with a report from faculty senate president, Dr. Chapman Greer. Dr. Greer is a clinical instructor of management in the Culverhouse College of Business. Dr. Greer? In being asked what the highlights of the faculty senate have done this past year, I'm gonna also address the question that I get asked all the time by people, what is it that faculty senate really does? I don't think people think you do much, but in the past five years, we have developed a policy for promotion and retention of the NTRC faculty. It was a three-year process enacted in 2017 and which is ongoing to this day. We revised the faculty handbook which was a four-year process and we are continuing to make annual revisions on that. We have worked on a plan to revise UA's general education for the entire campus and it is a plan that is in its fourth of five years. And this fall, we proposed paid parental leave for all which will be implemented in January of 2022. We also are looking at a proposal for universal childcare for UA and we held a town hall this past fall to address the concerns surrounding COVID and they think that it was quite a successful event. We perform service projects within the campus community and the wider community as well. We host events ranging from faculty senate meetings to higher ed day, to meetings with our state representatives, to a celebration of our colleagues in RISE and in REACH and we participate in shared governance with higher administration. We work closely with administration and our colleagues in PSA and AXA to balance the competing needs of the institution and in the face of the unusual circumstances of this past year, we continue to work to maintain the cohesiveness and morale of the entire campus community. So when people ask me what does faculty senate do or what has it done for us lately? I say we are doing the slow, very difficult work that's often unsung and generally not visible that helps make this a campus where we can all thrive. Thank you, Dr. Greer. It's now my pleasure to introduce the president of the professional staff assembly, Dr. Delphine Harris. Dr. Harris is executive director of business process innovation for UA's division of finance and operations. It is both an honor and a pleasure to represent the professional staff assembly and it's approximately 2,300 members as its president. With over 100 elective representatives the PSA General Assembly is committed to representing the needs of professional staff along with our university administration. If you ask who is PSA, the answer is many of you. It's exempt staff with an EE code or a three or a five. If you meet that then you are one of the 2,300 members of professional staff assembly. We work with human resources, other departments and divisions at the university to address such important employee issues as healthcare coverage, parking arrangements, childcare possibilities, benefits tailoring and much more. Elected members, representatives, interface for the faculty senate, OCTSA and other agencies of the campus community to fully serve the needs of its employees. PSA facilitates and maintains open lines of communication across all stakeholders. This is accomplished by inclusion on hiring committees for executive positions, presidential advisory committees, human resource task force and monthly meetings with executive leadership and university standing committee. I'm going to quickly highlight some recent accomplishments of PSA, paid parental leave. The paid parental leave proposal was a collaborative effort by PSA, OCTSA and faculty senate formed a proposal to the UA administration. We believe the university's efforts to offer four weeks of paid parental leave beginning in January represent a positive step in providing an employee benefit shown to improve employee retention, increase competitive advantage and enhance employee engagement around and productivity. We are also committed to providing a safe space to ask questions and provide comments as evidenced by anonymous surveys that we send out. Our surveys are always short and to the point as well. As well as we solicited over 300 anonymous questions to present in Monday's PSA town hall COVID-19 meeting. We have thus far as of this morning, 994 views of the recording. I encourage you it provides valuable information. I encourage you if you have not seen it to please look at that link, recorded link on Bama PSA. Additionally, we also highlighting other work by PSA committees. We work to share other information. For example, October was anti-bullying month. There is information provided on that as well as October was domestic violence awareness month that is also provided. And we try to provide content in ways that we can connect to you. We try to make it to the point, provide links for more information and we appreciate any input because the work is important but it's also important that we're able to communicate it to you effectively. Our efforts with our diversity equity and inclusion committee, we support new campus wide efforts to promote diversity equity inclusion among all stakeholders including students, faculty, staff and the community at large. During this year since the spring PSA has devoted over 150 hours specifically to DEI. These continuing efforts include promotions, participation and celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, the training of the first cohort on the 14th Amendment and several other celebrations and of heritage and history of our diverse population. PSA also supports social responsibility through community service. We have been a long time supporter of Habitat for Humanity, Brewer's Port, Women's Gender and Resource Center and looking at new volunteer opportunities to partner with the City of Chescaloosa and Moundville Archaeological Park. Beyond providing a voice for the professional staff we also create opportunities for recognition and to celebrate achievements on campus. Out of among those out of 53 applicants received for the Mark G. Foster Scholarship Manual Award, this year's recipient was Jeff Neighbors. Out of the 42 nominations received for the Outstanding Professional Awards in spring 2020-2021, the four recipients were Tom Tin Eich, Alan Gunther, Victoria Whitfield Lewis and Miranda Redd, Webster. This was also our inaugural year of recognition with plaques and ceremony of the PSA Steering Committee's contribution, be it officers or chairs of the various committees. We will expand on that to acknowledge all PSA representatives in our next year. I would encourage you to look at this and other opportunities on PSA social media, I am a PSA, and I think you'll find some good information there as well as you're always welcome to communicate with us. Our website is PSA.ua.edu, and I would like to thank you for your time. Thank you, Dr. Harris. Next, please welcome the President, the Office, Clerical and Technical Staff Assembly, Mr. Angel Narvez Lugo. Mr. Narvez Lugo is a program assistant for UA's fraternity and sorority life and is served as the interim SGA advisor. As of July, he's also a UA alumnus. Roll tide. Thank y'all. Everything that Delphine and Chapman said just swap OCTSA in, so. Good afternoon and greetings on behalf of OCTSA. It's been a journey for all of us to get to this point today. The last time we met in person, the word Zoom was used in reference to cameras and social distancing was what we did with acquaintances from high school who posed too much on Facebook. What a journey, though, this year has been. As we slowly emerge from the other side of this pandemic, we have much to be grateful for, and we have many to thank. Think where we would be without the hard work and commitment of our custodial staff, our facilities and maintenance teams or our clerical and administrative assistants. Throughout this pandemic, our non-exempt staff proved beyond a doubt that we're essential to the successes and achievements of our university. When the going got rough, non-exempt staff answered the call to help protect our herd. Now, as we begin our return to normalcy, our efforts turn back to where we left off in 2019, and we will commit ourselves to our efforts aimed at promoting our herd. Before the pandemic shifted all of our priorities, OCTSA was working on policy language that addressed standardized across-the-boards procedures that respect the staffing needs of our departments and divisions while now allowing non-exempt employees the ability to seek and attend professional development opportunities aimed at education, career growth, and campus engagement. As a recent graduate of the University of Alabama, Roll Tide, I bear witness to the all two real barriers that keep non-exempt employees from reaching their full potential. As an institution of higher learning, we must and can do better to ensure that a college education is not just a dream for our hourly employees, but an achievable goal. OCTSA recently introduced to the Faculty Staff Benefits Committee a proposal for payroll deduction for education-related costs not currently covered by our employee tuition benefit. It's our hope that small steps like this one will translate into giant leaps in the lives of employees who do not seek a hand out but deserve a hand up. With the help of our colleagues and the professional staff assembly, OCTSA will continue its efforts to push for an anti-bullying policy that fills the gaps created by workplace behavior that does not meet the thresholds of harassment and is too often not reported or ignored. These efforts are in tandem with our call for a more robust and intentional manager and department head training program that will give all our supervisors the tools and skills necessary to manage, coach and effectively advocate for all employees. I wanna take a moment to thank our colleagues and friends in the Faculty Senate and the PSA. Thank you for your continued support and your partnership. Through our combined efforts in allyship and with the help and leadership of Dr. Bell and his administration, paid parental leave at the University of Alabama is a reality. Our work on this initiative proves the success and importance of shared governance at our university and ensures that UA retains its competitive advantage as a top tier recruiter of faculty, staff and talent. We look forward to many more shared initiatives throughout the coming years. And finally, what would an in-person campus assembly be without a report of that most famous or infamous, right Matt? Third rail of employee benefits. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to report to you all today that at the University of Alabama, the state of spring break is strong. Thank you all and Roll Tide. Thank you, sir. Mr. Fajac, they're never gonna let you off that one. For our final report, I would like to welcome Student Government Association President, Jillian Fields to share an SGA update. Jillian is a Dayton, Kentucky native who is triple majoring in operations management, public health and psychology. Ms. Fields. Good afternoon, everyone. As student government president, it is truly my honor and my privilege to be here on behalf of not only the Student Government Association, but also the student body. I'm so excited to share with you some of the incredible initiatives that many members of my administration have been hard at work. In light of the COVID pandemic, mental illness has been an all time high of our student body. We've had the pleasure of working with Dr. Perez to introduce the WellTrack app, which allows students to monitor their wellbeing and receive recommendations on way to improve. Similarly, our VP for academic affairs, Amanda Allen, has teamed up with our incredible partners at OIT to transition our students to Microsoft Outlook and to redesign the MyBama system and has also worked to reinstate a policy where no assignments can be due on Saturdays so that our students are truly able to embrace the mental break that is the weekend. We have partnered with local institutions to bring back the angel shot where students in uncomfortable situations are able to receive assistance getting home or in calling in reinforcements if necessary. Our partnerships with the community, however, have not stopped there. We've partnered with the Arboretum to create a farm to table program for local schools as well as a mentorship program with the Tuscaloosa City Schools, which we'll be rolling out this January. Our DEI cabinet has celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with a variety of activities and events, as well as a plethora of other events to celebrate all of those within our DEI community. And our annual DEI certification program is off to a great start with a record number of students registered for our individual advanced certification program. We were recently able to celebrate It's On Us Week in addition to our partnership with the Student Life Division where we've rolled out a campaign called Respect Roles Here, which raises awareness for interpersonal violence. I could truly go on for hours about the incredible things that these student leaders have implemented, but before I do, I look around the room and recognize many faces without which none of these initiatives would be possible. So on behalf of the student government, I truly thank you for allowing us to work with you. I also want to highlight some of my other peers who have contributed in outstanding ways to the university. It's no secret to anyone that COVID made the past few semesters look a little bit different than normal. However, my fellow students did not let that slow them down or prevent them from continuing the university's tradition of being champions. My peers in the Alabama Forensic Council won not only a national team championship, but also three individual championship national titles. My fellow student and UA graduate of the class of 2021, Caroline Yook, was awarded the Marshall Scholarship, one of only three students of the UA history in the first in over 40 years for her groundbreaking research on hearing and healthcare disparities. Student leaders in the Capstone Agency from the College of Communication and Information Sciences were once again recognized for their incredible work by being awarded the nation's number one student-run PR firm yet again. The list truly goes on. I could not be more proud of the resiliency and determination not to let a global pandemic slow my peers down. Students from the University of Alabama are not only successful inside of the classroom and outside, but long after their graduation. And I could not be more honored to be a representative of this group of legends. Thank you. Thank you, Jillian. And thank you all for presenting your assembly reports this afternoon. And congratulations to all of our award recipients. It's important for us to recognize the dedicated efforts and impressive accomplishments of our faculty and staff. It's an honor to know you and work with you as we empower and equip UA students to lead and to serve. With that, it's my privilege to welcome again to the podium our President, Dr. Stuart R. Bell. Thank you, Dr. Dalton. To us President of the University, I get to participate and witness in some pretty cool activities over the year. I get to be on a football stage when the tide has rolled through a championship. Free to be exact since I've been here by the way. Lots of confetti. And I always like to go to my fellow President's meetings that we have with the SEC and ask them if they got their championship ring jet. And say, oh wait, they only have one of those, is that right? But I've also been able to cut ribbons as we've dedicated new buildings on our campus that in many times our donors have made possible. Houston Hall being one of the latest of those that we cut ribbon on earlier this year. I've been able to meet some truly unforgettable students across our campus, like Jillian, like national marriage students, like husband trophy winners. And I could go on about the incredible students that I've been able to meet. But as I said and listened to all of the accolades that report on you all, our faculty and our staff, I was awestruck by all of those events that I go to really start here with you all. With the impact that you have because behind each one of those students, behind each one of those buildings, behind each one of our alumni, behind each one of the championships that we celebrate and we do celebrate really well here is the faculty and the staff who have certainly made all of that possible. This community, all of you, our expert faculty and our staff are crafting the legacy of the University of Alabama every day, every week, every year. You are the reason that this institution has not wavered from our mission. As I reminded my staff many times, COVID is not in our mission statement, but we handled it with grace and we still achieve the dreams that our students had and their parents had as they came here. You're the reason that so many of our students are pursuing degrees in healthcare and service to others around them because of you, our students partner with organizations like NASA and when those competitions are the eco car that's supported by General Motors and Department of Energy and this year, those students won that competition. It's your encouragement and your support that helps our students to continue to persist here at the University of Alabama and be successful. And Angel, in addition to the spring break comment, your story is just inspirational. In last July, as you walked across the stage to receive your degree, you gave credit to the faculty and the staff and the people that made a difference in your life. You called out Dr. Pope as someone who believed in you and provided you opportunities so that you could chase your dream and impact students in the way that you do in a marvelous way on our campus. Students from Alabama, from the nation, from around the globe, come to the University of Alabama because of what you do in the cafeterias, in the residence halls, in the classrooms, in the laboratories, in advancement and all the activities where you find yourself every day. They come here because of the sport that you provide and that you allow their lives to be changed forever at the University of Alabama. You are the reason that we have dedicated alumni who give back to this institution that we recognize today as legends because what they've been able to accomplish if they've left the University of Alabama and impacted their companies and impacted their states, impacted their regions, their nations in some cases in a way that they wouldn't have been able to do otherwise because it all started here. They were sitting in one of our classrooms. They were in one of our dining halls. They were in one of our residence halls and each of you helped them to reach their dreams and the commitments. So before I go on any further, I would just ask if everyone here would stand so we can recognize you. Everyone, yeah. Thank you guys. Y'all may be seated. Now you're all back awake again. Well, you know, we just celebrated homecoming and it felt so good to have students, to have alums and parents back on campus and to enjoy the University of Alabama in a traditional way. And what a wonderful time it is in a young person's life that was back and maybe perhaps they were part of the largest ever incoming freshman class here at the University of Alabama. And by the way, this is the third year in a row that our in-state new freshman class crew. And that's important, the University of Alabama certainly from a standpoint of serving our state but also in the enrollments and that what those students will be able to bring to the state of Alabama. We also saw a 15% jump in students who were enrolled in the Honors College. And among that group we had a new record number of 281 national merit students in the freshman class coming to the university. You'll remember national merit students that's the top 1% of all students who take the PSAT during their junior year. We are among the very top in the United States for that group. We also have a total of 940 when you take this freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors on our campus. Again, one of the largest classes ever at the University of Alabama. And 89% of our students who were freshmen last fall returned to be sophomores this fall, 89%. That compares to a national average of about 70% students. We also witnessed a record enrollment for graduate, for law and medicine on our campus this year. We also welcome the most diverse incoming freshman class in our history at the University of Alabama. As we continue to mold our path forward we will continue to seek more students of diversity in our enrollment. And we will also continue to build on the core principles of inclusiveness in our learning environments, in our programs, in our workforce and also partnerships. Each of you are also the catalyst for the 59 Goldwater Scholars who are here at the University of Alabama are the reason that we have five students who were named as Fulbright Awards for 21 year. This is the fifth year out of the last six where we were recognized nationally as the university producing the most Fulbright scholars. Your creativity and innovative approach are also the impetus for our growing research success that we have on our campus. Currently, our rate of research growth places us number one among the 14 institutions in the SEC and rate of growth number one among all in state research institutions in Alabama and 13th among all of the Carnegie are one designated classified universities in the United States. Among our top performing faculty, 36 have received a career award from the National Science Foundation. 52 were included in the National Academy of Innovators. Finally, through our newly announced capital campaign, I want to encourage you to get involved and I want to encourage you to give through four campaign promises or campaign pillars the promise of a new, new endowed scholarships and fellowships for our students the prominence of new faculty endowments for chairs and professorships, the pride of impacting over half a million square feet of space on our campus and the passion behind the athletic facility enhancements and scholarships that are all part of the rising tide effort. It will ride on the shoulders of what we already have established a success here and we're well on our way as of this morning we've raised $950 million towards our $1.5 billion campaign here at the University of Alabama and we're only halfway through Bob, is that right? Again, to our campus leaders that we heard from earlier thank you for what you're doing, thank you for the partnerships that as you covered all the important things that we're doing at the University of Alabama we are partners with you I'm certainly to make those happen the needs that our students have the needs that our faculty and staff have are important to all of us as we look to push this university forward in truly miraculous ways as president I will certainly commit to you all we will never waver from our mission and we will always partner with you in everything that we do and finally one last congratulations to all of our award winners that we're recognizing here today thank you for what you have meant over the last one to two years here at the University of Alabama it's a great time to be at the University of Alabama because of great people like you that are part of this institution I'm honored to work with you to partner with you in everything that we do and we all love what we do and quite frankly it shows thank you guys have a great day and roll tide and I think we have refreshments outside is that correct? Yes out in the back thank you all again