Dear Alum,

We've started the 2016-17 academic year with the wind at our backs.

For the second year in a row, we hit another enrollment record and welcomed our largest freshman class to date. Our new freshman class includes 11 new National Merit Finalists and other high-achieving students who are fueling our momentum as a first-choice institution.

This was the perfect way to kick off the 2016 State of the University, at which I highlighted our progress and laid out our priorities for the future that include helping our students succeed, building our research profile, strengthening our reputation and growing our support base of alumni and friends. That means finding new, better ways of having an impact and proving our value to our students, alumni and friends.

As a Carnegie-ranked top-tier research university, we are now part of an elite group of institutions and that changes how we must compete. I challenged our university community -- students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends -- to help us embrace change and innovation so that we're Tier One in everything we do, whether that's academics or athletics. Read a recap of the event, read my message to the university community and enjoy the videos we unveiled, including one called UNT's Path to Excellence that highlights our recent progress .

For 126 years and counting, UNT has helped shape the lives and dreams of hundreds of thousands of students and contributed to the progress of the North Texas region and state. As we focus on competing at the highest levels, our impact on the people, businesses and communities of the region, state and nation will grow stronger.

UNT Proud,
Neal Smatresk
President
@UNTPrez