Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022

Dear UNT Community,

As we near the close of our fall semester, I want to thank you for your commitment to UNT and your dedication to ensuring we have a great future. During this fall, we’ve had the opportunity to create a set of shared values that will guide how we do business going forward.

These shared values were revealed by Chancellor Williams in a message yesterday, and I hope that you are as supportive as I am to see how much they affirm who we are and the work we already do. Having these values clearly identified and defined as the guideposts will help us improve how we work with each other and how we engage and retain additional high quality students, faculty, and staff. They also will help us celebrate our vibrant and supportive campus culture and will help our community build a better workforce for our state and nation.

The journey to define these values began earlier this fall with information and input sessions that led to a blueprint workshop, where 56 of your UNT colleagues joined 69 of our peers from fellow UNT System institutions and administration to develop our new values.

Now, it is up to each of us to ensure we make these values an intentional part of our work and everyday actions. I hope you will join me at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 26 to spend time together discovering the values and their meanings and providing input on how we can best embrace them.

Working in a values-based culture will help us all achieve Chancellor Williams’ vision for our UNT System — “By 2026, the UNT System is one team, values-driven and customer-focused with an emphasis on excellence, curiosity, and innovation.”

Working together, we will become a better UNT.

UNT Proud,

Neal Smatresk

UNT President

@UNTPrez