Students, Faculty and Staff,

As we head into the holiday season, I hope you all get the opportunity to take some well-earned rest and relaxation. You’ve certainly earned it.

As you do, I hope you can reflect back on the special times of this semester — and for that matter, the entire year.

Because this has been a special one. There have been great academic accomplishments, along with individual recognition for our students, faculty and staff. We have started the transition back from one of the most challenging times of our lives, and we have done so by continuing to provide the best possible education for our students. Some of these stories will be highlighted in the most recent issue of Gateway Magazine, which you will soon find in your mailboxes.

But one story that makes me especially thankful this holiday season is the way we have bounced back with impressive recruitment and retention numbers.

CHS enrollment is up from Fall 2020 to Fall 2021 by 6.7 percent (from 1,276 students in Fall 2020 to 1,361 in Fall 2021), while retention for the Fall 2020 cohort was up 4.6 percentage points to 92.9 percent (from Fall 2019’s 88.3 percent).

CHS also has the second-highest retention rate of all undergraduate colleges at UK (the highest is the College of Design, at 93.4 percent) and the percentage is especially admirable when compared to the University’s retention of 85.7 percent.

That retention rate is the best since Fall 2012 — which is even more impressive when one remembers that the most recent classes were a hybrid mix of in-person and online. (Read more about these numbers here).

Congratulations to all involved. It is a remarkable achievement, and one for which we all can be thankful.

So please take some time for yourselves and remember why you are thankful. Then come back, recharged, and we will finish the semester on a high note.

Continue to take care,

Scott