I want to make sure to recognize and appreciate the heroic actions of those in our community who responded quickly, bravely and professionally in the early moments of the horrific attack and throughout the day. 

I know you all join me in offering our tremendous gratitude to the courageous officers of Louisville Metro Police Department who rushed into the Old National Bank Building, saving lives while putting themselves at great risk.

Within minutes, officers from our own UofL Police Department arrived to support LMPD. These brave members of our community worked quickly with LMPD to secure the scene itself as well as throughout the hospital district. I cannot say it often enough how greatly I appreciate our colleagues – the officers of ULPD – as each day they work tirelessly to keep our community safe.

We all recognize with deep gratitude the efforts of our colleagues at UofL Health – UofL Hospital – the trauma doctors, nurses and staff – who provided outstanding emergency medical care to those injured in the attack and continue to care for them. In our darkest moments, these heroes, as well as other first responders, exhibited true bravery and professionalism in serving their fellow citizens. I feel, as I know we all do, humbled by their actions and grateful to all of them. 

I want to remind everyone that asking for help, especially in times of trauma and stress, is a most important part of recovery. Help is available for those needing additional support. Students can call our  at 502-852-6585 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or access  other options at . Counseling for our faculty and staff is available through our Employee Assistance Program provider, Anthem EAP. Call 800-865-1044 or go to  > Select “Member Log In” > Type “University of Louisville.”  

As we all work to find a path forward in the midst of this tragedy, although I have only been a part of UofL for less than three months, I have great faith in our Cardinal and Louisville communities. I have quickly learned that Cardinals stick together, especially when they need each other most. Please take an extra moment to care for yourself, your classmates and your colleagues, and don’t hesitate to reach out to the university for support.

Sincerely,

Kim Schatzel, Ph.D.
President

Perhaps the most inspirational narrative from the past year and a half, however, is the care and resiliency displayed by our students.

In an instant, their world shut down entirely, their social outlets were taken away, their formative years compromised. Yet our students kept on keeping on and achieved things that would be considered remarkable in “normal” times, let alone in a relentlessly lingering global health crisis. Here is just a sampling of the work our students have done to epitomize the Cardinal spirit.

COVID-19

When COVID-19 started to proliferate domestically, our students stepped up to both fight the virus and to help those in need. Bioengineering students , for example, collected test kits for the community when they were desperately needed.

Graduate assistant turned to the  facility at Speed School of Engineering to create protective face shields for healthcare workers, an item that experienced a critical shortage in those early days.    

When masks became mandated, a group of UofL business students started a company to meet the demand for .

And when the community needed help with or , our students stepped up.

Research and innovation

Their efforts expanded well beyond the parameters of COVID-19, however. When it seemed like the world stopped, they kept pushing forward on several research and innovation efforts to ensure progress continued in the face of uncertainty.

Two doctoral students, Zach Whiddon and Kyle Whyland, in the Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, received funding from to support their research on taste buds and brain circuitry, for example. It’s not common to receive such funding before earning a PhD, by the way.

Further, a team of undergrads invented a new tool for in water sources that could be more efficient and cost effective. Speaking of water, UofL student researchers recently started working with the to help river towns use recreation to drive tourism and economic development.

Throughout the global health crisis, our students launched a new , helped develop a for the treatment of aggressive solid tumors, created a technology for through breath, launched a and figured out how to get our ringing again.

Local, national, international impact

Whether ensuring kids didn’t go hungry during the lockdown or underrepresented students had a level playing field, our students also put in plenty of service and social justice work throughout the past 18 months.

Our student-athletes, for example, generated more hours of community service during the 2020 academic year than , while our interior design students helped design a local .

UofL students Giavanna Combs and Leah Hazelwood represented the city of Louisville as official ambassadors for the

In the early stages of the pandemic, law school at UofL with being called to state active duty as a member of the Kentucky National Guard, while a group of sophomores worked with a local nonprofit to ensure children had for their remote learning environments.

UofL engineering students helped develop virtual for K-4 kids at home, while Jacob Foushee and Lily Stewart developed a plan to , set out to increase access to healthy foods for Perry County residents, and several students pitched in to restore in Louisville’s west end.

That’s not all. Not even close.

In the past year, UofL med student to highlight the health disparities that plague underserved communities across Louisville, while another group of med students helped create the to assist Louisville youth affected by violence navigate trauma and build a better future for themselves and their communities.

Junior Ethan Volk created a advance their career aspirations, while med student Tino Mkorombindo established ., a nonprofit that serves as a resource for minority students who plan to pursue a career in medicine. Sophomore Rawan Saleh has been recognized by several organizations, including the , for her work to end racism.

And in the throes of the pandemic, when it seemed as though the music stopped, reached out to several friends at other universities across Kentucky and facilitated a virtual performance of “My Old Kentucky Home” on what would have been Derby Day 2020.

Meanwhile on campus, our students had a major hand in , continued their partnership with , came up with creative solutions to keep the to raise money for pediatric cancer, put our on the map and contributed to a .

Through it all – the ups and the downs, the unknowns, anxiety and fear, our students continued to accomplish big things. Major things. Pride-inducing things.

Take, for example, senior Industrial Engineering students finished second at the 2021 Student Simulation Competition, while a separate engineering team from UofL competed in an .

Further, , was one of 10 students recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineering for its 2020 edition of the “New Faces of Engineering.” And, Civil Engineering Major Sophie Lipomanis was named as a national spokesperson for the for the second year in a row.

Our student-athletes achieved extraordinary feats on and off the field, placing a school-record 413 Cardinals on the , for example, and achieving a . Meanwhile, our Spirit Squad won its seventh consecutive national title, Catcher Henry Davis became UofL’s first No. 1 overall draft pick in the , and we sent to Tokyo to compete in the Olympic Games.

Finally, importantly, our students continued to win prestigious international and scholarships, including now-senior . For this unprecedented 2020-21 academic year, UofL has once again been named a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Top Producing Institution – our seventh year on the list for this prestigious award.

What does this all prove? Our students are extraordinary, spirited and inspiring, and not even a global pandemic can slow them down. They will continue to rise to the challenge, no matter how large, as they make our campus, our community and our society stronger.  

For starters, we now know more about how to control this relentless virus and we have vaccinations available, which has started to create a semblance of normalcy. Still, there remains plenty we don’t know; for example, what changes will stick around in our “new normal.”

For UofL President Neeli Bendapudi, that will be defined in part by a reflection on the nature of work.

“One of my mentors once told me work is what you do, not where you go. I think that applies here – it’s important that we have some reflection on what needs to be done and where,” she said. “It is validating that our faculty, staff and students want an in-person experience again, but how we do it will be interesting.”

At this point, she’ll take “interesting.” It’s certainly progress from where we were in March 2020 – when dozens of UofL administrators met frequently, sometimes daily, to develop a plan around a moving and blurry target. Bendapudi recalls several discussions from those early days, including whether or not to go completely online.

On March 11, 2020, she sent a campus-wide email announcing the extension of spring break and that classes were to be delivered virtually through April 5.

“I saw enough from our researchers to take things completely online and others had not made the call yet. I do think that’s when others started to look at it more critically,” she said.

Indeed, they all followed suit. And as the virus proliferated, the online model continued through the duration of the spring semester and even spring commencement was delivered virtually in an effort to keep our community safe.

That’s not to say it was an easy decision, however. There was criticism from plenty about whether it was necessary.

While classes went virtual, UofL intentionally left its residence halls and dining options open for students who simply had nowhere else to go. There was criticism from plenty for that decision as well.

How often we would administer tests was criticized, budgeting decisions were criticized, the pace of decision making about the fall semester was criticized – everything. Bendapudi said that’s simply the nature of being in charge of a major metropolitan institution.

Throughout those dark and challenging early months, she tried to maintain a steely resolve, but the criticisms from people claiming there were financial decisions at play were often too loud for her to ignore.

“It wasn’t as though you made one decision and lived with it one way or another,” she said. “Those early days were a series of decisions and what is the right call to make changed constantly. It is an interesting case study. What was also interesting to me is how to balance good science with what gives people comfort.”

Fortunately, UofL has the benefit of being a Carnegie-designated Research I institution and therefore having a baseline of that “good science.” The institution also has the benefit of being a member of the ACC and leveraging researchers across the conference, which Bendapudi said was “hugely helpful.”

She also acknowledges the fortuitous timing of UofL Health system’s November 2019 acquisition of .

“No one knew how much that system would be desperately needed. Where would all of those [COVID-19] patients have gone? There was no capability to handle that,” she said. “I am proud and grateful we were the ones leading on testing for our area hospitals. I am proud of our entire health care system.”

She’s also proud of our all-hands-on-deck efforts put toward fighting the pandemic – from engineering to nursing to public health. , UofL has produced 3D printed face shields, filled gaps in test kits, launched decontamination programs, led a community-wide tracing study and so much more. 

“All of this shows how we truly are a community-engaged, innovative university,” Bendapudi said.

That’s not to say having so many experts on hand wasn’t without its challenges. Bendapudi likes to lead with a “big table” approach, pulling in as many perspectives as is manageable. So many voices can complicate things, however, particularly in a crisis environment.

This also made her realize there is an even bigger opportunity for leadership development, specifically coaching people who are frontline managers to feel comfortable making tough calls.

In fact, the past year has made Bendapudi re-think her priorities in general, focusing more deeply on family, friends and health, and making sure the UofL community has sufficient resources in place to do the same. These priorities came to light not just because of the pandemic, but also because of the incendiary political landscape and global protests against racial injustice, including an intense local focus on the death of UofL Health employee Breonna Taylor.

“The ‘what could we do, what should we do’ questions were constant when considering the mental stress of being a college student during these times. Our students should be exploring and being around other people, but they couldn’t,” Bendapudi said. “This generation was dealing with incredible pressures before all of this happened and we are going to have to really focus on their mental health needs because of what they’ve been through.”

Those needs will be one of her priorities as we gear up for a return to campus for the Fall 2021 semester. That return is something Bendapudi is looking forward to. She’s also optimistic that the toughest lessons learned throughout this past year have made us a more resilient and unified community.

“I am excited about campus coming to life again and I am optimistic we are all more aware that our health depends on each other, that we have a shared fate, and that we should and do care more about each other,” she said. “I hope that awareness, that empathy, sticks around. That is how we best function as a Community of Care.”