Ramsey recounted some of the successes of each college and school and highlights of the entire university over the past year, including the opening of the KFC YUM! Center, public launch of the Charting Our Course $750 million – now $1 billion – fundraising campaign, groundbreaking spinal cord research and work with private partners to advance university goals.
He looked back to his inauguration pledge of 2003 as the formula to keep moving forward by:
- Remembering, respecting and learning from “our past, both our successes and failures”
- Renewing “our commitment to the state’s vision that sets for us a course of preeminence”
- Continuing “to think beyond the boundaries of our campus”
- Going beyond the university’s dream to do the work that is required
- Engaging fully with “partners who share our dreams and have a stake in our success”
- Working “with our sister institutions in Kentucky”
- Reaffirming “today that we will not be out-worked”
- Recommitting ourselves “to the values that we cherish
“Today, as on Sept. 9, 2003 – Inauguration Day – we commit to continue to run the race, a race run as one university, a university of faculty from various disciplines; staff, with different jobs and responsibilities; students, with many different goals. A university with alumni, donors, volunteers and friends, all with various interests but sharing one singular focus, a passion for a better UofL.
“For a better UofL means a better Louisville, and a better Louisville means a stronger Kentucky.”
Also at the event, Ramsey honored the family of the late Harry S. Frazier Jr., a UofL alumnus and local developer for whom the building that houses the College of Business was named earlier in the day.
Frazier, he said “was an entrepreneur who shaped his community with heart, friendship, and enthusiasm for building upscale communities around leisure amenities. He understood the transformative power of intersecting work and entertainment with family. … His legacy thrives in many real estate developments contributing to the livability of Louisville today.”
His talk also featured a short video of four people whose lives were changed by the university.
