September 24, 2025
Dear Members of the UC Santa Barbara Community,
It is a great honor to welcome you all to a new academic year—and to begin my first year as chancellor of our extraordinary campus. I am filled with gratitude to join a community so deeply committed to learning, discovery, and public service.
Your work and dedication every day stand as a powerful example of what higher education can achieve. UC Santa Barbara opens doors for students from all backgrounds and provides access to opportunity, inquiry, and excellence. We bring our combined intellectual strength to address society’s most complex issues. As one united community, we support one another and make a difference to our counties, our state, and the world.
We live in a time when the value of higher education is being tested. Like many of our peers across the country, we face challenges that require us to act boldly, think differently, and stay firmly focused on our mission and core values. By working together, across disciplines and backgrounds, we can imagine new ways to deliver on the promise of a world-class, accessible education. And we can turn today’s challenges into opportunities for a promising, more inclusive and sustainable future for all those we serve.
Student success will remain our guiding light. We must ensure that every learner who arrives on our campus not only has the opportunity to earn a degree, but also the support to grow, thrive, and graduate prepared to flourish in our rapidly changing world. That means investing in academic support, mental health and well-being, career readiness, and equity at every level of the student experience.
Our research, scholarship, and commitment to academic freedom continue to be sources of pride and possibility. From groundbreaking discoveries in science, technology, and health, to world-class artistic performances and deeper understandings of culture, to leading efforts in creating a fair and just society, our research and creative endeavors are reaching neighborhoods, informing policy, sparking innovation, and changing lives. That impact is at the heart of who we are and what we do.
My wife, Eleni, and I want to sincerely thank you for your warm welcome and your continued commitment to this campus. We look forward to meeting more of you and to our chance encounters as we are walking our beautiful campus, grabbing a snack at the Arbor, or enjoying a cup of coffee at the Coral Tree Café. We encourage you to join us at the Hatlen and Pollock Theaters, Lotte Lehmann, and other campus spaces for arts and ideas. And we will be cheering on our student-athletes alongside you at Harder Stadium and the Thunderdome!
In the year ahead, we will be listening closely, engaging widely, and working with you to strengthen what makes our campus so consequential. We cannot wait to experience all we will accomplish together.
With gratitude, determination, and hope,
Dennis Assanis
Chancellor