A message from President Tim Sands

To the Virginia Tech community,

As we come to the close of another academic year for our university, I am deeply grateful for the leaders, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends who shaped and supported our success.

To say this year was transformational is an understatement. We welcomed new leaders, including a new executive vice president and provost, a new senior vice president for advancement, new deans in the Honors College and the College of Natural Resources and Environment, and a new head football coach, and we are about to welcome a new dean of the College of Engineering.

We launched the new Institute for Advanced Computing in Academic Building One in Alexandria, which also hosted the first Times Higher Education Innovation & Impact Summit to be held in North America.

We began construction on the New Business Building, which will complete Pamplin College of Business’s move to the Global Business and Analytics Center in the North Academic District.

SURATech, our partnership with the Southeastern University Research Association, was selected to manage and operate the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, where we will soon break ground on a new High Performance Data Facility.

Those are just a few highlights. There have been countless endeavors, from large and far-reaching to small and personal, that have impacted our communities in a positive way, and each one is an important part of Virginia Tech’s mission.

I am especially proud of our faculty’s work and achievements over the past year, earning global honors and recognition such as the APLU’s International Impact Award, and appointments to the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Inventors. Your engagement in our classrooms and laboratories to advance learning and research, and your advocacy for experiential education are the reasons we are ranked 13th among public universities by the Wall Street Journal. Your support for academic freedom, free expression, and your forward-looking work to establish a framework for the responsible use of AI will reinforce the strength of our academic enterprise in the years to come. Thank you.

We will celebrate one of our most important accomplishments of the academic year next week, as more than 6,500 Hokies receive their degrees. Congratulations to the Class of 2026! You are headed into a rapidly evolving world that needs your skills, ideas, passion, and commitment to service. We wish you well and Virginia Tech will always be here to support you because this is home.

The past few academic years have been periods of transition. The coming year will be no different. The pace of change continues to accelerate, and we are prepared to adapt, explore, discover, and innovate. This is how we lead in the spirit of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). We look to the future with optimism and purpose because we are prepared to make a difference where it matters most. Members of the Class of 2030, who are making plans to join is in the fall, expect and deserve no less.

That familiar cheer in Lane Stadium, Cassell Coliseum, Burruss Auditorium, and other venues across our campus has taken on a new meaning for me over the years, as the entirety of our university moves forward with momentum, strength, and purpose.

Let’s go, Hokies!

Tim Sands
President