August 2025

Thank you for the Honor

Dear Fellow University of Rochester Trustees,

I have decided to honor my strong belief in Trustee term limits by not seeking another term after my fourth term (20 years) ended last May. I did not want to cause any distraction during the school year which is why I agreed to a one-year extension to buy a little time. As I told Lizette (Chair of Nominations and Board Practices) and Carol (Vice-Chair) a few months ago, I would serve through the summer as this period would be the perfect (and calm time) for the Board to choose my replacement. I personally believe our University is best served by a continual refreshment of talented trustees who bring new and broad perspectives and work hand-in-hand with our President, staff and faculty to create our brightest possible future.

As I look back on my 20 years with the University, I take great pride in being asked to serve. My positions as Chair of the Investment Committee, Co-Chair of our first Capital Campaign, Chair of our Strategic Planning Committee, Chair of the Mary Jo White Committee, and ultimately Board Chair for these past 7 years, were each important moments in my life. I thank each of you for the opportunity to serve.

I believe that when there is a transition, the best thing for the institution and the new leadership is for a clean break, so all can move forward in unison in the direction chosen by the University’s leadership, the Board and the new Chair. As such, I will leave you all with my following personal thoughts, fully recognizing our future is in all your collective hands.

Let’s never forget that our role is to serve and help develop the future leaders of tomorrow. We cannot have personal enough exposure to our most important constituency. Success here, ensures we will succeed in our mission.
Let’s always appreciate and support the incredible staff that works so selflessly and tirelessly to keep our incredible organization on the right track. This is not easy work.
Let’s never take for granted the uniqueness, brilliance and commitment of our extraordinary faculty who have dedicated themselves to teaching, innovation, research and making the world a better place.
Let’s never underestimate the importance to society of a Research University and more specifically, the vital role that our University of Rochester holds in this regard.
Let’s treasure our role in providing the very best medical healthcare to an enormous part of this great state of New York, our critical place in training future medical leaders, and our ability to change the lives of so many in need because of our world class staff and state-of-the-art medical research.
Let’s never forget how vital we are to our entire region and never forget the responsibility and privilege we have to serve and give back to our community.

And here are a few of my personal wishes:

May each of you spend more time with our students.
May each of you find significant personal projects that inspire you to give time, money or both in a manner that stirs your passion and makes our University “ever better.”
May the Board work with the leadership team to financially stay ahead of all the cross winds and challenges facing every upper education institution today. Whether the changes impact us immediately or in the near or mid-future, we must always stay ahead of the challenges. If our “operating model” is not sustainable, we will not be able to effectively carry out our important mission.
May we always stay optimistic about our future, but be honest and realistic about the current and future state of affairs. Universities are not immune from the reality of revenues and costs and history is often not a predictor of future success.
May we never utter the words, “this is the way we have always done it,” as every day offers opportunities to truly improve if we are not overly burdened by process and history (that may have originally been effective).
May we do our best to optimize the incredible wealth in talent, ideas, research and innovation that abundantly flows throughout our University community. We need to always be on the lookout for smart processes and structures to encourage this work and allow our University and the people responsible for innovation to participate on the upside.
May we always have a Board that is transparently informed, encouraged to ask the hard questions, empowered to truly contribute and always operating in a selfless manner to always prioritize is in the long-term best interest of our University.
May our Board always encourage and appreciate the prompt raising of “bad news” so we can all rally together to help solve whatever is the latest challenge.
May we strive to continue our practice of making sure our Committee Chairs are always empowered to create operating leverage for leadership and accountability for all.
May term limits be honored with grace and consistency.
May we always be on the search for the very best new Trustees.
May we hold ourselves accountable for helping our President be surrounded by the most talented staff possible, just like we have today.
May we always be mindful of our current strategic plan and be driven by advancing the ball in every chosen area and hold ourselves accountable for our success or lack thereof.
May we always select and rally fully around the 2 or 3 major priorities that we choose to select as the ones that will truly make a difference for our University in the long term.
May we always keep a level head when things appear the most challenging and never get too pleased with ourselves when all is well.
May we instill and live with a keen sense of urgency while always prioritizing the long-term success.
May we fully embrace technology in every aspect and be leaders in creating it and implementing it for ourselves, and the world.
May we never forget that our fellow Trustees are truly special and unique individuals that share our collective passion and are all eager to do their very best for our school.
May we never forget that first and last, we are critically important fiduciaries for something much larger than any of us individually, and even all of us combined.
May we always remember what an honor and privilege it is to serve our great University of Rochester.

Thank you all for the opportunity you have given me. I will always be appreciative that I found my way to the University of Rochester in 1979, and I know my heart will never leave our fine institution.

Meliora,

RICH HANDLER