I hope you take tremendous pride in the recent news recognizing UCLA once again as the No. 1 public university in the nation by US News and World Reports.

This recognition belongs to our entire Bruin community — and each of you should see yourselves in it. UCLA could not achieve this level of excellence without the extraordinary work that happens every day across Administration. You create and sustain the environment in which our faculty can teach and discover, our students can learn and thrive, and our entire community can do its best work.

We see examples of that excellence throughout Administration every day. One particularly visible example came with the recent news that UCLA was once again ranked the No. 1 university in the country for student dining by Niche — an honor our dining program has now earned for eight consecutive years. It is a remarkable accomplishment for our Housing & Hospitality colleagues and also reflects something much larger: the standard of excellence, innovation, service, and care that teams throughout Administration bring to UCLA every day.

Not every contribution comes with a national ranking, of course. Some of the most important work across Administration happens quietly and behind the scenes. Whether you are maintaining and improving our campus, keeping our community safe, stewarding our resources, advancing sustainability, supporting our people and operations, serving our students, or finding new and better ways to serve the university, your work is part of what makes UCLA the No. 1 public university in the country.

Rankings are one measure of excellence. What matters most are the people and the thousands of things you do every day to make UCLA an extraordinary place to learn, work, live, and belong.

So, congratulations to all of you — and thank you. I am deeply grateful for your professionalism, ingenuity, dedication, and commitment to UCLA and for the exceptional Bruin experiences you make possible.

I hope you will share my congratulations and appreciation with your teams and take a moment to celebrate what we have accomplished together.

Go Bruins!