Presidential Priorities

Three happy students posing for an image outside at Case Western Reserve University

Eric W. Kaler became the 11th president of Case Western Reserve University on July 1, 2021

An accomplished chemical engineer and visionary university leader, Kaler’s career in higher education spans more than 40 years. He has significant expertise in elevating research, expanding fundraising, forming collaborative partnerships, encouraging entrepreneurship and advocating for diversity, equity and inclusion.

President Kaler's priorities are to:

  • elevate academic excellence,

  • expand the research enterprise and

  • enhance community engagement.

President Eric W. Kaler headshot

Our three priorities will continue to serve as guides on our climb toward institutional excellence. As we move ahead, we’ll be anchored by the values of diversity and inclusivity because there is no path to excellence without them.”

President Eric W. Kaler in a letter to the Case Western Reserve community in August 2022

President’s Commission on Student Success

The President’s Commission on Student Success is an advisory committee whose aim is to make an immediate and targeted impact at Case Western Reserve that not only draws ambitious students to the university, but keeps them focused and on the path to graduation.

The commission, comprising more than 50 alumni, friends and trustees, is guided by four pillars, building on a wide range of engagement strategies and support services already offered by the university.

The Commission’s Four Pillars

  1. Attract enterprising students
  2. Deliver a positive first-year experience
  3. Facilitate experiential learning that prepares students to thrive
  4. Provide mentoring that positively impacts retention and graduation 

Knowing that the first pillar—drawing academically talented and increasingly more diverse students to the university—relies on greater access to scholarship support, commission members have given generously since the group’s launch in September 2020. Combined, members have contributed more than $65 million in lifetime support to the university.

"Funds raised through the alumni affect many different areas of CWRU, but the biggest [beneficiaries] are the students,” said scholarship recipient Maria Luisa Bates Domenech (CWR ‘22), who worked at the student call center throughout her time on campus. “All the clubs I [was] a part of, all the classes I attended and the buildings I walked through [were] made possible partly through donations."

Support deserving students like Maria through your gift to the President’s Strategic Initiative Fund.