Joining Stony Brook University as Your Provost

07/05/2022

Dear Colleagues,

I am thrilled to officially begin my tenure as your provost at Stony Brook University. For the past two months, I have engaged in numerous conversations with faculty, staff, and students. I have a great deal to learn, but one thing that is abundantly clear to me about this institution is that it is filled with thoughtful, engaged, and truly dedicated community members. I am honored to join you all and excited to work together to support the long-term health and success of our university.

This is also a sad time for many in our community as we mourn the loss of two members of our College of Arts and Sciences faculty, Norman Goodman and Adrián Pérez-Melgosa. Dr. Goodman, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching and Service Professor in the Department of Sociology, was known as a member of Stony Brook’s founding generation of scholars, devoting 56 years of his career to the institution and leaving a legacy of service and leadership. A sociologically oriented social psychologist, he was the first person in SUNY to be awarded two distinguished professorships — one for service and one for teaching. Dr. Pérez-Melgosa was an Associate Professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature and past director of the Humanities Institute. In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Pérez-Melgosa fostered interdisciplinary efforts and continued to elevate the work of humanists with a strong emphasis on researching and sharing personalized narratives to change hearts, minds, and policies for basic human rights. I share my deepest condolences with their families, friends, and colleagues.

The Office of the Provost plays a key role in executing President McInnis’ vision to elevate Stony Brook as a leading research university focused on holistic student success and impact in the community. In support of realizing this vision, a core value at the heart of everything we do will be a commitment to serving our faculty, staff, and students in a manner that best supports their ability to thrive. We will achieve this through frequent and clear communication, community-informed decision-making, and cross-university collaboration.

The way that we arrange our leadership team makes a big difference in meeting these objectives. I am fortunate to work with a team of talented administrators and staff who have maintained continuity and excellence in services throughout challenging times. I am especially grateful to Mónica Bugallo, who has served with exceptional skill as interim provost. She has been an outstanding advisor as I transition into this new position and I am excited that she will continue to be part of an extremely strong leadership team.

At this time, we are working on a process aimed at aligning the portfolios in our office with the needs of the academic community at Stony Brook. This process will be informed by input at multiple levels of university leadership as well as the University Senate Executive Committee. Two areas of service that will be central in these efforts are ensuring open communication and overseeing provost-level operations to support progress on issues affecting the academic mission of the university.

Toward that end, the Office of the Provost has appointed a new Chief of Staff and Assistant Provost for Strategic Communications. Kristi Henderson, who has served in a similar combined position as partner with me at both the University of Connecticut and the University of Kansas, brings nearly 15 years of experience in academic operations at public flagship institutions. She is particularly well-versed in communications, project management, strategic planning, and staff administration. Kristi began her career in journalism, with positions at multiple publications including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Kansas City Star. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, and she is completing an MBA. She will play a leading role in supporting our goal of high-quality service to our community.

As I begin there are a few updates to provide.

We are in the midst of key searches for new deans to lead the libraries, the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS), and the College of Business. The libraries search is well underway, while the CEAS and Business searches are just beginning. We have recently charged the CEAS search committee and will work with the firm Russell Reynolds Associates to manage this search. More information will be shared soon on the College of Business search. Please visit this webpage for more information on the CEAS search and this webpage for the libraries search.
We are also continuing to study the future of graduate and professional education and how best to align support for this absolutely critical area of the university. We recently named Celia Marshik as Interim Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education and Interim Dean of the Graduate School, and she will be a key partner in this effort. As a leading research institution in the AAU, we must uphold excellence in graduate and professional education and post-doctoral training. We are very appreciative of the feedback many in our community provided in a petition signed by over 500 individuals and then at the graduate education conversation I led in late spring. We already have made some progress in refilling staff positions, one of the concerns shared in the feedback. Our efforts moving forward will be highly influenced by community input and the excellent report recently completed by the working group on graduate education jointly commissioned by the Office of the Provost and the University Senate.
As we move into the next phases of the Project REACH strategic planning effort, research and graduate education are two of the core principles, alongside undergraduate education, economic development, innovative health care, and diversity and global positioning. I am excited to see how this initiative has engaged members from all across the university to form a bold vision for Stony Brook’s future by 2027. Important work is yet to come with the subsequent phases of engagement as we begin to develop the institution-wide and school and college plans.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your provost. I appreciate the welcome I’ve received from so many already and look forward to meeting many more of you in the coming months.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs