2012 State of the University Address

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stony brook

university is

on the move …”

2012 state of the

university address

president samuel l. stanley jr., md

state of the university address

delivered on september 19, 2012

three years ago i

stood before the

stony brook

community, students, faculty,

staff, alumni and

our many friends,

and delivered my inaugural

address as the fifth president of

this great university. it was a long

speech. very long. but i had a lot

to say.

i wanted to express my excitement

about stony brook university, the

extraordinary accomplishments

of those who built this great

institution, how far we had come

and how much further we could go.

i wanted to remind everyone how

vital stony brook is to suny,

long island, the great state of

new york and the world. and

three years ago, in the teeth of one

of the worst financial crises in

new york state’s history, i talked

about my vision for stony brook,

and particularly the need to invest

in our faculty. i was channeling

the great late john toll, who

knew that the faculty — human

capital — was the key to building

a great university.

nysuny 2020

with governor

andrew cuomo as

our champion,

nysuny 2020,

groundbreaking legislation that

contains all the

elements we needed …

was passed and

signed into law.”

i argued that we must reinvest in the

faculty if stony brook were to continue its

extraordinary trajectory. in fact, we were

at a crossroads. enrollment had grown

without any increase in the faculty. the

result: bigger classes, and more impor-

tant, fewer sections, making it difficult for

students to get the classes they needed to

graduate on time. unchecked, this would

be an obstacle to student success and

ultimately a path toward mediocrity.

but how would we grow our faculty

during a fiscal crisis? to do this, we would

need a new revenue plan for suny — a

rational tuition program with predictable

modest increases, including recognition of

on december 14, 2011, governor cuomo and chancellor zimpher approved stony brook’s

nysuny 2020 plan, which provides $35 million in capital challenge grant funds.

the higher costs associated with education at a research university — and an end

to budget cuts. achieving this change became my highest priority for stony brook

university, and with leadership from chancellor nancy zimpher and the support of

many elected officials and friends, we worked to get legislation passed that would

make this a reality.

our first attempt, the suny-flex legislation, failed. in the next fiscal year we had

the public higher education empowerment and innovation act (pheeia), which

came so very close but ultimately died in the legislature. as you all know, the third

time was the charm. with governor andrew cuomo as our champion, nysuny

2020, groundbreaking legislation that contains all the elements we needed — rational

tuition increases, an academic excellence fee for the university centers and a main-

tenance of effort clause to combat future budget cuts — was passed and signed into

law. on december 14, 2011, governor cuomo and chancellor zimpher came to stony

brook to accept our nysuny 2020 plan, which allowed us to charge the academic

excellence fee and receive $35 million in capital for our new medical and research

translation building. with nysuny 2020 in place, we have the opportunity to hire

250 new faculty over the next five years.

dennis assanis

esther takeuchi

eckard wimmer

dennis choi

benjamin hsiao

lorna role

peter stephens

george sterman

jeff segal

ken dill

eugene feinberg

sanjay sampath

our esteemed facult y

three years ago i spoke about not just the need to hire faculty, but how that process

should occur. we must be strategic, we must build on existing areas of excellence,

we must identify programs that distinguish us from our peers, and we must find a

way to support interdisciplinary scholarship and collaborations across the campus.

what better way to do that than to engage the faculty in that process?

we must be strategic,

we must build on

existing areas of

excellence, we must

identify programs

that distinguish us

from our peers, and

we must find a way

to support interdisci-

plinary scholarship

and collaborations

across the campus.”

that is why i am so glad that provost

dennis assanis, with my wholehearted

support, launched a competition in

which faculty submitted proposals for

some of our new cluster hires. the

response was tremendous — maybe

even overwhelming — with a tidal wave

of more than 100 proposals initially

submitted, but provost assanis handled

it in style. a committee of suny distin-

guished professors and national academy

members has reviewed the proposals,

and provost assanis will soon announce

the five proposals recommended for

immediate funding. i have reviewed

them, and they are outstanding.

i want to say one more thing about

faculty before i turn to our amazing

students. i said before that we have the

most distinguished faculty in suny and

one of the most distinguished faculties in

the world. this past year we recruited two members of the national academy of

engineering, dennis assanis and esther takeuchi , to stony brook. also, one

of the world’s leading virologists, eckard wimmer , was elected to the national

academy of sciences. dennis choi , a member of the prestigious institute of

medicine (iom), joined our faculty; benjamin hsiao , lorna role , peter

stephens and george sterman were elected to the american association for the

advancement of science (aaas); and jeff segal was elected to the american

academy of arts & sciences. ken dill , eugene feinberg and sanjay sampath

were appointed suny distinguished professors.

this is part of a tradition of faculty excellence that includes three nobel laureates

and an abel prize winner. it’s a small thing, but i want to do something to honor

the faculty who have done so much and brought such renown to the university.

we will create a faculty wall of honor in the melville library that acknowledges

our nobel laureates; abel prize winner; all our national academy members; aaas,

aaa and iom members; and suny distinguished professors. i hope this will

serve as an inspiration to all of us and remind everyone of what a special place

stony brook university is.

average sat scores

of enrolled freshmen

12 0 6

1236 fall 2009

fall 2012 *

mean high school average

of enrolled freshmen

90.9 91.8

fall 2009

fall 2012 *

*ytd sept. 10

our commitment to students

three years ago i spoke about our students and how unique they were. we just

admitted our best class ever, in terms of gpa and sat scores. i have had the

privilege of saying that every year for the past three years, and hope i can say it

again next year. the competition to get into stony brook university is intense, and

we are the sixth most selective school among public universities in the association

of american universities (aau). only the university of california, berkeley;

university of california, los angeles; university of north carolina, chapel hill;

university of virginia; and university of california, san diego, are more selective

than stony brook university. that is good company.

but what sets us apart from almost all of our aau peers is our commitment to economi-

cally disadvantaged students. only one school among the 61 aau members has a higher

proportion of pell grant-eligible students than stony brook university. many of the stu-

dents are the first generation to go to college, and many are the children of recent immi-

grants or new arrivals to the united states themselves. and they have amazing stories.

the competition to

get into stony brook

university is intense,

and we are the sixth

most selective

school among

public universities

in the association

of american

universities.” three years ago at the time of my inaugu-

ration, i did not know the personal stories

of our students nor the incredible obsta-

cles many have overcome to get to stony

brook and graduate. but since then i have

learned some of their stories, and they are

inspiring — students like jataya mccray ,

one of our educational opportunity

program (eop) students, who was raised

by her grandmother and was the first in

her family to attend college. she was not

admitted to eop at first, but continued

to apply until a space was open. she

graduated from stony brook in may 2010

with honors and a 3.7 gpa and continued

on to receive her master of social work

degree here in spring 2011.

students like charles rico from wood-

side, queens, who also was the first of his

family to attend college. he was part of a

close-knit group of 11 friends growing up,

but as they progressed through high

school many lost their way to gang activ-

ity, crime and drugs, and only charles and

one friend chose to pursue higher educa-

tion. charles became an outstanding cam-

pus leader, involved in multiple service

organizations. i crowned him homecom-

ing king in 2010, and he graduated with a

bachelor’s degree in biology in may 2011.

jataya mccray

charles rico

or stephen healy , a new york city

fire department lieutenant, who was

badly injured in the fall of the first tower

at the world trade center on september

11. after retiring from the fire depart-

ment, and a prolonged recovery, stephen

healy decided to commit himself to

furthering his education — he enrolled

first at suffolk community college, and

then transferred to stony brook. he

graduated in december 2010 with a ba

in economics. or kadeem hylton , one of

our eop students, the first in his family

to pursue a degree who became a campus

leader. he interned with assemblyman

carl heastie (a stony brook alum) and

graduated in december 2011 to pursue

a career in education.

these are only four of the many stories

i have heard, and i must say these

students inspire me every day. and

when it was time for stony brook

university to submit its nysuny 2020

plan, it was those students and their

stories that made us take the extra step

to preserve access to stony brook. we

chose to meet the dollar gap between

the increased tuition and new york

state’s tuition assistance program for

all students with family incomes less

than $75,000 per year. no other suny

school is doing this — but it is the right

thing to do, and we are proud to do it.

stephen healy

kadeem hylton

jim and marilyn simons and the simons foundation donated $150 million to stony brook —

a transformational gift that has inspired giving to the university across the nation.

philanthropy during my inauguration speech i spoke only briefly about philanthropy and how

important it would be for stony brook university. what i suspected then, and know

now, is that we will not achieve our goal of being one of the best public universities

in the world without philanthropic support. in some sense, it represents the margin

for excellence — we can do a good job with state support, but we will not be great

without the support of our friends and alumni. during the past three years i have put

fundraising front and center at stony brook university. thanks to the remarkable gift

from jim and marilyn simons and the simons foundation, we are now investing in

excellence across both campuses. the match component of the gift has inspired giving

to stony brook across long island and the country, and we are reaping the benefits.

since my arrival at stony brook university we have booked 36 gifts of $1 million or

more and secured nearly $235 million total in gifts. many of these funds will be used to

help us recruit and retain the best faculty, by creating endowed professorships and

start-up packages that allow us to compete with the best universities in the world.

i am proud to say that we have already more than doubled the number of endowed

professorships at the university and tripled the number of endowed professorships

in the humanities and arts. and we continue to push for funds to support graduate

education and undergraduate scholarships so we can recruit and support the best

students in the land.

frankly, i am humbled and honored that so many individuals believe in our vision

and believe that stony brook university is worth supporting. we have much more

work to do, a match to complete and many important areas to support, but i am

very confident that we can do it, and i want to acknowledge dexter bailey, our

vice president for advancement, who has brought a new level of professionalism

and success to our fundraising efforts. dexter, thanks to you and your team. i also

want to thank all of the senior leadership of the university and our faculty who

have worked hard to help obtain the funds to help us achieve our goals.

project 50 forward

three years ago we were dealing with

what would become more than $90 million

in budget cuts to stony brook university.

i realized that if we were to preserve

the academic heart of our university,

we would have to become more efficient

and effective on the administrative side.

we could not afford duplication of

administration or academic effort,

ineffective procurement, stultifying

hiring practices or wasteful spending.

our staff was hardworking, and we were

lean compared with our peers, but we

were not always efficient and not always

cost effective. i used a gift from the

stony brook foundation to initiate

project 50 forward, our effort to re-engineer stony brook’s administrative side for

excellence. i am pleased to say that under the leadership of senior vice president

barbara chernow, we continue to make great progress in this area. this has been an

inclusive process, with input from faculty, staff, students and the senior leadership

team. to date we have achieved savings of nearly $13 million annually, and these are

monies that find their way back into student support and our academic mission.

to date we have

achieved savings of

nearly $13 million

annually, and these

are monies that

find their way back

into student support

and our academic

mission.” i want to particularly thank those staff members who have embraced this process

and helped us achieve these remarkable cost savings while preserving the effective-

ness of our support services. many thanks to each and every one of you. i want to

emphasize that there is much more to do, and if we are to realize the benefits of our

increased revenue from nysuny 2020 and our new levels of philanthropic support,

we must continue to find ways to do things smarter, cheaper and better. simply put,

project 50 forward is critical to our future success.

a global institution

… we are the first and

only u.s. university

that has been

approved by the south

korean ministry of

education, science

and technology to

offer degrees in

south korea.”

i want to make three more points before

concluding. during my inauguration i

spoke about stony brook university as

a global institution. this past summer i

saw that reality firsthand. i traveled to

madagascar, where i joined stony brook

university professor and macarthur

genius award winner pat wright as we

opened centre valbio. built with gifts

to the stony brook foundation, this

amazing building will be the center

for education and research at the

ranomafana preserve, where pat

continues her groundbreaking studies

on lemurs and biodiversity.

i traveled to mahajanga in madagascar, where professor david krause discovered

the fossil remains of majungasaurus crenatissimus (what we affectionately refer to

as stony bones), and then traveled to kenya, where i joined stony brook professors

richard, maeve and louise leakey and lawrence martin, director of the turkana

basin institute, and toured both lake turkana sites, arguably the best fossil sites for

human and non-human primate evolution in the world. the research at each site is

this past spring suny korea opened in songdo, south korea, offering graduate classes.

world class, and the opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and professional

students are amazing.

as impressed as i was with the research, i was equally proud of the difference

that each of the research sites is making to its local community and to its country.

david krause’s ankizy fund has already built five schools in madagascar, and in

collaboration with our school of dental medicine is providing children and adults

in many villages with outstanding dental care. pat wright led the effort to create

the preserve at ranomafana, saving thousands of acres of rain forest and a unique

ecosystem. she and her colleagues also are beginning efforts to look at health

issues in the surrounding communities, focusing particularly on clean water and

the prevention of diarrheal illnesses. and the turkana sites are working to help

surrounding communities get fresh water; improve maternal health; develop new

sources of energy, such as biogas; and create new industries, such as fish farming.

i have just scratched the surface of what our faculty and students do in these areas

and in many other countries around the world. and speaking of a global university,

this past spring we had the official opening of suny korea, our new campus in

songdo, near seoul, south korea. this is an amazing venture — we are the first

and only u.s. university that has been approved by the south korean ministry of

education, science and technology to offer degrees in south korea. the facilities

are incredible, the student quality is high, and we are committed to doing this right.

we want those students to get a stony brook-quality education and truly earn a

stony brook university degree.

many stony brook student-athletes — such as former track and field star lucy van dalen ’12,

who competed in the 2012 london olympics — are standouts in their sports.

the baseball team defeats lsu and advances to the college world series.

but i think it is fair

to say that stony

brook university, as

epitomized by the

team that shocked

the world, our base-

ball team, has made

a name for itself as a

great university that

also has some pretty

amazing athletes …”

the team that shocked

the world

when i delivered my inaugural address

i talked briefly about athletics and gave a

shout-out to wolfie, stating there would

always be a line item in my budget for

wolfie. well, that was smart — wolfie is

more popular than ever — but i really

could not have predicted the impact our

athletics program has had over the past

three years. name recognition is so

important to us, for student and faculty

recruitment, for our ability to appeal to

donors and for our alumni. i don’t have

time to chronicle all of the accomplish-

ments — there are just too many and

they encompass many of our sports teams.

but i think it is fair to say that stony

brook university, as epitomized by the team that shocked the world, our baseball

team, has made a name for itself as a great university that also has some pretty

amazing athletes, some very impressive coaches and a great director of athletics

in jim fiore. i can’t put a dollar value on the publicity that we have received, but i

know firsthand from talking with students, faculty, alumni, donors, members of our

community and people who just hear that i have something to do with stony brook

university that athletics has really helped engage people with this great institution.

president stanley speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony

of the new marine sciences center in southampton.

campus improvements and expansions

finally, one measure of any institution’s health is the number of cranes on campus.

thanks in large measure to the steadfast support of our elected officials, most

notably new york state senators ken lavalle and john flanagan and assemblymen

steve englebright, mike fitzpatrick and others, there is exciting new construction

happening on campus. next month we will open the new campus recreation center,

a state-of-the-art facility that will make a tremendous difference in the quality of life

for each and every student at stony brook university. i can’t wait.

we are hopeful

that with the strong

support of suny

and the state, we

can continue to

add to, renovate

and improve this

great campus.”

earlier this summer we broke ground

for a new marine sciences center at our

southampton campus, a fantastic new

facility that will help propel our outstand-

ing school of marine and atmospheric

sciences to even greater heights. soon

we will break ground on a new computer

science building, and before you know it,

the new classrooms at the old chemistry

building will be online. in 2013 we are

opening our new hilton garden inn at

stony brook — this will be transforma-

tive in our ability to host conferences

on campus.

across nicolls road, design is progressing

for the new medical and research trans-

lation building and new hospital tower that will incorporate stony brook children’s

hospital. these will be new signature buildings for a campus that is long overdue for

an upgrade. this is just a sampling of what we are doing — our new capital plan

provides for far more. we are hopeful that with the strong support of suny and

the state, we can continue to add to, renovate and improve this great campus.

u.s.news & world report

top 100

among all national

universities u.s.news & world report

top 40

among all public

national universities

a top-tier university

so three years later i am proud to say that i believe stony brook university is on

the move, and we are moving in the right direction. the recent u.s.news & world

report rankings placed us in the top 100 national universities and among the top

40 public universities — the highest ranking we have ever achieved. and while i am

always skeptical of these ratings, i hope they reflect the real progress we have made.

to the extent that any of that progress can be traced to my administration, i want to

acknowledge what i believe is an outstanding team: my three senior vice presidents,

kenneth kaushansky, senior vice president for health sciences and dean of the

school of medicine; dennis assanis, provost and senior vice president for academic

affairs; and barbara chernow, senior vice president for administration.

time will not permit me to name all the other great members of our team — the

other vice presidents or our superb deans — but i did want to welcome our new

hospital ceo, l. reuven pasternak, who will lead an enterprise that is vital to our

university and region; our newly appointed vice president for finance and senior

budget officer, lyle gomes; lynn johnson, newly appointed as vice president for

human resources; and our new vice president for research, benjamin hsiao.

welcome to each and every one of you, and thank you for your commitment to

stony brook.

i am proud to say

that i believe

stony brook

university is on

the move, and we

are moving in the

right direction.”

president stanley’s state of the

university address can be viewed at

http://bit.ly/txccic for more information:

stony brook university

office of the president

stony brook, ny 11794-1601

(631) 632-6265

www.stonybrook.edu produced by the office of the vice president for

external relations

photo credits: wasim ahmad, bob boston, arielle

dollinger/stony brook press, gordon m. grant,

john griffin/office of communications, sam levitan,

charles e. manley, jeanne neville/media services,

chris parent, lynn spinnato, cheryl treworgy,

courtesy of ken dill, and courtesy of suny korea

action, equal opportunity educator and employer. this

publication is available in alternate format on request.

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