Good afternoon. Muy buenas tardes.
Thank you, Professor Coddington, for that warm welcome. Thank you for all you do on behalf of the University Senate and our institution.
Thank you all for being here today for UAlbany’s annual Fall Address. I appreciate that you have joined us today.
I want to begin my university address by highlighting a situation that you may have seen reported in the media recently. Last weekend, the New York State Writers Institute held its 7th annual Book Festival.
While the event was a tremendous success, we were all very disappointed that one of the planned panel discussions did not take place.
Throughout its over 40-year history, the Writers Institute has celebrated diverse voices in its programming and created spaces for dialogue around complex and challenging issues. However, this incident brought to the forefront the profound polarization; the great anxiety; and the real and deep pain and suffering that permeates our global society, especially as it relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The UAlbany family is not an exception, and we must deal and navigate these difficult realities and systematically address these critical issues.
I greatly appreciate the NYSWI message released earlier today. It was a call to lower the temperature; to begin the healing process; to promote unity and bring our communities together to discuss important, but painful issues; and to highlight that we can do better, we should do better, and we will do better.
Let me be very clear. The University at Albany and the New York State Writers Institute stand firmly against censorship; we remain committed to preserving academic freedom and freedom of speech on our campus; and we will continue to strongly stand against antisemitism, Islamophobia, and any and all forms of hatred.
I hope that this a path forward in which we can all begin to heal and unite our communities for a common cause, focused on peace, social justice, and the betterment of the human race.
As one of the most diverse research universities in this country, UAlbany can and must play a leading role in this process. We can do better and we will do better…
During today’s address, we will also announce the winners of this year’s President’s Awards for Exemplary Public Engagement. You will be very impressed by this year’s groups of honorees and the impact they are making on our community.
And there are so many other wonderful things happening across our campus that I want to share with you and celebrate.
For 180 years, we have been a beacon of knowledge, discovery, and opportunity for our community…this is an incredible legacy.
This institution has been around longer than Coca Cola, General Electric, Boeing, and Ford. Before vacuum cleaners, radio broadcasting, and tea bags existed. Since then, this university has been empowering young people to unleash their inner greatness.
Since our founding in 1844, more than 218,000 students have earned degrees here, transforming their lives and our world.
Every degree we confer to a student, every discovery we unlock in a lab, every partnership we establish with our community is another indelible mark left by UAlbany on the world.
Anna Topol, class of 1997 and 2001, is the chief technology officer and a distinguished engineer at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The knowledge and training she received here at UAlbany has propelled her to a role leading a team of technologists who are conducting cutting-edge research.
A generation earlier, another alumna earned her degree at UAlbany and went on to develop groundbreaking software at IBM’s Watson Research Center. Frances Allen, class of 1954, was a pioneering computer scientist and the first woman to win the Turing Award.
Last week, Liza Colón-Zayas, UAlbany class of 1989, became the first Latina to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in “The Bear.” She initially majored in business, but attending performances at our Performing Arts Center awakened her passion for theater and she changed her major to theater. Since graduation she has had a prolific career on stage and on screen.
The UAlbany impact is seen in Dr. Evan Zahn, class of 1982, a pediatric cardiologist working at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where he performs surgery to correct congenital heart defects in children.
Another alum whose UAlbany degree propelled him on a path of bettering the world was Harvey Milk, class of 1951. The first openly gay man to hold elected office in California, Milk fought against discrimination and built broad coalitions. His legacy lives on, including here at UAlbany in the Harvey House living community for LGBTQ+ students on Dutch Quad.
UAlbany also provided an important path toward success for our first international student, Sensaburo Kodzu of Japan who graduated with the class of 1877. He went on to teach at what was then the New York State Normal School for five years.
The UAlbany impact is evident in Olympian Grace Claxton, class of 2017, a hurdler who represented Puerto Rico in her second Olympics in Paris this summer. As a student at UAlbany, she was a member of our track and field team while also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in public health.
And it was exemplified by an outstanding four-time alumna who embodied the best of UAlbany, Alice Green, class of 1983. Alice was a champion for civil rights, a lifelong learner and educator, an activist, and an advocate. She founded Albany’s Center for Law and Justice in 1985 and spent decades serving Albany’s low-income and disadvantaged communities. Alice’s legacy will live on here at UAlbany and across the city she called home.
These alumni got an important start at UAlbany. Here, they were given a chance to learn, to explore, to author their success. In our classrooms and residence halls, in clubs and on athletic teams, UAlbany’s students can identify their passion and pursue the future of their dreams.
Each year, a new class of students enrolls at UAlbany, filled with promise and potential.
I am so proud to announce that our total enrollment has increased 4 percent over last year for a total of 17,550 undergraduate and graduate students.
Our transfer enrollment increased 40 percent over last year.
About half of that increase is due to our teach-out agreement for former College of Saint Rose students. The rest of the increase is accounted for by our work developing partnerships with community colleges in our region and beyond.
These increases are a major accomplishment.
You have all seen the headlines about enrollments falling, an enrollment cliff looming, and colleges closing. We have even felt those impacts right in our backyard.
But at UAlbany, we are growing, thanks to the hard work and dedication of each of you. Our teams in Admissions, Financial Aid, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, the Graduate School, Communications and Marketing, and the college, school, department leadership deserve special recognition for this tremendous achievement.
I am also pleased to announce that we have welcomed a new Associate Vice President and Chief Enrollment Officer, Dale Gaubautz who will oversee all aspects of undergraduate enrollment at UAlbany.
Dale brings to UAlbany over two decades of experience leading enrollment teams at various institutions. Welcome to the team Dale!
For those of you that closely follow college rankings, UAlbany is again rising in the rankings.
U.S. News and World Report ranks the University at Albany No. 61 in their “Top Public Schools” list – up 9 spots from last year. They rank us No. 121 among all universities nationally, up 12 spots since last year.
The Wall Street Journal ranks us No. 59 among public institutions – and No. 3 in New York.
Washington Monthly ranks us No. 51 among national universities and first among all SUNY institutions.
These are important accomplishments, not because we measure our success by external rankings, but because these rankings indicate that our peer institutions are starting to notice the amazing things happening at UAlbany.
One ranking I am particularly proud of is social mobility. On that metric, U.S. News and World Reports lists UAlbany as No. 26 nationally and the Wall Street Journal ranks us No. 31 nationally.
Social mobility – giving students access to opportunities and resources and enabling them to find an upward trajectory in our society – is what UAlbany is built to do. We are an engine of opportunity.
This year, we launched Great Danes 101, an innovative new online course for parents that aims to demystify college. The course covers everything from academic planning to navigating homesickness to student support services. Already, hundreds of parents are participating in the course.
Last week we announced that UAlbany received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will enable us to launch a new program to address one of the top factors that hurt student retention, persistence, and graduate rates: Finances.
The UAlbany Financial Assistance Coaching and Tools (FACTS) program will help students develop individualized financial plans to reduce financial barriers and allow them to focus on their academic success.
Kudos to everyone involved in this important project and in particular Dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Student Success, JoAnne Malatesta.
Construction projects are a measure that the institution is growing and thriving.
An important part of our success is ensuring we have the right places to do our work, and we have continued to make important investments in our facilities over the past several months.
Last May, many of you were on hand when we opened our brand-new, LEED Gold-certified College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering building on the downtown campus.
We took a historic building, the former Albany High School, and preserved its history while updating it to house leading-edge technology and research labs. This is the place where the future of semiconductor engineering will be invented.
Earlier this month, we opened the new Presidents Reading Room in the University Library. It is a beautiful space that showcases our university’s rich history and, I hope, offers inspiration and a sense of pride to the students, faculty, and staff who use the space.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate the opening of our brand-new Esports Arena. Since its founding in 2019, our esports team has grown to be among the nation’s largest collegiate competitive video gaming programs.
Investing in this program provides our students opportunities to become more engaged in this rapidly growing field. Kudos to the esports founding director, Professor Michael Leczinsky, and our new director who started this semester, John Macone, for their leadership in this space.
Last month, we celebrated the opening of The Well at Colonial, a beautiful health and recreation facility for students, faculty, and staff that is unlike anything we’ve ever had on this campus before.
The Well has space for group exercise classes, including a spinning studio, space for dance classes and yoga, opportunities for individual training, group meetings, and classrooms. It embodies UAlbany’s commitment to taking a holistic approach to the wellness of our community.
Our commitment will be on display next month when UAlbany hosts the U.S. Health Promoting Campuses Network Summit. We were one of the first universities in the country to sign the Okanagan Charter, and I am proud to continue our work supporting a holistic approach to health for our campus, our community, and our world.
This year, we will embark in renovations to the Campus Center Ballroom and the Pine Bush building to support our continued growth.
Our holistic approach to wellness is also embodied in the brand-new College of Integrated Health Sciences.
This new college – which houses our former School of Public Health, our School of Social Welfare, and our growing nursing program – is perfectly positioned to play to UAlbany’s strengths and meet our community’s needs.
Led by Dean Erin Bell with support from Senior Vice Dean Victoria Rizzo, the college is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to social justice and health equity.
Tackling big problems takes big hardware – which is why we have also invested in AI computing power.
Next month, we will celebrate the launch of our state-of-the-art NVIDIA AI supercomputer on campus. We are the first institution within SUNY to have this kind of computing power on campus.
Combined with a cluster hire of 27 faculty in AI, this system is the latest milestone in our AI Plus initiative. Artificial Intelligence is already reshaping our world and UAlbany is positioning our students and researchers to harness its immense potential.
At our new AI in Government Lab, UAlbany researchers are exploring opportunities for government agencies to develop AI applications that will benefit our communities.
I am also very pleased to announce that UAlbany’s AI Plus Institute officially has a new Director. Prabha Prabhakaran will join UAlbany in January.
He brings decades of experience in engineering and computer science and has been on the faculty at University of Texas at Dallas since 2000 and has served as their Associate Vice President for Research Centers and Institute.
I want to thank Professor Eric Stern, who has served as Interim Director of the institute since its inception, for his vision, leadership, and accomplishments.
Here, at UAlbany, we do research and scholarship with the public good in mind.
For example, two UAlbany researchers, John Paccione and David Dziewulski recently patented a design of a new system to treat water contaminated with PFAS. These chemicals are known to pose a threat to environmental and human health.
Another team of UAlbany researchers have been awarded $1.6 million in funding from the EPA to study how these so-called “forever chemicals” infiltrate soil and how we can prevent them from contaminating our food supply.
The team, led by Professor Yanna Liang in CNSE, is leveraging machine learning as they seek innovative solutions to this issue.
The UAlbany Libraries and CEHC are collaborating with Kansas State University on a three-year project that aims to help young adults recognize and resist misinformation.
At the University Art Museum, an interactive new exhibition featuring the work of two professors from our College of Arts and Sciences, artist Danny Goodwin and writer Edward Schwarzschild, is open through December. The exhibition, titled Job Security: Voices and Views from the American Security Industry explores America’s growing security industry and was influenced by both Goodwin’s and Schwarzchild’s fathers, who worked in the industry.
In our Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, researchers are analyzing past, present, and future impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in the Andes region of South America. The projects, led by Professor Mathias Vuille, are funded with $2 million in grants from the National Science Foundation.
Another team of researchers in the same department is working to monitor Puerto Rico’s electrical grid during extreme weather events. PhD student Bianca Méndez Cruz and Professor Jorge González-Cruz have teamed up for the project, which aims to develop predictive modeling to identify vulnerabilities and anticipate likely disruptions in the island’s power grid during extreme weather.
UAlbany’s RNA Institute, in partnership with the University of Rochester, recently established the Center of Excellence in RNA Research and Therapeutics. The center is developing RNA-based therapies for diseases like Myotonic Dystrophy and training the next generation of biotechnology workers for New York State.
In CNSE, Associate Professor Ben Boivin has been awarded $4 million by the NIH to explore the role certain enzymes have in disease progression in mammals. His work could lead to better therapies to fight disease.
In the School of Education, a group of researchers recently published an analysis confirming what many of you likely already strongly suspected: exposure to mobile phone distractions negatively impacts young adults’ learning outcomes.
Quan Chen, Zheng Yan, Mariola Moeyaert, and Robert Bangert-Drowns’s work is the first meta-analysis to produce a precise estimate of the impact mobile phones have on students’ recall of material they hear in a lecture or a read.
And in the School of Criminal Justice, students are working to help solve cold cases like missing persons and unsolved crimes, at the newly integrated Cold Case Analysis Center.
The center, which had been located at the College of Saint Rose, moved to UAlbany this year and will have about 20 student interns per semester. Students from both UAlbany and Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences are eligible to apply for internships at the center.
Overall, our research expenditures have risen to more than $130 million annually thanks to the great work of our faculty, researchers, scholars, and our wonderful staff.
We will soon release a new economic impact report that shows that the University at Albany has an overall economic impact of more than $1.1 billion and supports more than 8,000 jobs.
As I said when I shared the news about our increases in the rankings, gaining accolades are not a reason we do things. We are driven by our mission and shared values. But accolades are an important reflection of how we are viewed by people outside the university, and they provide a barometer of how well we are living up to our ideals.
This year, UAlbany earned Insight Into Diversity’s Higher Education Excellence Award for the 7th consecutive year.
We also received a five-out-of-five ranking on the Campus Pride Index, which measures things like inclusion, housing and residence life, academic life, and campus safety for LGBTQ+ students.
And, we have been named a top performer in the 2024 Sustainable Campus Index, a reflection of the incredible work of our staff in the Office of Sustainability and the Facilities team to sustainably design, construct, and operate buildings and other campus facilities.
Last week, I was proud to join Provost Carol Kim to present 14 UAlbany faculty and staff members with Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence.
These exceptional employees have gone above and beyond in their work in support of our institution. Please join me in congratulating them.
In athletics, we have also seen tremendous success recently:
- Our Men’s Lacrosse, Softball, and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field teams are all America’s East Champions
- Our Women’s Golf team won the MAAC Championship
- UAlbany’s Scott Marr was named the America East Men’s Lacrosse Coach
- UAlbany’s Colleen Cashman was named the MAAC Women’s Golf Coach of the Year.
- And our football coach, Greg Gatusso, was named the American Football Coaches Association FCS Coach of the year.
Congratulations to them and all of our Great Danes athletes!
Another measure of how well we are living up to our mission is philanthropy. If our work can inspire people to donate their hard-earned money in support of our efforts, that is a very strong endorsement.
I am very pleased to report that philanthropy at UAlbany has never been stronger. Last year, gifts and pledges to the UAlbany Foundation hit a record-breaking $38 million.
We were also able to leverage New York’s Endowment Match Program to add $12 million to our endowment, which now sits at more than $170 million.
We appreciate the great work of our advancement staff, and we appreciate your financial support.
These funds directly support our students and our faculty. Last year, more than 3,200 UAlbany students received scholarships through the foundation.
Next month, we will kick off our seventh 1844 Challenge. During this challenge, all gifts received over the course of 1,844 minutes will be matched – dollar-for-dollar – to support student scholarships.
The community we have built here at UAlbany is special.
Together, we share important values: access, integrity, inclusive excellence, working toward the common good, freedom of expression, and academic freedom.
These values guide us as we confront challenges. They establish the ideals we are working toward together.
In this community, we strive to treat each other with dignity and respect. We seek to understand and empathize, even in the face of passionate differences of opinion or belief. We look for the good in each other and the commonalities that bond us.
We are living through historic, and challenging, times. The ongoing war in the Middle East, the upcoming presidential election, and countless other conflicts and tragedies impact each of us differently.
No matter the external circumstances, we are resolute in upholding our obligation to protect freedom of speech. We are also resolute in not tolerating incidents of bigotry, discrimination, or hatred, and we will take action if and when needed.
Upholding these dual obligations can be challenging. That is why we decided to take an intentional, proactive, and holistic approach this semester, which you have hopefully seen in our Great Dane Dialogue initiative.
We are leaning into our critical role as educators to provide students with opportunities to learn about civil discourse and civic engagement and to practice those skills.
We are also prioritizing civic engagement through UAlbany Votes.
Last week, on Constitution Day, hundreds of students registered to vote during a registration drive at the Campus Center.
UAlbany has been recognized with a Bronze Seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for our prior work in increasing voter registration and turnout on campus.
Make sure you have a plan to vote on Tuesday, November 5 or before. And if you are not yet registered, you have until October 26 to register in New York.
Of course, these proactive steps are only one part of the equation. We have also taken important steps to ensure students – and all members of our community – can express their views in a productive way without infringing on the rights of others.
We know that there will be challenges this semester…there have already been a few. The members of our community hold strong and diverse opinions.
We will continue to approach these, and future, challenges as educators, as defenders of free speech, and as guardians of our campus community and our campus culture.
As I conclude these remarks, I want to leave you with a question:
What does it mean to be a part of the UAlbany community?
It’s about more than our shared affinity for water fountains and Great Danes. It’s more than bleeding purple and gold.
To me, being a part of the UAlbany community means being part of a community that is improving the world through research, scholarship, and partnerships that benefit the public good.
…it means being part of a community that is empowering students to envision their success and giving them the tools to achieve it and become engaged global citizens.
…it means being a part of a community that is breaking boundaries and unleashing greatness, on our athletic fields and performance stages, in our classrooms and laboratories, and in our big dreams.
…it means being part of a community that values our differences and understands that our diversity – of backgrounds, of beliefs, of goals – is our strength.
…it means being part of a great community that supports each other and looks out and helps each other, in the good times and in the bad times.
…and it means being part of a community that is rising – in enrollment numbers, in philanthropy, research, rankings, and in its impact, locally and globally.
The University at Albany is an engine of opportunity for our students, our faculty, our staff, our alumni, and our community.
I am so proud to work with each of you to live up to UAlbany’s immense potential and build on our incredible legacy.
Thank you all for being part of this incredible community.
Go Great Danes!
President’s Awards for Exemplary Public Engagement
Now I am very pleased to recognize some of our faculty members and researchers who exemplify what it means to be a part of this Great Dane community with the 2024 President’s Awards for Exemplary Public Engagement.
UAlbany is one of a select group of colleges and universities to earn the Carnegie Foundation’s designation of a Community Engaged Institution.
This distinction is acknowledgement of our deep commitment to service and public engagement.
This is not an add-on to UAlbany’s work. Public engagement is integral to our mission to empower our students, faculty, and campus communities to author their own success.
Recently, I was invited by the Pew Charitable Trusts to join their new Presidents and Chancellors Council on Public Impact Research. UAlbany is one of fewer than 20 institutions included in this group.
The council is working to identify ways for the broader research ecosystem – including public and private funding groups, universities, and others – to prioritize research that benefits the public good.
They have seen the work UAlbany is already doing, the importance we place on public impact and public engagement, and identified us as a model for others.
The President’s Awards for Exemplary Public Engagement honor UAlbany faculty, staff, students, projects, and programs that, in collaboration with community partners, have made outstanding contributions to the public good.
We have a short video showcasing the winning projects.
The 2024 honorees for Distinguished Public Engagement
Nonprofit specialist Susan Appe is an associate professor and the MPA Program Director in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy.
Her community partners include:
- Learning by Giving
- United Way of the Greater Capital Region
- RISSE,
- the Albany Foundation,
- and many, many local and global nonprofits.
Women's health and reproductive justice scholar-activist Rajani Bhatia is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the College of Arts & Sciences.
Dr. Bhatia’s community partner is:
- BirthNet of Albany.
The Computer Science Pathways Researcher-Practitioner Partnership from the School of Education led by Dr. Lijun Ni of the Department of Educational Theory & Practice.
Pathway community partners are:
- the Schenectady City School District,
- Lowell Public Schools,
- and Methuen Public Schools.
The Message Design Dashboard (MDD), led by Dr. Jeanette Sutton of the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity is Project PI. Center for Technology director Dr. Ramon Gil-Garcia and his colleague Derek Werthmuller, CTG’s Director of Technology Innovation and Services, are project Co-PIs. Dr. Micki Olson of CEHC is senior researcher.
MDD community partners include:
- the FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
- and Bent Ear Solutions.
The 2024 winners of the President’s Award for Exemplary Public Engagement
The New York State Myotonic Dystrophy Center, led by the Keith Hynes Endowed Professor in STEM Andy Berglund who is also the director of the RNA Institute at UAlbany. Working alongside Andy at the Center is RNA Institute Assistant Director John D. Cleary.
The Center’s community partners are:
- the Marigold Foundation,
- the Muscular Dystrophy Association
- and longtime Institute friends and supporters, the Genzano Family
Tammy Ellis-Robinson, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, and Director of Equity and Inclusion for the School of Education.
Dr. Ellis-Robison’s community partners include:
- the Bethlehem Central School District,
- Capital Region BOCES,
- Skribblers Board of Directors,
- Disability Champions Mentoring Network,
- and the Equity in Transition Summit.