State of the University
Fall 2011

Stuart Rabinowitz, President

October 2011

I am pleased to have this opportunity to address the faculty and summarize the major accomplishments of this year. As I put the finishing touches on my remarks, I am pleased to announce that Hofstra has, once again, been chosen to host a presidential debate on October 16, 2012. This historic experience will allow our students and faculty to witness the democratic process firsthand, and allow us to showcase our University to a national and international audience.

Despite continuing economic challenges, this past year was a terrific year with many significant achievements, including the $20 million naming gift for the law school, the successful opening of the new Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University that welcomed its inaugural class, the creation of a School of Engineering and Applied Science (which will bring added prominence to both engineering and computer science), the recruitment of an excellent first-year class of 1,675 students (225 more than last year), and the yearlong 75th anniversary celebration. The University also received favorable reviews and rankings in a number of publications (including achieving a ranking of 128 in U.S. News & World Report, up from last year’s ranking of 139) and continues its progress in enhancing its national and international recognition.

Collective Bargaining

The administrative negotiating team and the AAUP negotiating team spent much of the summer in negotiations regarding a new agreement to follow the August 31 contract expiration date. This is always a difficult time for both the administration and the faculty; after working together on committees and events and participating in shared governance functions, it is not easy to move to the collective bargaining phase. Both sides negotiated in an atmosphere of mutual respect; they shared information, listened to each other and learned from each other. The agreement reached between the parties and ratified by the faculty and Board of Trustees will enable us to move forward together for the next five years. In this constrained time for higher education, I am very pleased that we were able to agree on a contract that well serves the needs of the faculty as well as the University. I am especially pleased that the contract preserves all of our merit components and also provides meaningful wage increases for all faculty. Our fate is inextricably interwoven and I am confident that together we will bring our University ever-increasing national prominence.

Enrollment Management

After smaller classes during the worst of the recession, this year’s entering class consists of 1,675 new first-year students, 225 more than last year. The fall 2011 entering class has excellent academic credentials: the average SAT is 1171 (compared to 1172 last year), and the average GPA is 3.51 (up from 3.46 last year) and the highest GPA in our history. Honors College enrolled 232 new first-year students, up from 184 last year (and the highest enrollment in Honors College in our history), with an average SAT of 1324 (compared to 1325 last year) and GPA of 4.0 (also the same as last year). This year’s entering class is 34 percent students of color, the same as last year. Forty-five percent of the class is from outside New York state, slightly lower than last year, reflecting the still difficult economic climate, with a slightly larger number of students staying closer to home. Given the intensely competitive market in this geographic area, the enrollment of this larger class – with its high number of Honors College students and reduced number of School for University Studies students – was a considerable accomplishment. The amount of scholarship/financial aid offered was critical to enrolling this class, and the discount rate increased to approximately 39 percent, which is still lower than many of our competitors. Also critical to enrolling this class was the work our team did in improving the financial aid allocation model used in the prior year. For this coming year, we have hired our own statistician, who, under the direction of our excellent team, will be modeling in-house, thus permitting greater focus on Hofstra-specific variables, as well as greater responsiveness and increased control over the entire process.

Transfer enrollment continues to be challenging. Transfer students are particularly price sensitive, and more prospective transfer students have decided to remain where they are or enroll in public rather than private schools in this economic climate. We have entered into additional articulation agreements and “2+2” agreements with community colleges, and continue to make improvements in transfer credit evaluation.

Graduate enrollment came in at budget. The Frank G. Zarb School of Business had significant gains, particularly in the part-time M.B.A. program and M.S. programs. The School of Education, Health and Human Services, however, experienced declines, particularly in education enrollment.

Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine

The School of Medicine welcomed its first class this July. Selected from 4,000 applicants, this extraordinary group of 40 students has exceptional academic credentials (average MCAT score of 33 and average GPA of 3.6) as well as rich extracurricular backgrounds. The inaugural class came from 33 different collegse and universities, including Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Stanford, MIT, Johns Hopkins, USC, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Hofstra. The medical school’s innovative curriculum changes the way medical education is delivered. Clinical work is integrated with classroom instruction from the outset; self-directed learning is emphasized; and the team-based course of study focuses on case studies. Hands-on experience began from day one and the inaugural class has already completed its EMT training and begun working in North ShoreLIJ’s ambulance system. The medical school is currently receiving applications for its next class of 60 students and reports an increase in the number and quantity of applicants as of this date. Interviews for the 2012 class are expected to begin shortly.

The medical school building, a completely renovated, high-tech 47,000-square-foot structure, houses a state-of-the-art lecture hall that seats more than 100, as well as flexible classroom space and a full-scale anatomy lab. It also contains lounge, study space, and dining facilities, and an extended patio with outdoor seating. This building and its location was so successful that, rather than start anew and build a completely new medical school on the 11 acres opposite the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex as was originally contemplated, it was decided to keep the current building and add a 50,000-square-foot addition joined by a glass atrium. This solution works better for the medical school, preserving its current favorable location, avoids the dislocation of moving, and is less costly than building a completely new building that would duplicate the existing space. The planned building will double the overall space currently available to the medical school and provide adequate space for future growth.

We continue to integrate the medical school into the University with increasing joint initiatives, programs and collaborative efforts. We have begun a B.S.-B.A./M.D. program, a highly selective program, which provides very high-achieving applicants a pathway to enrollment in the medical school after completion of their undergraduate degree at Hofstra, conditioned on their achieving a specified grade point average, MCAT score, and satisfying other program requirements. This fall we welcomed four first-year students to the B.S.-B.A./M.D. program. Interest in the sciences among undergraduates continues to increase; for example, in this year’s entering first-year class, 150 (or 9 percent of the class) are biology majors, as compared to 70 (4.8 percent) last year and 57 (3.3 percent) in fall 2006. The medical school will be working closely with our pre-med students and providing them opportunities to participate in lectures and other events at the medical school.

Fundraising

Maurice A. Deane, law school alumnus and former trustee and chair emeritus of the Board of Trustees, has committed to a transformative gift valued at $20 million for the naming of the law school. Deane, who enrolled in the law school at the age of 50 after an extremely successful business career, graduated first in his law school class, and it is so fitting that the law school now bears his name. This law school naming pledge is the largest commitment in Hofstra history, and will provide significant resources to help the Maurice A. Deane School of Law continue its already considerable momentum, and also help to spur other major donors to make their own transformative gifts.

Following a detailed feasibility and planning study, the University is in the quiet phase of a University-wide capital campaign for both the medical school and the entire University to raise funds for scholarships, faculty support, capital projects, technology enhancements and unrestricted funding.

Retention and Student Engagement

The retention from the first year to sophomore year for the class that entered in fall 2010 is at 80 percent, up from last year’s retention rate of 77 percent and tied with our high of 80 percent for the entering class of fall 2007. This significantly improved retention rate is very promising considering the still difficult economic conditions, and should improve graduation rates over time. The fall 2010 class was the first to receive significant need-based aid as well as merit awards, and this appears to have aided in retention.

As measured in our annual survey of undergraduate and graduate students, student satisfaction has significantly increased since the benchmark year of 2003-2004, in the areas of overall satisfaction, meeting of academic and social expectations, and facilities and services. We show real gain in key areas that impact the student experience, like ratings of faculty contact and individualized attention, and social life and sense of community on campus. Our students today are highly engaged, both socially and academically, which should lead to further retention and graduation rate improvements.

Currently, 235 undergraduate and graduate student clubs and organizations are registered with the Office of Student Leadership and Activities and range in scope from club sport teams to campus chapters of international professional associations. The student-run, campus-wide, fundraising initiative Relay for Life raised $93,000 for American Cancer Society in April. In addition, students, faculty and staff donated thousands of items to support individuals living in homeless shelters. Greek life experienced a 52 percent increase in membership over the past year, and as a group, they made the largest one-time donation to the Interfaith Nutrition Network of 10,000 cans of food.

The Intramural Sports program had more than 1,200 student participants during the 2010-2011 year. Several sports club teams achieved notable accolades, such as Club Baseball, ranked No. 2 in the nation, which competed in the NCBA World Series and sent a player to the NCBA D1 Homerun Derby. Two riders of the Equestrian Club went to the Zone Finals, and Women’s Ultimate Frisbee hosted a sectional tournament on campus. The Roller Hockey team, with support from across the Hofstra community, raised $9,500 for children’s cancer research through their annual St. Baldrick’s fundraiser. Finally, Cricket and Quidditch were added to the club sport team offerings.

For today’s college student, technology provides flexibility, access, and more importantly, opportunities for creating, sharing and connecting their world. In 2010-2011, the Division of Student Affairs launched a social media campaign to increase student engagement and awareness of campus resources and support services. Today, we have 3,000 “likes” on our Facebook page and there were 627,280 post views over the course of the past year. A little more than 700 individuals follow us via Twitter, and a divisional blog was introduced in August 2011 as a cross-campus collaboration (between departments, student organizations, and other areas of the University) that aims to inform students and increase engagement, in and out of the classroom, and received 3,770 visits in less than one month. In addition, more than 50 pieces of office and divisional marketing materials were developed. Our divisional home page and office-specific Web pages received nearly 1 million unique visitors.

Following the theme of “Communicate, Educate and Integrate,” the Off-Campus Living and Commuting Student Services Office was successful in increasing sponsored events by 50 percent. In addition, the office sponsored community-based program initiatives, such as the Shake A Rake program, Uniondale Beautification project, and the Snow Angels snow removal program (where groups of students assisted community members in seasonal home maintenance projects and community-wide projects). The Village of Hempstead recognized the Shake A Rake program and the Uniondale Beautification project received accolades from the town of Uniondale.

Five-Year Plan

The entire University has been actively involved in planning for the next five-year plan, which will run from fall 2012 to 2017. The deans and vice presidents have worked with the faculty to review programs and expenditures to ensure that all funds are being spent prudently, and to identify areas where investment is required in order to maximize future opportunities.

I have asked Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Herman Berliner and Senior Vice President for Planning and Administration Pat Adamski to work with the deans and vice presidents, in consultation with other constituencies, to produce a realistic and achievable five-year plan that continues our growth and momentum.

Academic Initiatives

The Board of Trustees approved the formation of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at their June meeting, which paves the way for a search for the founding dean to begin this fall. For many years we have had an undergraduate Engineering Department as well as an undergraduate and graduate Computer Science Department. The Engineering Department, though it includes nationally ABET-accredited degrees programs in Engineering Science (which includes a bioengineering option), Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering, has not been fully recognized for the strengths already present because it is a department in a Liberal Arts and Sciences College rather than a separate school, which is much more usual for engineering programs. The Computer Science Department also has not been fully recognized for the strength of its programs, including the online/ hybrid program we have on the graduate level.

Our new School of Engineering and Applied Science will provide the visibility needed and also serve as a launching pad for an expanded presence in this important field where we know there are job opportunities, currently as well as projected. These opportunities are in the fields of biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental and industrial engineering. Especially important with the opening of our School of Medicine is the expansion of our offerings in bioengineering (both undergraduate and graduate). In computer science, there is also great potential in areas such as computer security and privacy as well as gaming and simulation.

Establishing a School of Engineering and Applied Science will make Hofstra only the third university in the New York metropolitan area to have schools of law, medicine and engineering (the others are Columbia University and New York University). In the same way that our medical school – with its practical, patient-centered approach and partnership with North Shore-LIJ Health System – is on the cutting-edge of medical education, our School of Engineering and Applied Science will produce students who are firmly grounded in theory, but also understand and are prepared for the challenges of a constantly evolving business environment. The School of Engineering and Applied Science will be a model of cross-disciplinary study and co-op education that will provide students with substantial industry experience before they graduate.

As we have discussed since the launch of the medical school, we are creating more opportunities in the sciences and in research. We are launching a master’s program in Medical Physics to begin next year, as well as a master’s degree in Public Health, and our Physician Assistant Studies master’s program is thriving. We will also continue to expand our health offerings. In the years ahead, we can also expect that our continuing education offerings will expand significantly in health-related areas and we already have developed successful certificate offerings in health care information technology and medical coding.

With our medical school partners North Shore-LIJ Health System and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, we have joined with business groups and the Island’s other research institutions – Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University – to form Accelerate Long Island, a consortium of research and business designed to spur long-term, high-tech economic development in our region. Since we are the only Long Island institution with both a business school and law school, we bring important expertise to this consortium.

Beyond that, our Frank G. Zarb School of Business has launched an online Master of Business Administration program, and the School of Communication has plans to add a master’s degree in Public Relations. During the past year, we have added to our roster of dual degree programs, introducing the B.A.-B.S./M.D. joint degree program, a B.A.-Economics/M.B.A., as well as various combinations of mathematics undergraduate degrees with an M.B.A. or M.S. We have also added a master’s degree in Forensic Linguistics and various advanced certificate programs in counseling. On the undergraduate level, we have added a new major in Criminology.

Work of University Centers

This past academic year has been another successful year for Hofstra University’s centers and they play an increasingly important role in Hofstra’s evermore national reputation.

The Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency, under the leadership of Dr. Meena Bose, continued to enhance its reputation as a national leader on the study of the presidency. The Center sponsored its third symposium, U.S. Presidential Leadership at the United Nations: Evaluating the Past 65 Years and Looking Ahead to 21st-Century Governance. Former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Honorable Zalmay Khalilzad delivered the keynote address at the symposium and then participated in a panel discussion with Kalikow Center Senior Presidential Fellows Howard Dean and Ed Rollins. The papers from the symposium’s two scholarly panels will be published in two forthcoming special issues of the scholarly journal White House Studies, and subsequently will appear in an edited volume by Nova Science Publishers. The Kalikow Center also organized a number of panels in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Under the overall leadership of Executive Dean Lawrence Levy, the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University^® (NSCC) continued its steady rise as a nationally recognized center for the study of the pivotal places where a majority of Americans live, work and play. On the international front, NCSS partnered with the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom to secure a $108,000 grant from a U.K.-based foundation to launch a Cultures of the Suburbs International Research Network. On furthering the national agenda, as well as its collaborative model, NCSS cosponsored with the Kalikow Center a packed-house forum called “Obama, the Suburbs and the 2010 Elections.” The Center helped organize the first White House forum on the suburbs, which drew more than 150 local officials from around the country and major administration officials. The same summer week, NCSS co-sponsored a major conference, Suburbs and the 2010 Census, which featured the director of the U.S. Census Bureau as well as scholars from every corner of the country. NCSS also prepared a volume of papers, edited by Academic Director Christopher Niedt, Ph.D., based on the 2009 conference on suburban diversity. The center also published, with the Department of Sociology, an anthology of housing options in a time of fiscal crisis. Both works have been well-received.

The second annual Celebration of Suburban Diversity brought together 450 people of different races, religions and other backgrounds, and raised tens of thousands of dollars for diversity-related research, internships, scholarships and community grants. The next Celebration of Suburban Diversity Banquet, now a tradition, is scheduled for November 17.

The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) is now in its fifth year on the Hofstra campus, continuing to host and co-sponsor a wide array of on-campus opportunities for students to become educated about and involved in addressing the pressing issues of our times. Since its founding, the CCE has presented more than 120 events. The CCE is clearly making a valuable contribution to the education of our students and I appreciate the efforts of Cynthia Bogard, the former director of the Center, and Gregory Maney and Mario Murillo who are now leading the Center. This October, the Center will be hosting the ninth Day of Dialogue – a one-day, student-focused conference on current public issues (typically attended collectively by more than 8,000 people). Over the last year, CCE also continued to hold the International Day of Nonviolent Social Change, Civil Rights Day, and a major spring festival in honor of Earth Day. With a number of student organizations, the Center co-sponsored an annual Day of Peace to encourage interpersonal nonviolence, which included “The Art of Healing” – featuring performing and fine artists with a social justice message. In fall 2010, the CCE put on its fourth Multicultural Mixer, where they invited the campus community to come together across ethnic/racial and religious boundaries, and also continued its International Scene Lecture Series. In spring 2010, the CCE was a major sponsor of the Hofstra for Haiti initiative.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Hofstra University, the Cultural Center, under the leadership of Natalie Datlof and Athelene Collins, played an important role working with our schools and colleges on planning individual conferences and symposia.

Two major conferences, presented and coordinated by the Hofstra Cultural Center, highlighted the spring semester. The first was 1935: The Reality and the Promise, on April 7-9, with keynote addresses by Professors Morris Dickstein, The Graduate Center, CUNY, and Fritz Stern, Columbia University; the second, on April 14-16, was a conference also sponsored by the Department of Drama and Dance, titled Into Sunlight: Impact of War on the Social Body From the Vietnam Era to the Present, with keynote speakers David Maraniss, Edward Tick and Emilie Conrad.

Our three newly established center/institute initiatives are the Center for Bioethics, which will be co-directed by Janet Dolgin, professor of law, and Samuel Packer, professor of ophthalmology in the School of Medicine; the Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Threat Assessment and Strategic Analysis, co-directed by Professor Robert Leonard and James R. Fitzgerald, adjunct instructor and former supervisory special agent and program director of Forensic Linguistic Services of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit; and our LGBTQ Center, directed by Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures David Powell. Each of these centers/institutes focuses on an area of strength at the University and helps add prominence to Hofstra. Each has outstanding leadership and each of these centers/institutes will be as self-supporting as possible, through increased grants and fundraising, to facilitate the expansion of our efforts in these areas.

In addition to the centers listed above, we are also fortunate to have a nationally accredited museum on our campus, directed by Beth Levinthal, and the Saltzman Center, directed by Joseph Scardapane. Both directly enhance the education we provide as well as the service we provide to the greater Long Island community.

Faculty Accomplishments

There are numerous significant faculty accomplishments this year, and what is especially clear is the increasing national prominence of our faculty. There are literally hundreds of noteworthy accomplishments that I could list in this report and we should all take pride in the outstanding work of our colleagues. To highlight these accomplishments and our evermore national reputation, what follows is a very small sample of key accomplishments for the year:

Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Professor of Sociology Margaret Abraham was elected vice-president for research of the International Sociological Association (ISA) for a four-year term (2010-2014) at the XVII World Congress.

Department of Global Studies and Geography Associate Professor Zilkia Janer’s book Puerto Rican Nation-Building Literature: Impossible Romance was named one of the most important books of the decade by the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia, in its January 9, 2011, edition.

Professor Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Department of Global Studies and Geography, was appointed to World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council On Advanced Manufacturing.

School of Communication

Associate Professor of Radio, Television, Film Christine Noschese’s documentary Keep on Steppin’ won Best Short at the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival and was exhibited at festivals nationwide, including BET and HBO’s Urbanworld Film Festival.

Larry Russell, associate professor of speech communication, rhetoric and performance studies, received the 2010 Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Personal Narrative Research Award for the article “Learning to Walk,” which appeared in the International Review of Qualitative Research.

School of Education, Health and Human Services

Teaching, Literacy and Leadership Professor Alan Singer was awarded the Mark Rothman Outstanding Social Studies Teacher Mentoring Award by the Long Island Council for the Social Studies in May 2011.

Professor of Teaching, Literacy and Leadership Maureen Murphy will be given an honorary D.Litt. on December 1, 2011, by the National University of Ireland, for her contribution to Irish studies.

Assistant Professor of Counseling, Research, Special Education and Rehabilitation Genevieve Weber presented the results of a monograph that she co-authored, titled “State of Higher Education for LGBT People,” at a congressional policy hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in September 2010. This was an invited presentation by the LGBT Equality Congressional Caucus. The monograph received national attention in the media, as it was released at the same time of Tyler Clementi’s suicide at Rutgers University.

Frank G. Zarb School of Business

Andrew Spieler, associate professor of finance, delivered the keynote address at the Alternative Investing Forum, sponsored by Catalyst Financial Partners, in April 2011 at the Harvard Club. Founded in 2008, Catalyst Financial Partners is a specialist investor events firm for the alternative investing industry. Dr. Spieler has also served as the chairperson of the derivatives committee of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Assistant Professor of Marketing and International Business Richard T. Wilson received a Lawrence

A. Stessin Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication for his work on “Competing Successfully Against Multinationals: A Longitudinal Perspective of Hungarian Advertising Agencies,” which was published by the Journal of Strategic Marketing.

Maurice A. Deane School of Law

The law school has had two consecutive years of Fulbright winners. Professor Julian Ku spent spring semester 2011 as a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Law at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai. Associate Clinical Professor of Law Serge Martinez was awarded a one-year Fulbright award to work on clinical training with universities in Taiwan during the 2011-2012 academic year.

The Association of American Law Schools has honored one of the law school’s most junior faculty members, Associate Professor Ashira Ostrow. Her recent article “Process Preemption in Federal Siting Regimes,” 48 Harv. J. Legis. 289 (2011), was selected as the 2011 winner of The Association of American Law School’s Scholarly Papers Competition. At the same conference, Professor Rose Cuison Villazor received the 2011 Derrick A. Bell Award, which is given by The Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Minority Section to a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system or social justice.

Major Grants

We continue to receive a number of major grants, and I am pleased to note that during the 2010-2011 academic year:

Michael Hacker, co-director of the Hofstra Center for STEM Research, received a four-year grant totaling $1,999,130 from the National Science Foundation for the Articulated Technological Education Pathways (ATEP) project.

Christopher Sanford, professor of biology, received a three-year National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant in the amount of $360,809.

M. David Burghardt, co-director of the Hofstra Center for STEM Research and professor of engineering, received a Next Generation Learning Challenges Initiative grant administered by EDUCAUSE, in the amount of $249,453 to support the WISEngineering project. Funding for this initiative is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

John Bryant, professor of English, received a three-year grant totaling $293,139 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for The Melville Electronic Library (MEL): A Digital Critical Edition project.

As we move forward with our School of Engineering and Applied Science, enhancement of our science departments in response to program initiatives and increased student demand, and a possible School of Health Professions, we can expect significantly increased grant activity. We are also looking for ways to increase the number of grants in other areas of the University.

For the University, grants are especially important, not only for their support of faculty research and other initiatives, but also because they often provide funding to allow for increased support of graduate students.

Diversity Initiatives

Our commitment to diversity continues to be strong. Through the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University^®, we held our second annual Celebration of Suburban Diversity last October consisting of multicultural entertainment, art work, speakers, and honorees. There were two other major diversity events last October; the first was the Provost’s Annual Diversity Lecture, which was delivered by John Rose, Hunter College’s dean for diversity and compliance. The second event was a program composed of brief presentations by the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 diversity research award recipients.

I am pleased to note that we were also able to award four diversity research grants for the 2010-2011 academic year. All of the awards made possible important diversity-centered research that I am pleased we are able to support. Last year we also established, with the support of our National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University^®, a new LGBT Research Award.

Our relationship with Claflin University continues. The visiting faculty member from Claflin was Millicent Brown, an expert in African-American history. Dr. Brown also has a major family involvement in the civil rights movement and returned here for the Brown to Brown and Beyond symposium.

Last spring, the Provost’s Diversity Task Force had a presentation regarding individuals with invisible disabilities. The presentation was organized by Nancy Kaplan, associate professor of radio, television, film, and also included John C. Guthman, director of Student Counseling Services; Darra A. Pace, associate professor and chair of CRSR; and Julie A. Yindra, director for Services for Students with Disabilities. Individuals with invisible disabilities are the fastest growing group of individuals with disabilities on college campuses. We all need to better understand the needs of these individuals in order to maximize their chances of a successful Hofstra experience. This presentation has now been given to the department chairs and an outreach will be made to all faculty.

We have tremendous longstanding pride in having our New Opportunities at Hofstra (NOAH) program serve as the template for the New York State Higher Education Opportunity Program. We spent last year searching for a new executive director for this program and I am pleased to note that this important search has now been successfully completed, and Dr. Christopher Catching from Rutgers University has been chosen to lead this program. Dr. Catching previously served as director of the Multicultural Engagement and Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) at Rutgers, a federally funded initiative in support of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines – science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and also as assistant dean of students at Rutgers College.

Even with all we are doing and have done, diversity will still remain as a central priority for the immediate future. As new hiring opportunities arise on the faculty or in the administration, I anticipate we will be able to do more in these areas as well, and that this will complement the significant progress we have made in attracting a more diverse student body.

Information Technology

Understanding that we need to constantly evolve our technology to keep ahead of the digital curve, Hofstra continues to offer our community a host of new technological features to enrich the learning environment.

Investment in classroom technology continues and was targeted to several key locations in the last fiscal year. In C.V. Starr Hall, 260 laptop computers were replaced with new laptops, to provide the most current technology in the classroom. The number of technology-enhanced classrooms increased, with the addition of four new technology classrooms in various academic buildings, as well as three new technology study areas on the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library’s ground floor. A total of seven technology classrooms in the Weller, C.V. Starr, Monroe, Axinn Library and Dempster buildings were renovated as well. We also introduced Google Docs for faculty, which allows faculty and students to collaborate in the Cloud like never before.

The demand for mobile computing is ever-increasing today. To accommodate the proliferation of mobile devices on campus, we are rapidly evolving our technology infrastructure in support of this demand. Last year, we launched our first iPhone application to allow users to search directories, maps, athletic events and the bookstore. This year we’ve added apps that allow students to access course schedules and grades.

PridePrint, which provides wireless student print stations, has been implemented and expanded to serve the most desirable locations across campus. While Hofstra’s wireless network provides 100 percent coverage to all areas of the campus, we continue to build in additional capacity to handle the accelerating density of mobile devices. We’ve also created a secure wireless network to better safeguard the privacy and security of our users.

In support of the learning environment, a new Learning Support Team has been initiated to improve support of academic software. Located within the Calkins Lab, the Learning Support Team supports walk-in inquiries, phone calls, and emails from students. They have also created online training materials as well as face-to-face classes to reach students through every possible channel.

Distance learning offerings continue to grow. This past year a fully online M.B.A. program in the Frank G. Zarb School of Business was launched. A development strategy was designed to allow faculty to be more self-sufficient in the creation of online courses for the School of Education, Health and Human Services to accommodate the rising demand for numerous online classes.

Campus information systems proved their resiliency in the face of Hurricane Irene. Over the past several years, a disaster recovery site has been established to sustain critical information systems from a diverse geographic location. Communication services for email, emergency messaging and for the University website have been moved to the Cloud in recent years as well. The result of these efforts was proven during the recent storm. As part of an overall strong IT infrastructure, these systems performed as designed, ensuring that all members of the Hofstra community remained well informed during the event.

Enhanced Physical Facilities

We remain committed to enhancing our campus through investing in our physical facilities. In Gittleson Hall, we continue our multiyear effort to renovate biology laboratories, research rooms and classrooms, and have just completed construction of a new rooftop greenhouse for student and faculty research. These improvements provide the Biology Department with vastly improved research space and an enhanced learning environment for faculty and students.

At Axinn Library, group study areas and a reading room were added to the library’s ground floor, and our Honors College now has a new home on the second floor east wing of the library. At Hauser Hall, the building’s original windows were replaced with modern energy-efficient windows and new air conditioning units. Major renovations also were completed at Monroe Lecture Center, including the replacement of all 340 seats, enhanced lighting, and new paint and carpet. Its main theater is now named in honor of University Trustee Helene Fortunoff.

Hofstra University continues to renovate classrooms and computer labs to meet the high expectations of our students. Over the past two years, campus academic buildings, such as Roosevelt Hall, Law School, Axinn Library and Weller Hall have undergone renovations to upgrade learning facilities and provide the latest in available technology. At McEwen Hall, infrastructure improvements were made to the University’s data center to provide improved service and emergency system redundancy.

In January, the University completed a yearlong major expansion and renovation project for the David

S. Mack Fitness Center. The new Fitness Center opened to very positive reviews from our students and community members. The project modernized the facility with new exercise studios, a larger weight room, new rubberized track on the second floor, new cardio area with an audio entertainment system, new locker room facilities, and a lounge area with computer stations. A grand re-opening celebration took place on February 16, 2011, beginning with more than 200 students waiting to begin the daylong program of events before 6 a.m. At the close of the day, approximately 1,600 students, faculty, staff, and administration walked through the doors of the new facility. Excluding data from the period in 2010 when the center was under renovation, usage numbers increased by 17.2 percent over the spring semester, exceeding our goal of a 15 percent increase, with an average of 800 visitors each day. Additionally, the new exercise studios are now the site of expanded fitness classes, including Indoor Cycling, Zumba, Yoga, Jazzercise, and Epic Abs, to name a few. We also replaced the air-supported structure (known as the “Bubble”) used by Hofstra Athletics and many community groups for indoor training and camps.

At Hofstra USA and Dutch Treats, significant interior and exterior renovations were undertaken to transform an outdated dining facility into a new student lounge with video and gaming facilities, and a new expanded dining area that is open late-night to better serve our students. The large renovation project included interior cosmetic improvements, enhanced AV/IT technology, renovated restrooms, and a fresh new exterior look. The 24-hour convenience store, known as Dutch Treats, was expanded to double its original size in order to provide more food options and improved service to our students.

The University is also investing in improving our campus residence halls. Over this past summer, the University completed major renovations to two campus high-rise towers – Bill of Rights Hall and Enterprise Hall. We will continue to renovate the remaining four campus residential towers over the next two years. The tower renovations include full window replacement with new energy-efficient windows, a new building entranceway, new furniture and HVAC units in student rooms, new outdoor bike storage, and enhanced student lounge/study spaces.

Hofstra continues its efforts to enhance our sustainability initiatives both on campus and within our community. A full-time campus sustainability officer is leading our efforts to enhance the University’s reputation as a “going green” school that actively promotes environmental stewardship on campus. This past summer, the University installed solar power panels on the roof of Rensselaer House in the Netherlands Complex, a new “Living Green” Living/Learning Community. Residents of Rensselaer House will work directly with University offices in planning, implementing and promoting a variety of environmental and conservation programs having to do with energy and water usage conservation, and recycling efforts to help reduce the overall carbon footprint. This project is the first fully “renewal energy” project on campus, and is receiving high praise from our school community.

Athletics

This past year was the first full academic year since the elimination of football, and by all measures, it was a very good year for Hofstra Athletics. The 2010 homecoming/reunion and 75th anniversary celebration far surpassed prior football homecoming weekends. The 2011 Fall Festival: Alumni, Student and Family Weekend continued this tradition with record-breaking crowds of parents, students, and alumni for the concert, carnival rides, Grucci fireworks and comedian performance.

Four squads qualified for post-season play, with three of those advancing to the NCAA tournament. Women’s Soccer advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Hofstra Wrestling captured the CAA title, sending seven wrestlers to the NCAA Championships. Men’s Lacrosse also advanced to the NCAA for a program-record fourth consecutive year. Finally, the Men’s Basketball team went 21-12, led by senior Charles Jenkins and first-year Head Coach Mo Cassara. The Pride finished tied for second in the CAA, marking the program’s highest finish since joining the league in 2001-2002. Hofstra also reached the CAA semifinals for the first time since 2006, and qualified for the postseason for the second consecutive year, making an appearance in the College Basketball Invitational. Hofstra won regular season CAA titles in Men’s Lacrosse and Softball during the spring, while the Baseball program earned the most impressive win in program history as it defeated #13 Miami (FL) on May 8.

The 2010-2011 year was also extremely successful in terms of attendance at athletic events. The Men’s Basketball team averaged nearly 3,100 fans per game, its highest average since 2007, and recorded two sellouts during the season. The Women’s Basketball team had its highest attendance average in four years, with season highs of 1,755 fans at the Northeastern game and 1,602 fans at the Old Dominion contest. The spring season saw Hofstra’s Men’s Lacrosse team average a conference-best 2,091 fans and also draw a season-high 5,484 fans for the Penn State game, the Pride’s highest attendance in two years. In addition, Hofstra hosted the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Quarterfinals in May and attracted a James M. Shuart Stadium-record of 13,447 fans. Two other sports, Women’s Soccer and Softball, also garnered large crowds at home contests as well. Women’s Soccer drew a program-record 1,174 fans to the CAA Women’s Soccer Championship first-round game against Georgia State, while the Softball program had a program-record 1,045 fans at the first-ever night game at Hofstra Softball Stadium on April 26 against St. John’s.

The Hofstra Athletics fundraising year was highlighted by the $250,000 pledge by Arno Fried, M.D., and Mindy Fried, M.D. Hofstra Athletics recognized their generous support by naming the new student-athlete development center in their honor. The Fried Center for Student-Athlete Development was formally dedicated on March 22, 2011, and is a state-of-the-art facility that assists Hofstra’s student-athletes with their academic, social and post-graduate endeavors.

Annual funds raised increased slightly over the prior year and the participation percentage of former student-athletes making contributions climbed for the second consecutive year, as nearly 16 percent of all former student-athletes made a gift to support Hofstra Athletics in 2011, up from 11 percent in 2010 and 8 percent in 2009.

University Relations

In September of last year, we started our yearlong celebration of our 75th anniversary, complete with an academic convocation, the Hofstra Honor Roll, “Happy Birthday Hofstra” with a Charm City Cake (of Ace of Cakes), “Live at 75” music festival featuring, among others, Professor Rob Leonard, also known as a founder of Sha Na Na, and an evening of comedy. This celebration brought thousands of people to campus and began our new homecoming tradition. For the rest of the year, we looked at each of the academic disciplines in the colleges and schools and offered conferences and symposia on the advances over the last century. At the conclusion of this very successful anniversary year, we again turned our attention to our Fall Festival: Alumni, Student and Family Weekend, with musical acts, a carnival, fireworks, and a performance by comedian Louis C.K.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, University Relations planned for a major overhaul of Hofstra.edu, which just launched this month and which simplifies the Web navigation and uses a new streamlined design. University Relations also worked with academic departments to advance the creation of partnerships with local middle and high school students on honors academic programs in areas such as political science, fine arts, dance, music, communications and business; these programs bring promising young people to our campus. University Relations also developed a new iteration of the Hofstra brand, using the new tagline “pride and purpose” and refreshing the visual standards used since 2006. We used “Pride and Purpose” for our 75th anniversary celebration and we decided to keep it for our Hofstra tagline because, as much as we have changed over the course of the past 75 years, those values – pride and purpose – remain the guiding principles as we seek to enhance and expand our reputation as a world-class University.

National Recognition

The 2010-2011 academic year was highlighted with excellent publicity for the University that underscored the progress that Hofstra has made in the last decade.

In the fall, the University partnered with Newsday and Cablevision to host the only New York state gubernatorial debate, through our Renew New York partnership. In addition, we hosted Governor Cuomo twice for a budget presentation as well as a presentation on legislative priorities, and worked with key campus constituencies on completing our application for the 2012 presidential debate.

At the end of the academic year, Hofstra University received public recognition for reputational gains and academic innovation. In July, there was widespread media interest in the opening of the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University, from national outlets such as Time magazine to local outlets such as Newsday.

Newsday’s coverage, over two days with a cover story (“The New Hofstra”) and an editorial, discussed the opening of the medical school in the wider perspective of how the University had improved its academic profile over the past decade as well as our plans to open a School of Engineering and Applied Science.

These announcements, in combination with President Rabinowitz’s appointment by Governor Cuomo as co-chair of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, cemented Hofstra’s public position as a leader in New York state, by creating innovative academic programs and highlighting regional economic development through research and public service. Indeed, Long Island Business News had the following to say in its Newsmaker of the Week for July 29, 2011: “Ever since Hofstra University hosted the final presidential debate in the 2008 election, the school’s profile has been on something close to a meteoric rise.”

For the third straight year, Hofstra has been selected as one of Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For,” and has been recognized on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction. Hofstra was one of 114 colleges and universities – out of 851 that applied nationally – to receive the “Honor Roll with Distinction” designation as an institution whose students, faculty, staff and alumni show the highest level of dedication to community service and civic engagement. Only 12 New York institutions received this honor.

Hofstra continues to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, Fiske Guide to Colleges, Washington Monthly, and Forbes magazine on each of their “Best College” lists. The University was ranked in Tier One in U.S. News & World Report at No.128, an improvement over our ranking of 139 in the prior edition and an improvement of 23 positions since the 2006 edition. The Princeton Review has also recognized Hofstra for the second year in their Guide to Green Colleges, which profiles colleges and universities committed to sustainability, inside and outside the classroom.

The School of Education, Health and Human Services, the Frank G. Zarb School of Business, and the Maurice A. Deane School of Law were again ranked as Best Graduate Schools in U.S. News & World Report. The law school was ranked at No. 84, up from 86 in the 2011 edition, and up from 100 in the 2010 edition. The Frank G. Zarb School of Business was also ranked among the top 75 M.B.A. programs by Forbes magazine, a Top 5 Largest New York M.B.A. programs by Crain’s New York, and the undergraduate business program was ranked No. 115 in the country by U.S. News & World Report. The undergraduate engineering program was ranked at 60 in U.S. News & World Report rankings of non-doctoral engineering programs.

Conclusion

The 2010-2011 year was a very strong year for the University, with significant academic accomplishments and increasing press and rankings recognition of those accomplishments. We are building on that progress in the upcoming year with the announcement that Hofstra will, once again, host a presidential debate on October 16, 2012, and with a national search for the dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, further work on a medical school and University capital campaign, and the completion of the next five-year plan. The University is in a very good place, with continuing momentum, and unlimited potential.