We are fortunate to have appointed Maureen Murphy, a longtime faculty member and former dean of students, as the acting dean at the School of Education and Allied Human Services, while our national search for a new dean continues. The school continues to offer new programs for the educational community, such as a certificate in school district business leadership, and is preparing to offer a certificate in secondary education, licensure for counselors and a doctorate in education in curriculum and instruction. The School of Education and Allied Human Services is also home to the burgeoning Institute for the Development of Education in the Advanced Sciences (IDEAS). The school hosts conferences for the educational community, such as a recent one titled Youth, Violence and Gangs: A Call to Action II.

The School of Communication is celebrating its 10th year as a college at Hofstra University. In October the local Fox 5 morning show Good Day New York with reporter Mike Woods (center, holding microphone) broadcast live from the Dempster Hall News & Views set to cover a "newscast in training."

Hofstra's School of Law in 2005 continued to rise in national prominence with the installation on August 30 of renowned international legal scholar Aaron D. Twerski as the school's seventh dean in a ceremony that included a keynote address by the Honorable Judith S. Kaye, chief judge of the state of New York. Dean Twerski had served as a member of Hofstra's law faculty from 1972 until 1986.

Scheduled to come online with the fall 2006 semester are two new law clinics – a Community Development Clinic and a Securities Arbitration Clinic; an LL.M. Program in Family Law; and a significantly revised first-year law school curriculum that reflects the changing realities of legal practice. Finally, the Law School hosted two major conferences in 2005: Condemnation for Private Development? The Future of Economic Development Takings After the Kelo Case and a legal ethics conference, Lawyers' Ethics in an Adversary System.

State-of-the-art facilities

The Hofstra campus is an oasis of ivy-covered brick buildings interspersed with more modern architecture, situated in a garden-like setting. It is critical to retain the beauty of the campus, which attracts students and visitors and is so conducive to a thoughtful academic environment, and we will continue to do so. Advanced technology has allowed us to offer students and faculty a new array of resources, giving Hofstra an edge over many other institutions, while retaining the classic atmosphere of our South Campus. Hofstra University is one of a handful of universities nationwide to be ranked during consecutive years in Forbes.com/The Princeton Review's Top 20 "most connected campuses." We have integrated technology to streamline and enhance student services, vastly expanded our wireless network, increased connectivity speed in residence halls, offered a range of software packages and digital services to students, and expanded online services.

Hofstra University brings scholars, professionals and artists to our Long Island campus regularly. The highlight of the year was our 11th presidential conference, William Jefferson Clinton: The "New Democrat" From Hope.

Our classroom and instructional facilities have benefited greatly from our attention to technological advances. In fact, Hofstra is the only private university on Long Island connected to Internet2, the new generation of the World Wide Web. We have renovated several facilities, such as Hagedorn Hall, the new state-of-the-art home for the School of Education and Allied Human Services, and begun construction for the new academic building with a black box theater, music rehearsal space, and faculty offices for three academic departments. In November, we launched the Financial Technology Center, a simulated trading floor with 34 Bloomberg terminals and advanced trading technology, one of the largest such facilities in the New York metropolitan area. Students of foreign languages now study in the fully-digital Language Learning Center, which also allows them access to resources on their desktop computer through the Hofstra network.

In the next five to 10 years, we will renovate all of our classroom buildings, retaining their classic exteriors while adding Internet connectivity, advanced audio/visual capabilities and modern furnishings to all of our instructional spaces.

The increase in the number of out-of-state students, as well as Long Islanders who want the benefits of living on campus, has made it necessary for us to plan the construction of new residential living space, and those plans are being reviewed for implementation in the near future. And we continue to pay special attention to the needs of first-year students in the Hofstra community, including the planned launch of the "Living/Learning" facility, to be housed in several of the buildings in the Netherlands complex.

A vibrant campus

This past year has been one of the most exciting times in Hofstra history. From the successful establishment of our "Great Writers, Great Readings" series that brings renowned, award-winning authors, poets and playwrights to the Hofstra campus, to the academic conferences hosted by the Hofstra Cultural Center, Hofstra University brings scholars, professionals and artists to our Long Island campus regularly.

The highlight of the year was our 11th presidential conference, William Jefferson Clinton: The "New Democrat" From Hope. In a fascinating 80-minute speech, President Clinton himself offered a critique of his administration and record before an audience of nearly 5,000 students, scholars, and Hofstra community members. Yet the former president's account of his administration, which was covered in The New York Times and The Washington Post and on CNN, Fox News and C-SPAN, was only one highlight of three days of in-depth analyses by former administration members, such as Janet Reno, John Podesta, Richard Riley, Robert Rubin and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; scholars, journalists and policy makers. The more than 50 panels offered insight into topics as diverse as the Middle East, economic policy, the media, speechwriting, impeachment and domestic policy. Almost 2,000 Hofstra students, as well as hundreds of area high school students, participated, and about 100 Hofstra students were selected to act as hosts for our distinguished guests and members of President Clinton's advance team and as guides for journalists in our state-of-the-art media center.

The eyes of scholars nationwide turned to Hofstra University several times this past year. In March, our Cultural Center, in partnership with our rapidly growing Center for Suburban Studies, offered New Visions of Suburban Life: An Interdisciplinary Conference, a unique look at the underserved discipline of suburban studies, located mere miles away from our nation's first suburb. And in April, when literature scholars convened at Hofstra for F. Scott Fitzgerald on Long Island and New York, between scholarly discussions they toured the homes of the Gold Coast, had dinner at the Algonquin and heard from Fitzgerald's personal secretary, Frances Kroll Ring.

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