Events
Building Momentum in 2007
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It is called momentum, that "strength or force gained by motion or through the development of events," according to Merriam Webster. At Hofstra in 2007, momentum took the form of a series of major announcements and academic developments that had the cumulative effect of propelling the University onto the national stage. By the end of the year, anyone who had read a newspaper, watched a TV news broadcast or scanned a news Web site was familiar with the Hofstra name.
Momentum built throughout the year and culminated in the fall when, within a month’s time, the University announced a historic agreement with the North Shore-LIJ Health System to plan the establishment of a new medical school on campus and also received word that Hofstra had been selected to host the third and final 2008 presidential debate on October 15. Both announcements brought Hofstra national recognition and moved it into the company of a select group of universities.
"The 2007 calendar year was a momentous one for Hofstra University," said President Stuart Rabinowitz. "We received national recognition when we were selected as a site for a presidential debate and when we announced our plans for the creation of a new medical school in partnership with North Shore-LIJ Health System. Either of those announcements alone would place us among an elite group of institutions; together, they sent a message about the upward momentum at this university.
"It was also a year when we continued to make significant progress toward many of the goals we set over the past six years. The academic credentials of our entering classes continued to improve with higher SAT and GPA scores. Our endowment grew as we moved ever closer to our $100 million Capital Campaign goal. We sharpened our efforts to continuously improve student services and support, enhanced campus security, continued our building and renovation efforts, and created or expanded academic institutes focusing on areas such as civic engagement, real estate and suburban studies."
Earlier in the year, Hofstra established the Wilbur F. Breslin Center for Real Estate Studies, expanded and renamed the National Center for Suburban Studies, and created a Center for Civic Engagement, designed to encourage students to participate actively as knowledgeable members of their local and global communities. And just before the close of the fall semester, the University launched NewsHub, a state-of-the-art converged newsroom and multimedia classroom in Dempster Hall that allows students in the School of Communication to work across media platforms and use cutting-edge tools to tell their stories.
At the same time, average SAT scores rose to 1179 for the fall 2007 first-year class, compared with 1062 for the incoming class of 2000 – the year that President Stuart Rabinowitz took office – and the average GPA rose to 3.37, from 2.8 over that same period. Selectivity (the percentage of applicants that we accept) is now at 54 percent, as compared to 80 percent in 2000. And for the first time, more than half the first-year class came from outside New York state.
