Hofstra Magazine

President's Letter

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Dear Alumni,

For Hofstra University, 2009 has been a year filled with both unexpected challenges and great accomplishments. The year began with a series of accreditation visits that reaffirmed the University’s commitment to academic excellence, including the NCAA accreditation process and our 10-year Middle States review and site visit. The Middle States reaccreditation process took more than two years, and involved more than 100 faculty, administrators and alumni, in writing the report and hosting a comprehensive threeday campus visit, but the hard work we have done to enhance the value of a Hofstra education was validated. To quote from the report of the Visiting Team:

The team congratulates Hofstra University for the thoroughness of its Self-Study, for its wonderful cooperation, and its superb hospitality throughout this process. Hofstra is a solid university with an extraordinary spirit and sense of purpose that is making progress in its primary mission: providing “a quality education to its students in an environment that encourages, nurtures, and supports learning through the free and open exchange of ideas, for the betterment of humankind.” Although constrained by its relatively small endowment and dependence on tuition revenue, Hofstra has evolved in recent years into a complex organization of extraordinarily dedicated and loyal faculty, staff, and students. Hofstra has embraced – and is commended for its success with – broad-based planning and performance in recent years that has enabled progress on a number of academic, student recruitment and retention, faculty recruitment and development, and facilities initiatives. Students report significant satisfaction with efforts in the Student Affairs division and with the faculty. The faculty, likewise, appears enthused about students and about the administration.

2009 was a year in which our schools and colleges were also recognized for their programs. The Frank G. Zarb School of Business’ undergraduate and graduate programs were highly ranked in Business Week, Forbes, The Princeton Review, and U.S. News & World Report, and the School of Education, Health and Human Services was listed as a Top 100 program in U.S. News. Our innovative IT initiatives garnered a CIO magazine CIO 100 Award, and our educational outreach programs, such as Educate ’08, were recognized by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and PRWeek. The severe economic downturn and recession have affected virtually every institution of higher education, and Hofstra is no exception. However, in this difficult economic climate, we continued to improve the academic profile of our incoming first-year class, again recruiting the most talented students in Hofstra’s history.

During 2009, the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency announced two senior presidential fellows, Edward J. Rollins and Howard Dean, and took a lead role in Define ’09, our follow-up program series to Educate ’08. Define ’09 featured speakers such as David Plouffe, Donna Brazile, Anderson Cooper (who did his CNN show live from Hofstra), Eugene Robinson and Soledad O’Brien, and many others. In 2009, we announced the second Guru Nanak Prize for Interfaith Understanding, and hosted one of our largest academic conferences ever, on diversity in the suburbs, courtesy of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University and the Hofstra Cultural Center.

In 2009, our dream for one of the nation’s most innovative new schools of medicine came closer to realization, as hundreds of doctors, scientists, planners, and scholars came together to write the curriculum and create the structure for the Hofstra University School of Medicine in partnership with North Shore-LIJ Health System. The application for accreditation, which is hundreds of pages, has been filed with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and we await a spring 2010 visit from the LCME team. At that time, the medical school’s interim facility, the former home to the New York Jets, will be nearly ready, converted to state-ofthe- art classrooms, labs and offices.

The development of the School of Medicine has spurred many plans for enhanced science programs, in medical physics, in engineering and computer science, in other health-related science fields and in policy areas such as public health. There is an expanded profile of the School of Medicine within the pages of this magazine. 2009 was a year in which we also faced challenges. In September many of you were shocked by the report of a horrible crime on campus, and even more shocked by the recanting of those allegations. To say it was a difficult time for our entire community is an understatement, but we learned how resilient and loyal our students, faculty and friends are, and we became an even stronger community because of the adversity we faced – and came through – together.

And on December 3 we announced the elimination of our FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA) football program in order to reinvest those resources into new academic programs and needbased scholarships. The cost of the football program, now and in the future, far exceeds the return possible from an FCS program, which does not generate significant national interest. Given that, along with the low level of financial support and attendance among our students, our alumni and the community, the choice was painful, but clear.

This was a difficult decision, made after a thorough review by our Board of Trustees, and one we understand that not everyone agrees with. As difficult as this is, if we are to continue to improve the University’s academic programs and standings, and provide more need-based aid to all students, this decision was right for us and for our future. We will continue to invest significantly in our athletic programs and compete for national recognition in each of them, and we are grateful for the contribution of our football program, all of its alumni, and especially our student-athletes and coaches. They will always be an important part of our University’s history.

As we prepare to commemorate the University’s 75th anniversary, beginning on September 23, 2010, we have much to celebrate. The value of a Hofstra degree is greater than ever, thanks to the dedication of our faculty, the work of our students, and the success of our alumni. I ask that you contribute in some way to the 75th anniversary celebration, 75 Years of Pride and Purpose, by serving on a committee, by submitting your memories or photos, by nominating someone for our special 75th Anniversary Awards, or by joining us for one of our programs. For more information about how you can get involved, visit hofstra.edu/75. Thank you for all you have done, and continue to do, for this great University. I hope to see you in 2010. It promises to be another great year for Hofstra University.

Sincerely,

Stuart Rabinowitz, President