Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith hosted a town hall on October 21 at the Bauman Center for Leadership and Service, bringing together about 100 students, staff, faculty, and leaders from both the main campus and Stony Brook Southampton. The event was the first in a series aimed at creating a shared vision for the university’s future.
Goldsmith opened the discussion by emphasizing the opportunities presented by changes in higher education. “Shaping Stony Brook’s future together is an exciting undertaking since we are a university of infinite possibilities,” she said. “While this is a disruptive time for higher education, disruption also brings opportunity. Given the power of our public mission and with the strong support of our great state, this moment in time is our opportunity to craft a compelling vision for accelerating our excellence and impact across all dimensions of education, research, healthcare, and service. As we think about the future of Stony Brook and what we want to accomplish over the next decade and beyond, I want us to think big.”
Attendees were divided into breakout tables to discuss Stony Brook’s mission based on three pillars: Accelerate, Build, and Catalyze. Table leaders guided conversations on how these themes could shape university priorities over the next decade before sharing key points with all participants.
Kevin Gardner, vice president for research and innovation, highlighted health as a central topic in his group’s conversation. “Health emerged as a central theme in our discussion — environmental health, social health, physical health and mental health, as did the ways in which Stony Brook and its students and faculty, its research and innovation programs and educational programs can change our community,” he said. “82 percent of population health is non-medical care. We want to make sure that Stony Brook is home to a global business community that is powering economic survival on Long Island.”
Wendy Pearson, vice president for strategic initiatives and executive director of Stony Brook Southampton, spoke about building community through investment in people. “Reimagining the way we work is one of the original pillars that got people excited,” she said. “Accelerating excellence, building infrastructure, and catalyzing innovation — all of that requires people; that’s the engine that drives everything. We discussed ways to invest in that sense of community and belonging to create that engine. When people feel valued and vested, it helps retain students, faculty, and staff. It makes them want to be here and to contribute. There are so many ways we can work together to strengthen that sense of belonging and community.”
Bill Wertheim MD., executive vice president at Stony Brook Medicine addressed transparency within university structures: “One discussion point that emerged was the dual theme of transparency and accountability, and this relates to the structures inside the university and how people can understand how things are supposed to work and whether they’re working or not and why,” he said. He added there was interest in making processes more efficient so everyone could do their work effectively: “There’s a desire to improve the ability of individuals — students PIs staff everyone — to get their work done in an expeditious fashion... There was a sense that this is really what the connective tissue of our university is across all disciplines.” Wertheim also discussed balancing artificial intelligence with critical thinking skills among students.
Adam Ortiz from Electrical & Computer Engineering described his experience at one table: “The roundtable format was energizing and genuinely collaborative,” he said.“At our table we focused on practical cross-unit solutions that enhance student staff faculty experience.” He added,“There’s real momentum to build shared capacity across campus... The ABCs of President Goldsmith’s vision provided a clear actionable framework.”
Goldsmith responded directly when concerns about leadership stability were raised during discussions.“I heard it mentioned at three separate tables that people are concerned whether I will stay at Stony Brook long enough to realize the bold vision we are crafting together,” she said.“I promised them I’m here for long term... I will be incredibly proud to look back a decade from now on a university transformed by strategic vision we are currently developing.”
She concluded by stressing collective effort:“You never know where best ideas are going come from... They’re not going come from me alone; they’re going come from us collectively leveraging experience history wisdom aspirations... Your ideas will help shape future we’re building I’m so excited about what we’re going accomplish together.”