Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith hosted a town hall on October 21 at the Bauman Center for Leadership and Service, marking the first in a series of events aimed at creating a unified vision for the university’s future. The meeting brought together 100 students, staff, faculty, and leadership from both the main campus and Stony Brook Southampton.
Goldsmith addressed attendees by saying, “Shaping Stony Brook’s future together is an exciting undertaking since we are a university of infinite possibilities. 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.”
Participants were assigned to breakout tables where they discussed Stony Brook’s mission based on three key pillars: Accelerate, Build, and Catalyze. Table leaders guided conversations about priorities for the next decade and later shared their group’s insights.
Kevin Gardner, vice president for research and innovation, noted that health was a recurring theme: “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, emphasized community investment: “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 highlighted transparency within university operations: “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. “There’s a desire to improve the ability of individuals — students, PIs, staff, everyone — to get their work done in an expeditious fashion and leverage the resources and processes of the organization. There was a sense that this is really what the connective tissue of our university is, across all of our disciplines.” Wertheim also spoke about balancing artificial intelligence with teaching critical thinking skills.
Adam Ortiz from Electrical & Computer Engineering described his experience: “The roundtable format was energizing and genuinely collaborative,” he said. “At our table we focused on practical cross-unit solutions that enhance the 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 to concerns about leadership continuity: “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 that I’m here for the long term. Stony Brook is an inspirational university to lead… I will be incredibly proud to look back a decade from now on a university transformed by the strategic vision we are currently developing.”
She concluded by encouraging further collaboration: “You never know where the best ideas are going to come from,” Goldsmith said. “They’re not going to come from me alone; they’re going to come from us collectively leveraging our experience history wisdom and aspirations… Your ideas will help shape the future we’re building…”
