By Daniel Dunaief
Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith appreciates all that Stony Brook is today and anticipates creating a bold strategy for what it could become.
In an interview recorded in the middle of December with TBR News Media, Goldsmith, who became the seventh president of Stony Brook University in August, shared her perspective on the exceptional qualities of a university she’s eager to advance to the next stage in its evolution.
Goldsmith highlighted many of the traits that appealed to her about the opportunity to lead Stony Brook for what she hopes will be the next decade.
“One of the most wonderful surprises in coming to Stony Brook was what an amazing culture it has,” she said. “This is really a place that people love to be part of. They support each other.”
Some of the staff have been at Stony Brook for decades, which is “unusual in the universities where I’ve been, that people feel so strongly about what an incredible community we are,” she said.
Her previous academic homes have included Princeton University, where she became the Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the midst of Covid starting in 2020, and Stanford University, where she was the Stephen Harris Professor of Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering.
In speaking with students, she is pleased that they are “uniformly delighted to be here,” she said. “They feel like they belong, they feel like they can achieve their full potential.”
Goldsmith, however, didn’t come in just to keep the trains running.
Early changes
The momentum previous full-time president Maurie McInnis created encouraged Goldsmith.
McInnis started the “cultural change of saying, ‘We should be more bold, we should be more aspirational, we should go after big things.’”
McInnis spearheaded the effort to put together a coalition of academic and commercial partners that won the rights to lead the Climate Exchange on Governor’s Island.
“The climate exchange was one of the things that I was most excited about with respect to Stony Brook,” said Goldsmith.
The exchange, however, has had some “bumps” along the road, including the departure of McInnis after four years leading the university and of founding CEO Dr. Stephen Hammer.
As a self-described problem solver, Goldsmith came in and said, “Okay, let’s look at where we are and look at where we need to go and how do we make progress in getting there,” she said.
Goldsmith named Antha Williams, leader of the Environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropy, as interim CEO, while launching a search for a longer-term leader.
At the same time, she worked with the climate exchange team to define three pillars of the effort: climate data, climate finance and urban resilience.
More New Yorkers
In addition, Goldsmith is eager to see an increase in the number of students.
“I would like to educate a lot more New Yorkers and a lot more students in general,” which includes undergraduates and graduate students, she said.
While she hopes to have a specific target number by her official inauguration on April 18th, she suggested the increase would be “operational, bold, but also achievable,” she added.
She is exploring ways to add students who might study at the Southampton campus, in New York City, online and, potentially, abroad.
“Many universities around the country have grown their undergraduate student body without growing the number of students that they have on their campus,” Goldsmith said.
In addition to increasing the number of students, the university also has a chance, and a deadline, to make significant gains in its endowment.
New York State and the Simons Foundation have each offered to match donations to Stony Brook up to $200 million if those donations come in before March 31. That could potentially boost the endowment by $600 million.
“It might not seem visionary to be focused on fundraising, but the endowment is what’s going to fund all of our aspirations,” Goldsmith said.
Staffing
Goldsmith suggested that one of the other surprises in coming to Stony Brook is her evaluation of the staff.
“I really do have a very strong leadership team and not just in the cabinet, but also below it,” she said.
At the same time, she is “still assessing some of the particular areas,” she added. “There might be some changes.”
She added that other leaders would also have the opportunity to assess their teams.
“Given our bold ambitions, continuing to do everything the way we’ve been doing it is not going to work,” she said. “The strategic plan aims to enhance or accelerate our excellence and impact across education, research, health care and service.”
The Stony Brook president recognizes that changing roles or transitioning out of the university can be difficult for the people involved.
She describes herself as a “really compassionate person” who cares about people, their families and their well being.
She recognizes, however, that leadership requires difficult decisions that could have a challenging impact on the staff.
“I try to make tough decisions in the most compassionate way, but my compassion doesn’t get in the way of me making decisions that I think are the right ones as a leader,” she said.
Challenging landscape
Goldsmith has taken over the top job at Stony Brook during a time of considerable headwinds.
Education is “under threat in ways it never has been before,” she said. “There’s never been a more important time to be a university leader than now.”
Research budgets, in particular, are under pressure, as President Donald Trump proposed cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health of 40 percent and the National Science Foundation of about 50 percent.
“The United States has been at the forefront of research leadership for generations and certainly in science and engineering,” said Goldsmith. “That is what’s driven our economic growth and prosperity and national security.”
She added that it was “heartbreaking” to think of a country she loves losing its leadership in these areas.
One of her goals is to advocate with elected officials throughout the country about the importance of funding these research efforts.
She has been to Washington three or four times, including with the Association of American Universities, which is a group of 70 of the top research universities in the country. They met with representatives from both sides of the aisle.
“In all my interactions with elected officials around the country so far as a university president, they all support the mission of universities in advancing research,” she said.
Universities missed an earlier opportunity to explain the indirect costs that make it possible to support research, which includes infrastructure.
At one point this year, federal agencies tried to cap these indirect costs, which faced significant and successful resistance.
“We should not have waited for it to become a crisis to address this issue,” she said. “I’m hoping that we’ll get to a place where [the specific costs of research] are more clear.”
Even in this challenging landscape, Stony Brook would like to double its research budget.
“That’s what the chancellor has challenged us to do and what the governor has challenged us to do,” said Goldsmith.
Goldsmith is hoping that Stony Brook can contribute to a new energy-driven effort created by an executive order of President Trump called the Genesis Mission, which is seeking ways to use artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery.
The mission, which is designed to provide affordable, reliable and secure energy, advance discovery and ensure national security, is led by Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil.
Goldsmith served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during the Biden administration with Gil.
“He’s a terrific leader,’ Goldsmith said of Gil. “We’re very fortunate to have him in the Department of Energy, launching the Genesis Mission.”
Brookhaven National Laboratory will join the other 16 national labs in this effort.
Goldsmith, who as Stony Brook president is a managing partner at BNL, hopes to figure out how to get Stony Brook involved as well.
Goldsmith is eager to embrace the challenges ahead, using the words optimistic or optimism 13 times and the word “bold” 15 times in a one hour interview.
“It felt like I was the right leader for Stony Brook at this moment in time,” she said. “My background and my optimism and my desire to make a big positive difference and be a transformational leader” created the right fit.
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Important upcoming dates:
— March 31st: target date to raise $200 million, which the Simons Foundation and New York state would triple
— April 18th: inauguration date
President Goldsmith at a glance:
• Favorite place on campus: the mall, which is “teaming with life and joy and community. It’s also very beautiful.”
• Something that bugs her: the deferred maintenance because “I want our students and faculty and staff to be in buildings that support the effort that they do.”
• Best advice: Follow your heart
• Worst advice: go slower, don’t push so hard.
• What most people don’t know about her: she was a youth soccer referee. “My husband signed me up” and she ended up “loving it” despite not knowing much about soccer initially.
• Favorite book: She cited several authors, including Hemingway, Plato, Ayn Rand and Water Isaacson. “Code Breakers,” by Isaacson, was “brilliant.”
• Number of companies she started: 2
• What her birthday on July 4th meant to her: “It’s a fantastic day to be born.” She calls herself a “proud American” and is grateful for what the country has done for her, for her dad, who was an immigrant and Holocaust survivor and for her husband Arturo Salz who is also an immigrant.