Dear NYU Steinhardt Community,
As we begin a new semester, I write to welcome you all, to reflect on what I have learned about our community in my first six months as dean, and to share my vision for our future. I would also like to share my gratitude for the warm welcome you have shown to me; I am deeply grateful to feel such a sense of belonging after my first semester in New York. I am also grateful for the creativity, flexibility, and resilience that you have demonstrated in response to the challenges we face, and I continue to be impressed by the quality of your work.
I was drawn to NYU Steinhardt because of its unique, interconnected, and holistic approach to human development across the lifespan. Our school is a place where connections are made; it’s not uncommon to find speech pathologists working with musicians, visual artists working with therapists, or choreographers working with educators.
I have had the chance to see this firsthand: visiting our art students in their studios and observing socially-distanced music students in class, learning about the impressive research produced by our students and faculty in New York and across our global network, observing the innovative “Iron Chef Dysphagia” competition where interprofessional education comes to life, and Zooming with many of you — individually and in groups, formally and informally, in time zones across the globe — to get to know our community better.
I have seen how our commitment to social justice, anti-racism, and equity and belonging informs our creative expression and our work in schools, communities, and healthcare agencies. I have observed how our innovative approaches to scholarship and pedagogy have made us leaders in technology-enhanced education. The work we do impacts individuals, systems, and communities and connects people across the globe.
NYU Steinhardt advances the education, health, and well-being of people and communities around the world. We achieve this mission by furthering knowledge, creativity, and innovation at the crossroads of culture, education, and human development. As our society confronts accelerated changes in technology, social, and political movements, NYU Steinhardt has the unique capacity to develop integrated solutions to health and wellness, sustainability and climate change, and the role of higher education in a post-COVID world, among other issues. This interconnected, interdisciplinary nature of our school is our strength, and I want us to be able to articulate that clearly, to ourselves and to the world.
To that end, I have engaged in a School-wide process to create a set of goals to guide our decision-making and resource allocation over the next several years. We developed these broad goals after a semester-long consultative process with academic departments, administrative units, School-wide governance bodies, including the Faculty Council and student representatives. The five goals of our strategic framework will help us to:
achieve and promote academic excellence,
demonstrate ethical and values-driven leadership,
create a culture of School-wide innovation,
expand our influence through social impact, and
leverage NYU’s global network to expand opportunities for our students and faculty.
I will share a more detailed set of action items that reinforce these goals in the coming weeks, and I will continue to seek your valuable input as we further develop our long-term planning in School-wide meetings and forums.
Welcome to the Spring semester and stay safe.
Jack H. Knott, Dean
Gale and Ira Drukier Chair