Stony Brook University freshmen celebrate move-in day, as new president Andrea Goldsmith takes the helm
Stony Brook University president Andrea Goldsmith helps first-year biology student Sofia Villacis during move-in day on Monday. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
When Stony Brook University first-year student Sofia Villacis moved into her dormitory Monday, she got help from an unusual source: Andrea Goldsmith, the school’s new president.
Dressed in a red-and-white Stony Brook shirt, black slacks and low heels, Goldsmith greeted some of the roughly 2,800 first-year students who started to move in Monday morning ahead of the start of classes next week — and even helped a few of them move into their rooms.
Goldsmith chatted with Villacis about the 17-year-old Queens resident’s plans to major in biology as she carried one of the girl's bags into her dorm. Goldsmith urged her to persist through any tough times, recalling when she almost felt like giving up as an engineering student at University of California, Berkeley.
Sometimes it can seem like people who have succeeded have had it easy, Goldsmith said.
But, she said, “That’s not true. The most successful people have hit challenges and figured out how to get through them, and that’s what makes them successful.”
Monday was a big day not only for the students who started moving into their dorms, but also for Goldsmith, 61, Stony Brook’s seventh president, who started her new job earlier this month.
Goldsmith takes over from interim President Richard McCormick, who led the school for about a year after Maurie McInnis left to become president of Yale University after four years at Stony Brook. A former dean of engineering and applied science at Princeton University, Goldsmith earned her doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and has her name on dozens of patents.
To a group of seniors who will be resident advisers this year, Goldsmith said she was “super excited” to be helming the school, and that she’d be asking for advice: “You're going through your last year here, I'm going through my first.”
To a student handing out snacks, she joked, “You're probably one of the most popular people here.”
The university president wasn’t the only one helping students get settled. Lacrosse team members were among those helping first-years lug their clothes, snacks and decorations into the dorms. Cheer and dance teams greeted students as they arrived on campus. And at noon, the marching band played as students and parents attended a welcome barbecue.
Janice Kong, 17, of Brooklyn, whose family members helped her move in, said she hopes to qualify for the school’s volunteer ambulance corps as a pre-health student.
“I’m incredibly nervous, of course, but very happy,” she said.
Expanding the university
In an interview with Newsday last week, Goldsmith said her plans at Stony Brook include building more housing, upgrading school facilities, attracting more startups and large companies and expanding the size of the student body and faculty. The school had nearly 26,700 undergraduate and graduate students last fall.
“We need to offer more New Yorkers the incredible education at an incredible price that we offer to our students,” she said.
Goldsmith joins the university at a time when higher education has come under fire. Stony Brook lost some of its federal funding as President Donald Trump's administration made dramatic cuts to research expenditures. The federal government canceled about 30 grants totaling $25 million, though some were later restored after court action, Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith also addressed conflicts over programs aimed at fostering diversity on campuses, which have been targeted by the Trump administration.
“I'm an engineer, I work in a profession that is not particularly well represented by people from different backgrounds and experiences and genders,” Goldsmith said. In her experience, she said, “diversity of thought creates excellence.”
She said, “If you are making sure that everyone from all backgrounds and experiences and perspectives can be included and achieve their full potential, then people see why it's important to have diverse people around the table.”
Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.
