The President and Provost Welcome Reception was held on campus last Wed. An assemblage of faculty, staff, and students gathered in Gottesman Room for refreshments, conversation, and to welcome the new Provost, Dr. Uday Sukhatme, to the Pleasantville community.
“I am enjoying it. There is always a learning curve at the beginning, so I’m learning a lot, and I think that’s very important,” said Provost Sukhatme. “This is an occasion to meet people.”
“This year is going to be a really special one for Pace,” said President Stephen J. Friedman in his speech. “Like a baseball team that’s made all the right moves, I think we are going through a really great season…we’ve signed a lot of terrific new team players…we’ve attracted a lot of new friends, we’ve enrolled over twenty-three hundred new students; that’s more than 300 more than last year.”
The new Provost spoke after the President, discussing his impression of Pace so far.
“I want to thank everyone for giving me a warm welcome to Pace University and to the Westchester community,” said Sukhatme. “It does not take long to realize that people at Pace take their jobs very seriously. They are very proud of the high quality of education they provide students, and the Pace community really works tirelessly to make this happen, so that is very liberal. Faculty members work very hard to create new knowledge through their research and to disseminate this knowledge by making sure that the students are converted, transformed, matured into thinking professionals, and are poised to do really well in their future periods. The students work hard to get good grades, and they need to take full advantage of everything Pace has to offer, and it has a lot to offer. ”
Student Government Association (SGA) President Melanie Londono-Payco addressed the assembly, focusing mainly on her version of SGA this year.
“The purpose of SGA…is to create a place where students develop their college experience outside the classroom with programing, student advocacy, leadership development, and much more,” said Londono-Payco. “All are welcome: students, faculty, and staff, we encourage you to attend because we, as students, want your input and collaboration to have a successful year.”
“I thought [her speech] was interesting and sincere,” said public speaking Prof. Diana Cypkin after Londono-Pyaco had finished her address and went on to conducting a raffle.
The theme of the event seemed to be the identity of the Pleasantville campus.
“We need to ask what it is about Pleasantville that would make a student in California come to school here,” said Pres. Friedman, citing the communications and environmental law programs as primarily based or unique to the Pleasantville campus, and discussed marketing these specialized academic programs to prospective students.
“Publicity has been great. The Wall Street Journal recently had a very big article about our new dormitories in lower Manhattan. The New York Times had a wonderful review of the Globe’s Theater’s production of Hamlet,” said Pres. Friedman in the closing of his address. “Pace exists to prepare young men and women from all backgrounds to succeed in their lives and to become leaders in their professions…I think we are poised for a great year, a great season, and I am tremendously grateful to everyone in this room for what you do for Pace every day. This forward thrusting momentum we have is due to literally thousands of individual acts by our faculty members, our staff, and our student leaders.”