School News
A message from NYU Stern leadership to the Stern community regarding recent events
—
Dear Members of the NYU Stern Community:
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd… the names represent the senseless continuation of a devastating pattern in the United States. Like many of you, we watched the videos of Ahmaud Arbery’s and George Floyd's last moments and read of Breonna Taylor’s killing with horror. We cannot find adequate words to describe our revulsion and anger at these occurrences. And yet these are only the latest acts of inhumanity in a history of dehumanizing Black lives that stretches back decades and centuries.
To the members of the Black community at Stern, most of us cannot fully comprehend what each of you may be experiencing—pain, suffering, anxiety, concerns for individual and community safety. We want you to know that we see you. We hear you. We stand in solidarity with you. And we are alongside you to dialogue, to offer support, and to serve as allies.
Even as we experience anger, it is easy to succumb to a feeling of powerlessness—of an inability to effect real change in the face of the immense scale and depth of the scourge that is racism. But if change is to happen, it is important to move past this sense of helplessness, through awareness and recognition, and thence to action. We must become consciously aware of how racism is deeply institutionalized and systemic, and how it operates in every aspect of the world around us, from our offices to our communities and the world beyond. Recognizing that opposing racism is everyone’s job, not just those who feel the brunt of its oppression, we must commit to helping each other improve and do better today than we did yesterday. We are stronger working together than we are fighting alone.
Any action we take must be grounded in truth, no matter how unpleasant. So we will begin with a long, hard, critical look in the mirror, to identify what biases might persist in ourselves and our community. As a first step in this process, the Stern Leadership Team will go through an assessment (the Intercultural Development Inventory) that looks at how we work with those who are different from us. We will then expand it to all corners of the School: faculty, administrators, staff, and students.
Longer term, Gary Fraser, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, has been actively working with program leaders and teams of students to develop program-specific, holistic strategies for diversity and inclusion programming (curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular) that begin before orientation and run through graduation and beyond. We expect to begin implementing those plans across programs this summer. More information will follow for everyone.
This moment is as clear a call to action as any of us may ever hear in our lives. The news cycle may move on, but we give you our word that we will not lose focus. Diversity is one of the core strengths of NYU Stern, of New York City, and of the United States, and the actions we take today and tomorrow will determine our ability to leverage that strength to create real change.
These are painful times but also ones in which the consciences of the community and the nation have been jolted. Working together, we have the opportunity to effect substantive change.
Our virtual doors are always open—please feel free to reach out.
Sincerely,
Raghu Sundaram
Dean
Mor Armony
Vice Dean of Faculty
Mary Billings
Chair, NYU Stern Faculty Council
Kim Corfman
Vice Dean of Online Learning
Rohit Deo
Director of NYU Stern - NYU Shanghai Programs
JP Eggers
Vice Dean, MBA Programs
Gary Fraser
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
Grace Glessing
Executive Director, Human Resources
Beth Murray
Chief Marketing Officer
Amanda Parker
Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations
Elena Piercy
Assistant Dean of School-wide Initiatives
Neil Rader
Chief Operating Officer
Robert Salomon
Vice Dean, Executive Programs
Joel Steckel
Vice Dean for Doctoral Education
Robert Whitelaw
Vice Dean, Undergraduate College
Eitan Zemel
Deputy Dean
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd… the names represent the senseless continuation of a devastating pattern in the United States. Like many of you, we watched the videos of Ahmaud Arbery’s and George Floyd's last moments and read of Breonna Taylor’s killing with horror. We cannot find adequate words to describe our revulsion and anger at these occurrences. And yet these are only the latest acts of inhumanity in a history of dehumanizing Black lives that stretches back decades and centuries.
To the members of the Black community at Stern, most of us cannot fully comprehend what each of you may be experiencing—pain, suffering, anxiety, concerns for individual and community safety. We want you to know that we see you. We hear you. We stand in solidarity with you. And we are alongside you to dialogue, to offer support, and to serve as allies.
Even as we experience anger, it is easy to succumb to a feeling of powerlessness—of an inability to effect real change in the face of the immense scale and depth of the scourge that is racism. But if change is to happen, it is important to move past this sense of helplessness, through awareness and recognition, and thence to action. We must become consciously aware of how racism is deeply institutionalized and systemic, and how it operates in every aspect of the world around us, from our offices to our communities and the world beyond. Recognizing that opposing racism is everyone’s job, not just those who feel the brunt of its oppression, we must commit to helping each other improve and do better today than we did yesterday. We are stronger working together than we are fighting alone.
Any action we take must be grounded in truth, no matter how unpleasant. So we will begin with a long, hard, critical look in the mirror, to identify what biases might persist in ourselves and our community. As a first step in this process, the Stern Leadership Team will go through an assessment (the Intercultural Development Inventory) that looks at how we work with those who are different from us. We will then expand it to all corners of the School: faculty, administrators, staff, and students.
Longer term, Gary Fraser, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, has been actively working with program leaders and teams of students to develop program-specific, holistic strategies for diversity and inclusion programming (curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular) that begin before orientation and run through graduation and beyond. We expect to begin implementing those plans across programs this summer. More information will follow for everyone.
This moment is as clear a call to action as any of us may ever hear in our lives. The news cycle may move on, but we give you our word that we will not lose focus. Diversity is one of the core strengths of NYU Stern, of New York City, and of the United States, and the actions we take today and tomorrow will determine our ability to leverage that strength to create real change.
These are painful times but also ones in which the consciences of the community and the nation have been jolted. Working together, we have the opportunity to effect substantive change.
Our virtual doors are always open—please feel free to reach out.
Sincerely,
Raghu Sundaram
Dean
Mor Armony
Vice Dean of Faculty
Mary Billings
Chair, NYU Stern Faculty Council
Kim Corfman
Vice Dean of Online Learning
Rohit Deo
Director of NYU Stern - NYU Shanghai Programs
JP Eggers
Vice Dean, MBA Programs
Gary Fraser
Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
Grace Glessing
Executive Director, Human Resources
Beth Murray
Chief Marketing Officer
Amanda Parker
Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations
Elena Piercy
Assistant Dean of School-wide Initiatives
Neil Rader
Chief Operating Officer
Robert Salomon
Vice Dean, Executive Programs
Joel Steckel
Vice Dean for Doctoral Education
Robert Whitelaw
Vice Dean, Undergraduate College
Eitan Zemel
Deputy Dean