Let’s Take On The Year Together
August 1, 2024
Dear Stony Brook Campus Community,
It is a great honor to become interim president of Stony Brook University today. As I turned my car onto campus this morning, I felt enormous enthusiasm and pride knowing I was about to become a part of something exceptional at Stony Brook.
Growing up, I was immersed in the culture of New Jersey’s flagship public research university, Rutgers, where my mother was a longtime administrator and my father was a history professor. Watching them embrace the university’s mission inspired my career, which coincidentally began at Rutgers as a history professor. Many years later, I returned to Rutgers as its president. I have had earlier leadership roles — at the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — and Stony Brook now marks the fourth distinguished public university I have had the privilege to serve.
The opportunity to advance the transformational power of public education at Stony Brook, a national model for elevating access, opportunity and social mobility, brings me a deep sense of appreciation and motivation. As I shared the news with family, colleagues and friends about serving as Stony Brook’s interim president, my use of the word “serving” was deliberate. You have my word that Stony Brook will have my full attention and care.
Although my title is interim president, my time spent here will be active and engaged, and I will be your president. Meeting Stony Brook’s senior leaders last week energized me to join them in the remarkable work that is happening across East and West campuses and with our colleagues in Southampton. Along with her leadership team, President McInnis positioned Stony Brook for ongoing excellence, and together with you, we will continue the momentum to advance our mission as a flagship institution, reinforcing our full range of opportunities in teaching, research and service. It is my goal to ensure my successor as the permanent president will inherit a university that is even better than Stony Brook is today — and that is saying a lot.
There will undoubtedly be challenges in the year ahead. One of them will be maintaining a campus that balances our enduring commitment to free speech with our equally strong dedication to providing educational opportunities for all students free of discrimination. As Stony Brook and campuses across the country learned during the past academic year, striking that balance may not be easy and may bring us some anguish. One way we can achieve that balance is to be respectful of others in our speech and actions, being as ready to listen as we are to speak.
In a few weeks, we will welcome the Class of 2028, Stony Brook’s largest-ever incoming class. Together let us show them what it truly means to be a Seawolf. Arriving on campus last week revealed the warmth, kindness and dedication that I had heard about from my wife, Joan, who joined Stony Brook last year as director of development for the School of Communication and Journalism and for Academic Affairs in University Advancement. Along with our daughter, Katie, who will enter The Stony Brook School as a ninth grader this fall, we are delighted to call Stony Brook our home.
If you see me walking around campus, please stop to say hello and tell me about your role at Stony Brook. Until we meet in person, please know I am delighted and honored to join you in this transformational work. Thank you for all you do for Stony Brook.
Sincerely,
Richard L. McCormick
Interim President, Stony Brook University