Welcome to the Fall Semester

Dear Graduate Center community,

Welcome to the fall 2023 semester! It was fantastic to get together with hundreds of new students at orientation and celebrate the beginning of their academic journeys at the Graduate Center.

We are very gratified that CUNY has strengthened its investment in the Graduate Center by increasing our operating budget by $1 million and, as announced in June, committing an additional $3 million in permanent funding for doctoral student support. These funds are particularly helpful as we navigate the difficult fiscal environment that is impacting all of CUNY.

Also in June, Google announced that the Graduate Center is one of four top New York schools selected for its Cyber NYC Institutional Research Program. The three-year, $3 million award is designed to spur cybersecurity research and education and bring more diversity to the field. Across all fields, our faculty continue to garner impressive awards and grants from federal and state agencies and private foundations for important projects in areas spanning experimental physics, linguistics, the digital humanities, and more. Our success in securing this funding reflects the excellence and dedication of our faculty and their commitment to cutting-edge research.

Please join me in congratulating the eight new distinguished professors on our faculty. CUNY announced this summer that Ammiel Alcalay, Jason Eckardt, Sarit Golub, David Grubbs, Cynthia Hahn, Talia Schaffer, Benjamin Steinberg, and Maria Tamargo were promoted to distinguished faculty — the highest faculty rank — at their home campuses. This is a remarkable and most well-deserved achievement and a reflection of faculty excellence at the Graduate Center.

Looking ahead, we have a terrific public events calendar, featuring two Pulitzer Prize winners from the Graduate Center. In October, our own Kai Bird, who co-wrote the Pulitzer Prize–winning biography behind Oppenheimer, will talk with film director Christopher Nolan and producer Emma Thomas about the challenges of distilling complicated history into a film. In December, we will pay tribute to Professor Emerita Tania León, a trailblazing composer and 2022 Kennedy Center honoree. Watch for announcements of these and other fall public programs and for our biweekly “Coming Up at the Graduate Center” events email.

On Tuesday, October 24, we will hold our Employee Recognition Event breakfast reception to celebrate and thank our hardworking staff and to recognize longstanding staff members with years-of-service awards. More information and invitations are forthcoming.

And we have moved our annual Images of Research competition to the fall. Students, I encourage you to participate in this exciting opportunity to have images that illustrate your research displayed around campus. Look out for details on how to enter this juried show.

The Graduate Center faced many challenges last year as we returned to campus post-pandemic. We begin the new academic year on a strong footing. I look forward with you to a fall semester of important work and endless possibility.

With best wishes,

Robin L. Garrell

President