Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith was featured in an interview with Kate Valerio on WUSB-FM, where she discussed her first months leading the university and outlined her vision for its future. The conversation aired on October 18 during the program “Health Matters” and included Vice President of Student Affairs Rick Gatteau.
Goldsmith described receiving a warm welcome from students, faculty, and staff. She referred to her initial State of the University Address delivered on September 29, in which she said Stony Brook is “a place where I could come in and craft, together with everybody here, a vision for the future and then achieve it.”
She explained that her strategic vision for Stony Brook is organized around three pillars: accelerate, build, and catalyze. According to Goldsmith, accelerating involves advancing excellence in research, education, service, and healthcare. Building refers to developing better facilities both on campus and elsewhere—she cited The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island and Stony Brook Southampton as examples—as well as expanding the student body “to educate more New Yorkers.” Catalyzing means taking university innovations beyond campus by fostering entrepreneurship and industry partnerships “to have a real significant impact.”
Gatteau spoke about ongoing efforts to expand student residency options at Stony Brook University. He mentioned the upcoming opening of Seawolf Village in January with 492 beds and plans for a new hall in Tabler community within a few years. He also highlighted new initiatives such as embedding Student Support team members within residence halls for immediate assistance. Additional efforts to boost school spirit include installing large SBU letters outside the Stony Brook Union alongside the Wolfie statue.
During the interview, Goldsmith and Gatteau reflected on their early aspirations. Gatteau shared that he comes from a family of teachers and naturally gravitated toward education; he has been part of Stony Brook for 24 years and helped launch its master’s degree program in higher education administration.
Goldsmith recounted not knowing what career path she wanted at age seven or even at later points: “At most inflection points in my career, I didn’t know.” She added that while her mother worked as a cartoonist for the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,” she herself could not draw; though her father was an engineer, she did not initially understand what engineers did. After studying engineering at Berkeley, she discovered an interest in wireless communication through work experience before pursuing graduate studies and eventually becoming both an academic professor and industry professional.
“I said, I’m going to explore all of them and see which one ends up being the most appealing,” Goldsmith said. “So one of the things I like to tell young people is explore all your options. Don’t settle on one thing. Because there’s so many paths to professional success and satisfaction.”
The interview will be rebroadcast on WUSB-FM 90.1 and 107.3 on October 20 as well as during Homecoming on October 25 at 11 am each day.
During their visit to WUSB, Goldsmith and Gatteau also participated as WUSB accepted the New York Broadcaster-Community Partnership Award from the New York Blood Center (NYBC). The longstanding partnership between Stony Brook University and NYBC has led to more than 35,000 pints of blood donated by members of the university community over two decades; these donations support research initiatives as well as cancer treatment programs.
