NYU Alumni Magazine: Letter from the President

Letter from the President

NYU Alumni Magazine’s Fall 2010 issue marks the 15th since we first began publishing seven years ago. When we launched, we viewed the magazine as a new opportunity to connect with our alumni, and to build a sense of identity that spanned borders and generations.

Now we have confirmation that we’ve been doing that. This past spring, nearly 1,000 of our readers participated in the magazine’s first large-scale survey, generated by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. For us, the results were illuminating: 73 percent of respondents reported that the alumni magazine strengthens their connection to the university. Two-thirds rated the quality as excellent or good, and 30 percent found it a source of continuing education.

Yet we know that there is always room for improvement. We hope that you will continue to send us your thoughts on what the magazine does well—and, more important, what we can do better—as well as what types of stories you want to read. (Please e-mail feedback to alumni.magazine@nyu.edu or mail it to NYU Alumni Magazine, 240 Greene Street, Second Floor, New York, NY 10003.)

In this issue, we present the story of Richard Courant, the brilliant mathematician who escaped Nazi Germany in 1934 to found the mathematical institute at NYU that now bears his name some 75 years later (“The Irrepressible Courant”). We also examine a labor-intensive new pilot program for high-risk patients at Bellevue Hospital Center that may be one of the best bets for saving Medicaid dollars (“Critical Care”). Finally, we look toward NYU’s 200th anniversary and a grand new framework to guide our future growth (“Looking to the Future”). Known as NYU Plans 2031, it details how we aim to meet the growing demands on space for classes, research, lodging, recreation, rehearsals, and any of the many activities that make this institution a top-tier center of learning.

—John Sexton