2022-2023 in Review

A new president—and the first woman in the role. A new campus for NYU Shanghai, visionary plans for Brooklyn, and a new building on Mercer Street to address the New York campus’s most pressing academic, artistic, athletic, and community needs. Major university-wide initiatives to catalyze climate action and boost participation in elections.

Even for the university that never sleeps, 2022-23 stands out as a year for especially big news and big changes. We welcomed new deans in the College of Arts and Science, Gallatin, Global Public Health, Meyers College of Nursing, and Silver School of Social Work. In keeping with evolving public health guidelines, we gradually phased out some of the last COVID-related restrictions on campus activities, allowing a return to the full vibrancy of university life. And our reputation continued to rise in national and international rankings as NYU admitted one of the most selective and diverse classes, and celebrated top honors and awards for students, faculty, and alumni recognized as outstanding in their fields.  

Below are just a few of the highlights from the past academic year.

September

• NYU moved to number 25—its highest placement ever—on the 2022-2023 US News and World Report National Universities rankings.
• Steinhardt announced blues legend Taj Mahal as its 2022-23 NYU/Americana Artist-in-Residence, and Grammy winner Rudy Pérez joined the school as the inaugural NYU/Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame Artist-in-Residence, an appointment that launches a new partnership to enhance the appreciation of the history and cultural significance of Latin Music. 
• NYU purchased 3 MetroTech Center as part of a $1 billion, 20-year investment to advance engineering at NYU by recruiting 40 new full-time tenure track faculty, fueling groundbreaking research, and growing and modernizing our Downtown Brooklyn campus.
• Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) President Lee Kwang Hyung and NYU President Andy Hamilton celebrated a new global academic partnership between the two institutions to focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, humanities, and mathematics. It will begin with research collaborations and may lead to a joint undergraduate degree program and study away opportunities.
• NYU environmental studies faculty and colleagues launched the Wild Animal Welfare Program to fill a research and policy gap in a field largely focused on domesticated animals. 
• The NYU School of Global Public Health joined AI4HealthyCities Health Equity Network, a global initiative created by the Novartis Foundation in partnership with Microsoft AI for Health to use data science to provide health authorities, health system leaders, and other decision makers with insights and tools to help identify the root causes of heart health inequities.
• Among other efforts to help those affected by the invasion of Ukraine, NYU enrolled a cohort of Ukrainian students to study at NYU Prague. In addition to taking classes, they received student housing, a stipend to help cover living expenses, and health insurance.
• Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Prize-winning author of Klara and the Sun and this year’s NYU Reads selection for the NYU community to read and discuss, joined in a conversation with Interim Provost Georgina Dopico and a panel of NYU students.
• NYU took the top spot in Playbill’s colleges most represented on Broadway during the 2021-22 season. 

October

• NYU took no. 24 in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, our highest placement ever. 
• Global Public Health’s José A. Pagán, a health economist recognized for his leadership in aligning health care delivery, payment, and social systems to address health equity, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. 
• Former New York City mayor Bill De Blasio joined the Wagner School as the 2023 Marnold Visiting Fellow. 
• As part of a pilot initiative designed to rid New York’s sidewalks and streets of leaky piles of trash bags, Union Square Partnership and NYU installed new trash enclosure bins outside of Carlyle Court residence hall.
• On the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the School of Global Public Health released a report on the storm’s long-term impact on 18 counties in New York and New Jersey.
• NYU Coach Kim Wyant and the men’s soccer team made history in a matchup against Julianne Sitch and the University of Chicago in the first NCAA game with both men’s teams coached by women. 

November

• With the National Book Foundation, NYU hosted a reading by the 2022 National Book Award Finalists in Kimmel the evening before the awards were announced. 2017 Creative Writing Program alumna Tess Gunty won the fiction prize for The Rabbit Hutch and John Keene (CWP '97) won for poetry for Punks: New and Selected Poems.
• Nearly two dozen highly influential NYU researchers were named to Clarivate Analytics’ list identifying those who have published papers that rank in the top 1% by citations in their fields over the past decade.
• Among the dozens of NYUers who earned nominations, four alumni received 2022 GRAMMY awards, including the top prize of Record of the Year for Blake Slatkin (Gallatin), producer for Lizzo’s About Damn Time. 
• Students, faculty, and staff worked together on a university-wide voter education effort and action plan to boost participation in the 2022 Midterm Elections, and NYU was recognized in All In Campus Democracy Challenge’s inaugural cohort of Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting.
• Wagner Dean Sherry Glied and SPS Dean Angie Kamath made City&State's Power of Diversity: Women 100 list—along with alumni Eileen Cifone (Tandon '96), Farah Louis (Wagner '18), Jeanne Mullgrav (Law '88), Nydia M. Velazquez (GSAS '76), and Jennifer Jones Austin (Wagner '97). The list recognizes public officials, business executives, nonprofit leaders, advocates, academics, and others in New York politics and government.
• NYU ranked 6th for female undergrad founders and 7th for female graduate founders in Pitchbook’s annual tally of alumni entrepreneurs who have founded venture capital-backed companies.

December

NYU dedicated the ambitious new academic complex at 181 Mercer Street as the John A. Paulson Center after a $100 million gift from the 1978 Stern alumnus.

January

• Following a move-in period for students living in its first-year residence hall, the Paulson Center had its grand opening on January 23, the first day of classes for the spring semester. 
• NYU Shanghai kicked off the spring semester on its brand new campus at 567 West Yangsi Road with the unique design of four interlinked buildings surrounding a spacious courtyard. The campus houses many new facilities to support the academic, social, and cultural growth of the community, including a 200-seat performing arts recital hall, a black box theater, two indoor gymnasiums equipped to host basketball, volleyball and badminton games, and a two-story reading room adjacent to the library.
• The NYU Women's Basketball team reached the no. 1 national ranking for Division 3 schools after an 11-0 start to the season. The Violets finished with a 25-3 record and made an NCAA tournament run to the Elite Eight.
• The American Association for the Advancement of Science elected four NYU faculty members to the class of 2022 for their extraordinary contributions to science: Marcus Weck (chemistry), 
• Daniel Malamud (Dentistry), Alec Marantz (Linguistics), and Victor Torres (Medicine).
• After the deadly blizzard in Erie County, researchers from Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management at NYU Wagner began working with the City of Buffalo to conduct an “after-action report” on storm preparation, response, and recovery.
  

February

• Linda G. Mills—who for more than a decade has served as NYU’s Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost for Global Programs and University Life—was named NYU’s 17th president. She is the first woman in the role and will take up her new duties on July 1, 2023.
• The NYU Board of Trustees elected Evan Chesler (CAS ‘70, Law ‘75) as its Chair-Designate. He will take on the role of Chair after the conclusion of William R. Berkley's term at the end of August. 
• A total of 25 of our students and alumni were chosen for the Fulbright Program, placing NYU in the top 10 nationally in the selection of Fulbright students and marking our seventh consecutive year with 10+ grantees.
• Along with 70 Yamaha uprights, 23 new Steinway grand pianos—representing a $2 million purchase and one of the piano manufacturer’s largest deliveries ever—arrived at the new Paulson Center in a “game-changer” opportunity for Steinhardt music students.

March

• Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin, who will receive a Doctorate of Humane Letters, honoris causa, was announced as the speaker for NYU’s 190th Commencement to be held at Yankee Stadium on May 17. Nobel-Winning Chemist Carolyn Bertozzi, American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Misty Copeland, and science education innovator and UMBC President Emeritus Freeman A. Hrabowski will also receive honorary degrees. 
• NYU sent out offers of admission to 8 percent  of the more than 120,000 applicants to the Class of 2027, setting a new record for both selectivity and the total number of applications received. The entering class of approximately 5,700 first-year students is expected to have no racial or ethnic majority. Nineteen percent identify as first in their families to attend college and 20 percent  are Pell Grant recipients. Admitted students hail from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and represent 86 countries. 
• Edward Berger (Tisch ‘94), one of 14 NYU alumni nominated for Academy Awards, won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for All Quiet on the Western Front, which he also directed. 
• Adam Sandler (Tisch ’88) was honored with the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. 
• The curtain rose on the Paulson Center’s new theaters, studios, design shops, and rehearsal rooms—including the newly dedicated Iris Cantor Theatre—with an open house featuring performances and tours. 
• The Princeton Review ranked NYU as the best school for game design for both undergraduate and graduate programs. 
• Two NYU studies—about cancer-fighting T cells and a new gel to treat gum disease—were selected by STAT News for STAT Madness, a bracket-style tournament celebrating the year’s biggest breakthroughs in science and medicine research. The College of Dentistry study received enough votes to advance to the final round and win the whole competition, besting 63 other research teams nationwide.  
• The Tisch School established the Martin Scorsese Virtual Production Center, a  45,586-square-foot facility to be housed on the top floor of Building 8 at Industry City, the 35-acre innovation campus on the Brooklyn waterfront. Made possible by a major gift announced in 2021 from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, led by Mellody Hobson, co-CEO of Ariel Investments, and filmmaker George Lucas, the center will provide NYU Tisch students and faculty with best-in-class production facilities in a unique setting for collaboration and internships at some of New York’s leading film and media companies.
• Natalie Bruns (Tandon ’24) was named University Athletic Association (UAA) Women's Basketball Player of the Year.
• Freshman Kaley McIntyre won two National Championships in two days, as she lead NYU Women’s Swimming to a best-ever 5th place team finish at the Division III National Championships. In total, the NYU men and women earned 31 All America honors.

April

• The NYU community came together for 2040 Now, a weeklong festival of events, performances, demos, and discussions to catalyze climate action, combat climate despair, and envision our sustainable campus in the year NYU achieves carbon neutrality. 
• Five NYU professors—Arlene Dávila, Richard Move, Dafna Naphtali, Danielle Ofri, and Marita Sturken—were awarded 2023 Guggenheim Fellowships, tying UCLA for the most selections this year. 
• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected four NYU faculty as 2023 fellows: Marisa Carrasco, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science; Paula England, dean of social science at NYU Abu Dhabi; Pamela Newkirk, a professor in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute; and Richard Schechner, a professor emeritus at the Tisch School of the Arts.
  
• Ambria Williams, a CAS junior who aims for a career that merges biomedical innovation with social justice, was named a 2023 Truman Scholar.
• NYU joined SUNY Stony Brook University as an affiliate partner for the New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island, a first-of-its-kind international center to develop solutions to the global climate crisis and create green jobs for New Yorkers. 
• Donatella Delfino (SPS), Erica Foldy (Wagner), Deepak Hegde (Stern), Spike Lee (Tisch), Michelle Munson (Silver), Melvin Rosenfeld (Grossman), and Kendall Atterbury (Silver) won 2022-2023 Distinguished Teaching Awards.
• NYU's Table Tennis won the 2023 National Collegiate Table Tennis Association's co-ed national championship, defeating Texas Wesleyan. It was the second consecutive championship for the NYU team, and their third in the last five seasons.

May

• Holly Halmo (University Enrollment Management), Daniel Larsen (Tisch), Andrew Maliszewski (NYU IT), William McCormack (Meyers), Stephen Polniaszek (Student Affairs), Amanda Regalado (Abu Dhabi NY), Tara Rock (Arts and Science), and Ankita Sriprasad (Office of General Counsel) received Distinguished Administrator Awards. 
• Four NYU alumni won 2023 Pulitzer Prizes: Nancy Ancrum (WSUC '78)—for Editorial Writing; Andrea Long Chu (GSAS '16, '19)—for Criticism; Hernan Diaz (GSAS '07)—for Fiction; and Sanaz Toossi (TSOA '18)—for Drama.