SCSU Welcomes Dr. Mary A. Papazian

Wed., Feb 01

Below is President Mary A. Papazian's message to the Southern community on her first day as president, Feb. 1, 2012:

February 1, 2012

Dear Colleagues,

Today is the first day of my presidency at Southern, and I'm thrilled to be part of such a vibrant campus community. Southern is a distinguished and highly respected institution with strong values and traditions, and I am honored to lead the university through the next critical chapter of its history. I feel truly fortunate to have received this opportunity at a time when so much has been achieved by your community and its leadership in recent years. My challenge as president will be to build on these accomplishments and bring all of us together in a way that will continue to move Southern and higher education in Connecticut forward.

Since my selection as president in December, I have been completing my work at Lehman College, where I have spent the last five years as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Lehman is a similar size to Southern with about 12,100 students, and is one of the seven major senior colleges of The City University of New York. At Lehman, I helped articulate and implement a strategic vision and long-term goals, worked to build new community partnerships and assisted in launching the college's first major capital campaign. In recent years, admission standards were raised to better serve the student base, new strategies were implemented to support student success, and there was growth in both facilities and faculty.  These initiatives led Lehman to be designated for the first time as a "top tier public institution in the northern region" by U.S. News & World Report.

I envision similar development opportunities at Southern. I look forward to working with all of you to strengthen enrollment and academic standards and begin work on a strategic plan that will help us to set our priorities for the coming years. Building on recent advances, I also will look to forward research and development and expand the impressive array of public-private partnerships that has been successfully implemented here. I believe that this university has the potential to become a leading light in higher education: a university where our students are given every opportunity to acquire a first-class education with a global vision in an enlightened, compassionate, supportive and diverse environment.

During the weeks ahead, I plan to learn as much as I can about Southern and the Greater New Haven community.  Starting today, I will be a visible presence on campus, getting to know the faculty, students, administrators and support staff -- if you see me, stop me and say hello! I will also have regular office hours so that you can drop by and talk with me. I believe that an open, collaborative and responsive administration can bring out the best in everyone and ensure the success of a common enterprise. All of you play an important role in advancing our academic mission, and your insights and ideas will help me to develop a vision that will move us forward.

In the short term I will be commuting to campus from my home in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., so that my husband, Dennis, and I have time to buy a house here (and sell our house in New Jersey), and so that our younger daughter, Marie, can finish her final year in middle school.  Fortunately, our older daughter, Ani, has settled nicely into her freshman year in college. We are eagerly looking forward to moving to this area and becoming fully engaged in the rich mix of intellectual, social and cultural opportunities that this region provides.

I am excited about what the future holds for the next years and beyond.  Yes, these remain uncertain economic times and understandably there is some anxiety regarding the changing landscape in public higher education in Connecticut.  But I am convinced that together we can successfully embrace the opportunities and address the ongoing challenges facing Southern and all state universities.  I plan to be a vigorous advocate for this university and its mission in Greater New Haven, in Hartford and further afield. We must make it clear to the public, the business community and the political establishment that investing in an institution like Southern is not only an investment in our students, but also by extension an investment in our whole community and indeed, the very future of America.

In closing, I want to thank all of you who welcomed me and my husband so warmly at my December introduction. As I stated at that time, the journey on which we are about to embark will be one of respect. It will be a journey of commitment, a journey dedicated to excellence and to human dignity. And it will be a journey that I look forward to sharing with each and every one of you.

Sincerely,

Mary A. Papazian, Ph.D.
President