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The Two Faces of Summer, Moving Forward
By Edward Guiliano, President and CEO, NYIT
Some of the nice things about being a college professor are June, July and August. College administrators, however, have a different view of summer. We take pride in the just-completed academic year, but there's no time to rest as we review our strategic goals and get ready to open a new show, a new season in September.
Summer is in many ways our busiest season with facilities upgrades in full swing, budget and planning meetings filling our schedules, and personnel matters getting fine-tuned. And then there are all the things we promised ourselves we'd get to during the summer-when we imagined life being a bit calmer. Despite all of these responsibilities, we do find time to reflect on our performance.
Is NYIT fulfilling its potential? Are we living up to our name, which promises all the benefits of New York and a rich technical environment? These are some of the key questions we continually weigh, particularly as we prepare for the fall semester.
It's easy to become sidetracked and nearsighted during uncertain, competitive and stressful times, but we continue to march forward at NYIT. We're confident that our professional faculty, powerful technology and progressive curriculum will transform today's students into tomorrow's leading policy makers.
Indeed, we firmly believe that education is the lingua franca that can foster improved relations throughout the world.
That may sound a bit idealistic, but I invite you to visit our campuses to see the power of diversity at work. As U.S. News & World Report has noted, students from 38 states and 60 countries eagerly converge at NYIT to share ideas, challenge conventional wisdom and strive for greatness.
As our name suggests, NYIT is a leading academic institution in New York-but that's only part of our compelling academic story. We also run accredited programs in China, Taiwan and other distant locations.
Talented students who graduate from these programs earn the same degrees that we bestow in New York or online via the Internet (for information about our online coursework, visit www.nyit.edu, highlight "Academics" and click on "Online Campus").
NYIT has offered courses via computer conferencing since 1984, but our commitment to technology does not end there. We recently deployed a broadband infrastructure-one of the fastest such networks on the East Coast-that paves the way for DVD-quality videoconferencing and new multimedia applications across our primary campuses and the Internet.
Today's tech-savvy students feel right at home when they enter our digital classrooms and research labs. Roughly 50 percent of U.S. homes now have PCs, every kid on the block seemingly has a cell phone or a pocket organizer, and modern video game systems eclipse the power of yesterday's minicomputers and workstations.
Pardon the cliché, but I believe the best is yet to come. As Bill Gates recently told guests at Microsoft's annual Technology Alliance Summit, "The picture I want to paint is... this next decade will actually [give rise to] more advances and more improvements than the many decades that have come before."
Here at NYIT, we couldn't agree more. As we prepare to activate our new broadband network, we're convinced that our technology-infused curriculum offers tangible benefits to our students. Indeed, 90 percent of our graduates have a job in hand or firm plans for further education by commencement day.
That's no small feat, but we're not resting on our laurels. We're testing advanced wireless systems, linking our medical school (NYCOM) to leading health care facilities around the nation, expanding our Manhattan campus and getting ready to embark on our most successful academic year ever.
Please check back with us frequently, as we strive to increase the value of your NYIT degree and deliver professional, career-oriented educations to some of the world's most keen and hungry minds.
Edward Guiliano, Ph.D.
President and CEO, NYIT
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