This year marks the start of Stony Brook’s mission to propel the Department of Athletics into the future with Together We Transform, a five-year plan that supports and elevates the Project 50 Forward initiative designed to enhance the fundamental teaching, research and service mission of the University.
A robust sports roster has long been a part of Stony Brook’s strengths, and now the University will enrich and secure its future by expanding its commitment to competitive athletics.
Together We Transform seeks to raise the University’s promise to match its reputation as a leading academic and research institution — in service of both its student-athletes and the wider University. The program’s stated vision “to positively transform the life of each student- athlete” combines Project 50 Forward’s overall goals to achieve University- wide operational excellence and academic greatness, and build for the future with close attention to each student’s success.
Transform’s mission was first boosted in January 2015, when Stony Brook President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. was appointed to a four-year term on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Board of Directors.
The Transform plan launched in June 2015 via Seawolves United, a fundraising effort that was quickly answered by the Dubin Challenge: a $5 million one-to-one matching grant sponsored by Stony Brook alumnus Glenn Dubin ’78, Hon.’12 and his wife, Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD. The Dubin Challenge will help meet the University’s goal to raise $10 million to build an indoor training center. The center will assist the University’s already high-level Athletics department toward reaching its goal of becoming a leading NCAA Division I member. It’s also a tremendous step in Stony Brook’s eight-point plan to position Athletics as a primary driver in the University’s expansion and future.
The plan’s eight points are transforming the student-athlete experience; competing for championships and national prominence; developing a culture of philanthropy and financial support; amplifying the Stony Brook brand; celebrating diversity and gender equity; creating first-class facilities; maintaining internal integrity; and magnifying the significance of football.
Each point has been carefully mapped out to incrementally meet the Transform plan’s aims by 2020 while simultaneously supporting Stony Brook’s objective to become a top-20 public research institution. In these achievements, the University will raise its global, national and regional profiles, while providing resources to and invigorating our local economy.
Together We Transform will live up to its name by further diversifying and uniting Stony Brook’s strengths. The enhanced athletic path will empower the entire University and lead each campus member who walks it — as a scientist, staffer, professor, scholar and Seawolf — toward a brighter, prosperous and sustainable future.
Chesley Hicks is a New York-based freelance writer and editor.
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