On February 26th, SUNY Old Westbury President Calvin O. Butts III held a town hall meeting in the multipurpose room of the Student Union during common hour.
Dr. Butts addressed the progress of the school and improvements that need to be made. He mentioned the enrollment of students and transfer students at SUNY Old Westbury. His goal for next school year is to have the enrollment rate of undergraduate students increase by less than two percent. “Our intended enrollment for new first time and transfer students is effectively flat. We want to hold on to the students that we have. We want to do all that we can to make the experience so attractive and so rewarding. That’s why I told you that some of the jobs with our students again, that our students will stay with us and work hard to graduate in four years,” Dr. Butts said. The college’s applications for first time students has been down more than ten percent.
He then went on to discuss the three new graduate programs that are going to be released in the upcoming fall semester including an online program where graduates can complete their degrees quicker. Recently, the school paired up with SUNY Downstate Medical Center to place graduates in the different medical programs they offer. “These things we do because we believe in who we are at Old Westbury,” Dr. Butts said.
Dr. Butts talked about the new developments that were made in the school such as the Panther Food Pantry and the Interfaith Center. While new developments have already been made in the college, there are upcoming projects that SUNY Old Westbury is currently working on such as constructing a new Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Center, while also renovating the Natural Science Building.
Dr. Butts announced that he is retiring from his presidency by August of 2020. He will then go on a study leave on January 2020. He will still remain in the school and part of the faculty. He emphasized his point by saying “It has taken a long time for us to get to this point because we have so far to come,” he said. “We have built a college that is competitive to any in this region and I would argue in any of the state.”
