LARGEST GIFT IN PACE HISTORY TO ENDOW PACE SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Exceptional university students with interests in computer science and information systems soon will be invited to study under exceptional circumstances at Pace University. Their opportunity will come thanks to a $15 million gift to the university’s multidisciplinary computing school from Ivan G. Seidenberg, the Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. It is the largest gift in Pace history.
(PressZoom) - The gift was announced by Pace University President David A. Caputo.
Part of the gift will create a unique scholarship program in which recipients, known as Seidenberg Scholars, will have regular chances for discussions with Seidenberg himself.
Seidenberg Scholars also will hold conversations with other leaders in the computing and information systems industry, and will receive tuition assistance and laptops, participate in special mentoring sessions and group projects with faculty members, and have unusual options for summer travel, internships and courses.
The remainder of the funds, Caputo said, will help the overall endowment of Pace’s school of Computer Science and Information Systems. In recognition of the importance of the gift, the University’s trustees have renamed the 22-year-old school the Ivan G. Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University. Seidenberg earned his MBA from Pace in 1981 and serves as a trustee.
Next Google. “This nation must create the intellectual capital that is essential to an innovation-centered economy,” said Seidenberg. “Innovation simply cannot exist without a constantly replenished talent pool of entrepreneurs, managers and engaged employees. In only two decades, this school has very successfully brought Pace’s expertise in transforming students into accomplished professionals into the information technology field. I am delighted to support the faculty, staff and students’ plans to take it from good to great. I also hope this donation will encourage other donors to make similar investments in Pace.”
Susan M. Merritt, PhD, the school’s founding dean, said, “This gift underscores the demand for a new level of computing professionals, and magnifies Pace’s ability to nurture their skills, their dreams and their research. We hope a Seidenberg Scholar will found the next Google!”
She added: “We’re especially honored by support from a visionary who is widely credited with transforming the telecommunications industry through wireless technology, who now has set a goal of bringing broadband to every home, and who is a strong proponent of connecting technology to students and teachers in all academic fields. This is a stunning endorsement for our vision of practical, empowering, interdisciplinary education in both computer science and information technology.”
“This is especially exciting news as Pace University gets ready to celebrate its centennial in 2006,” Caputo said. “Ivan Seidenberg has a longstanding, deep commitment to the Pace mission of opening up opportunities for students from all walks of life. His generosity strengthens our ability to set the standard of preparation for advanced computer scientists and technologists.”
Growing Pace momentum. Caputo pointed out that the Seidenberg gift accelerates Pace University’s fundraising momentum. In the last three months the university has announced two other significant gifts -- $5 million for a Center for Social Entrepreneurship, from the Boston-area entrepreneurs Helene and Grant Wilson, and $1.25 million for an endowed professorship in autism and a new national center for autism teaching and research, from the education entrepreneur Michael C. Koffler.
Recruiting of Seidenberg Scholars will begin in January, 2006. That summer Pace will invite 20 outstanding high school students to campus for a three-day program that will introduce them to Pace and the Seidenberg School and provide the information they need to apply.
Pioneering School. The Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems will use the gift to build on a part of Pace that already is meeting Seidenberg’s call for being innovation-centered.
Merritt, the founding dean, is a summa cum laude graduate of Catholic University who earned her MS and PhD in computer science from NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Early in her career she worked at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, IBM’s Thomas Watson Research Center, and the Digital Equipment Corporation. She founded the Computer Science department at Pace’s Dyson College of Arts and Sciences before being selected as dean of the new computing school after a nationwide search.
The school was one of the first comprehensive schools of computing in the United States when it was founded in 1983 at the behest of Pace’s then president, Edward Mortola. At the time, computer hardware education typically was located in engineering departments and software in math departments. Since then the concept of an integrated school has spread to more than 40 other institutions.
Under Merritt’s leadership, the Pace school also has been a pioneer in computer literacy for all college students. The school’s “Introduction to Computing” course has been a requirement for all Pace undergraduates for the last 20 years and a model for other campuses.
Meeting evolving demands in its areas, the school’s recent course additions have let students apply information technology across disciplines, to the needs of organizations serving teenagers with AIDS, library patrons without basic computing skills, and New York City’s bid for the 2012 Olympics. Other new offerings meet society’s increasing need for people who can yoke computing to disciplines from security to finance.
The school also created the first Doctor of Professional Studies ( DPS ) in Computing, a path-breaking doctoral program for information technology professionals that has proved a particular boon to women and minorities, who are traditionally underrepresented in computing.
In another leadership area, the school generally exceeds national averages for enrolling women and minority group members: Among currently-enrolled students and most recent graduates, 21percent are women, 21 percent are African-American, 10 percent are Hispanic and 20 percent are Asian-American.
Union-management collaboration, art and algorithms. An additional Pace innovation is a unique collaboration with telecommunications companies like Verizon, Qwest and Southern Bell and the two major telecom unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Under the National Council for Telecommunications Education and Learning ( NACTEL ), the school uses distance-education techniques to let workers earn a college-level degree in telecommunications or networking technologies online, from anywhere in the country. Since 1999, over 2000 employees have enrolled.
Research projects at the Seidenberg School stress applications of science and system design. They include a robotics lab that develops intelligent agents to perform operations that are dangerous to humans, investigations of computer security protections and methods of detecting intrusions, development of virtual tools for collaboration over Internet 2, participation in a Pace Digital Gallery for displaying and understanding new digital art forms, application of human-computer interaction techniques to wearable and handheld devices, and research on genetic algorithms for analyzing complex patterns in the financial services industry.
Observing its 100th anniversary in 2006, Pace is a private university in the New York Metropolitan area with a growing national reputation for offering students opportunity, teaching and learning based on research, civic involvement, international perspectives and measurable outcomes. It is one of the ten founders of Project Pericles, a coalition of campuses developing education that encourages lifelong participation in democratic processes. Pace has seven campuses: downtown and midtown New York City, Pleasantville, Briarcliff, White Plains ( a graduate center and law school ), and a Hudson Valley Center at Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, N.Y. Approximately 14,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lienhard School of Nursing, Lubin School of Business, School of Education, School of Law and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. Www.pace.edu.
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Contact Christopher T. Cory, Executive Director of Public Information, Pace University 212-346-1117, cell 917-608-8164, ccory@pace.edu
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