Date: June 1, 2022
To:  NYU Employees
From: NYU Provost Katherine Fleming

Dear Colleagues:

Most of you know that I’m stepping down as Provost this summer, to join the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles as President and CEO, effective August 1.

I arrived at NYU as an entry-level assistant professor of History and Hellenic Studies in 1998. Since then, the institution has changed a lot. By pretty much every external measure, NYU has been on an upward trajectory, and we are now, quite literally, a world-class university.

That occurred despite challenges that many close peer schools don’t have to face: a relatively small per-capita endowment; a constrained and expensive space environment; diverse, pressing, and competing school needs; and a very large scale. It's hard not to envy other institutions with more resources, more space, less complexity. But I’ve come to understand that NYU’s distinctive institutional culture — including the ambition that has brought us to where we are today — derives in part from its unique circumstances. Working within this environment has certainly made my job not just more challenging, but also more interesting and exciting than it otherwise would have been.

I have great admiration for the people with whom and for whom I have worked. I am extremely fortunate to have had NYU as my institutional home for the past twenty-four years, and particularly to have served the university as Provost for the past six. There may have been times that weren't easy, but there wasn't a moment that it didn't feel like a privilege.

Thank you, and all the best.

Katherine Fleming

Katherine Fleming