To: The FAS Community

From: NYU President Andrew Hamilton and Provost Katherine E. Fleming

Date: Friday April 6, 2018

Tom Carew – Dean of NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Science since 2011 and a distinguished neurobiologist whose research interests center on the behavioral, cellular, and molecular analyses of learning and memory – has shared with us his plans to step down from the FAS deanship and return to research and teaching, as you learned earlier today from Tom himself.  He has graciously agreed to stay on as dean until a search for his successor is completed, likely by the summer of 2019.

The Faculty of Arts and Science traces its origins to NYU’s beginnings.  It was NYU’s first school, and it remains the academic heart of our University.  From the moment that Tom joined NYU from UC Irvine, he intuitively understood the central role that the FAS plays in forming NYU’s academic character.  He accordingly set the kind of high scholarly standards and ambitious agenda that have been the hallmarks of his deanship.  That drive can be seen in Tom’s many accomplishments during his service as Dean, some of which include:

Broadening the diversity of Arts and Science at all levels, with a focus on equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging. Five years ago, Tom spearheaded the creation of the FAS Diversity Initiative, which now boasts over 100 faculty participants. The FAS Diversity Initiative provided a platform for creating numerous other initiatives, including the development of an FAS Faculty Diversity Hiring Toolkit, now widely used across many schools at NYU. Tom has also recently created a new senior leadership position in Arts and Science: the Director for Faculty Diversity, Equity, lnclusion, and Development.

Establishing the Research Investment Fund (RIF) to support scholarly proposals exploring new and innovative research paths, which has led to collaborative opportunities among several laboratories, departments, and other academic units.

Creating an FAS Office of Educational Technology to collaborate with faculty across all divisions to make an impressive impact on educational technology in the FAS.

Contributing to the development of the Center for Data Science, which now has leveraged the hiring of a number of sterling faculty and has been the catalyst for a thriving Master’s program.

Tom has accomplished these and many other achievements all while maintaining an active research lab, publishing several papers in his field each year, and of course, teaching our undergraduates in the College of Arts and Science.

Tom’s leadership at NYU has extended far beyond Arts and Science, not simply as a result of his position as Dean of the FAS, but by dint of his personal warmth, his wisdom, his humor, and his experience and intellect.  He led the Deans Council for a number of years, and his voice still carries great weight with his peers.  He was a member of the Senate Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force, which has provided valuable guidance for our diversity efforts, as well as the Affordability Task Force, striving to generate innovative pathways to a more affordable education at NYU.  And he has been a leading voice in how to innovate to make better use of our global presence to advance our educational goals.

His deanship will be remembered for its focus on excellence; for the advancement of many programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences; for his recruitment and retention of outstanding faculty; and for the tone he set through his kindness, decency, and genuineness.  

We will be forming a search committee to seek Tom’s successor and will write to you soon with more information about that process.

For now, we would ask you to join us in thanking Tom for his tireless dedication to the FAS and NYU and in wishing him well.