Letter from the Chair

Greetings, Dearly Beloved,

“When they tell me 2 walk a straight line, I put on crooked shoes.” —Prince

My deep admiration for my all-time favorite musician, Prince, including the innovative way he navigated transitions and challenges, has steadily inspired my approach.

In 2022-2023, the Administrative Management Council (AMC) celebrated administrators and continued to proudly demonstrate how critically essential we are to the University’s success and health! Building on 52 years of AMC successes, we advanced our dedication to community service, professional development, and anti-racism and justice with an eye toward deepening administrators’ access and sense of belonging and togetherness within our Council.

This proved even more vital given that the year overflowed with leadership transitions — in addition to AMC staff, Officer, and Senator changes, we navigated concurrent University-wide announcements impacting our entire community, including that NYU would soon have a new President, Provost, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Board of Trustees Chair. 

As leadership transitions were top of mind for administrators, the AMC itself across Representatives and Committees leaders — particularly the AMC Bylaws and Nominations & Elections Committees — was mindful of the next wave of leadership talent for our Council. With a focus on well-being, they accelerated their focus on productive succession planning while respecting colleagues’ service tenure in a healthier and more productive manner. So whether they were ramping up, continuing, reviving, or winding down their involvement, these efforts helped our Council in crucial ways: to be more accessible, appreciate breaks and balance while avoiding burnout, extend grace, and deepen a growth pipeline of new and emerging leaders. And for those who were promoted out of the AMC (congratulations!), it translated to a new group of informed senior leaders with firsthand appreciation of how crucial administrators are to the University, who will stand in solidarity to boldly advocate for us — even, and especially, when we are not in the room.

Changes also fostered innovation. Administrators continued to pay forward our blessings through a variety of meaningful drives led by the AMC Community Service Committee. We continued our commitment to anti-racism and social justice through structural Council-wide improvements, the AMC Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity Committee, the AMC Brave Readers Club, the Do Justice section of the AMC Monthly, and The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Administrator and Staff Award sponsored by the AMC and the Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation. We prioritized content and speakers that helped demystify NYU’s priorities and processes, with a focus on how they relate to administrators; improved our budget process; and raised priority needs and opportunities to senior NYU leadership. Current and emeritus AMC Officers and staff, the AMC Communications and Benefits Committees, and the Open AMC Working Group were all essential to these efforts. We embraced opportunities to partner and demonstrate administrators’ contributions to NYU’s success, whether at the HR Community Strategic Planning Retreat, the Financial Forum, Student Government Assembly, Board of Trustees meetings, coordinating with the Faculty Councils to request that NYU leadership give us matching levels of compensation increase, or by warmly encouraging Deans and other senior leaders to participate in the AMC Professional Development Committee’s unique Mentorship Program. We also embraced a strong commitment to ensuring that our meetings and offerings were accessible to other NYU constituents — particularly union colleagues, given how many administrators were former clerical employees. Our enhanced fully hybrid, large-scale May Luncheon, made possible with the AMC Special Events Committee, complemented these efforts and incorporated a touching farewell to President Andrew Hamilton. It also included a fun and insightful conversation about how we can, and must, be Professional Troublemakers with Luvvie Ajayi Jones, a New York Times four-time bestselling author, speaker, and podcast host, who is within the Top 1 percent of TED Talk speakers of all time. We enjoyed our creative colleagues’ talents through our AMC Art Show and the Artist Spotlight in the AMC Monthly. And in the spirit of embracing community, we supported programming from groups like HOLA@NYU, NYU Asian Administrators and Allies, and Naughty Knitters, as well as celebrated the year end at an AMC Block Party that welcomed all of NYU.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your AMC Chair — it’s been a transformative honor and privilege. I hope that as you read this AMC Yearly, each and every one of you will join our Council in celebrating the vital role that YOU have played in our success. As I’ve shared before, the truth is, ain’t none of us out here doing it on our own. Know that the success I’ve experienced was built on the legacy of the AMC greats who came before me, as well as those who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me this year — particularly my fellow AMC Officers, the AMC Coordinator, and elected and appointed AMC leaders.

Keep shining, AMC!