By GREGORY ZELLER //
A veteran academic administrator with a national résumé and long familiarity with New York State higher education will take the reins at SUNY-Old Westbury.
Following a 10-month process by Pennsylvania-based executive search firm RPA Inc. and an 18-member campus-wide search committee, the State University of New York Board of Trustees has named Timothy Sams as the next president of the SUNY College at Old Westbury.
Sams, currently vice president of student affairs at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, is scheduled to take over on or about Jan. 11. He succeeds Calvin Butts III, who led SUNY-Old Westbury for more than two decades before retiring in August.
Sams brings 29 years of higher-ed experience to the table. The Syracuse native – who earned a bachelor’s degree in history/sociology from Union College in Schenectady, a master’s degree in Africana Studies from the University at Albany and a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University – has built a professional portfolio combining enrollment, campus safety and athletics responsibilities and innovations, with a heavy focus on student services.
At Prairie View, he’s “showcased his deep commitment to excellence, student support and inclusivity,” according to SUNY-Old Westbury, which counted the creation of the university’s first LGBTQ+ Resource Center among Sams’ accomplishments.
Mili Makhijani: Sams is a perfect match.
Before Prairie View, Sams served as vice president for student development at Morehouse College, a historically black men’s college in Atlanta; that followed stints as vice president for student life at upstate New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and head of the Black Cultural Center at Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College, among other student-focused higher-ed gigs.
At every step, he has “demonstrated leadership in improving student success” and put “an emphasis on institutional excellence,” his new college said in a statement – but more than that, Sams has “dedicated his adult life to creating dynamic academic and social communities,” according to Mili Makhijani, chairwoman of the SUNY Old Westbury College Council.
“His career-long commitment to student engagement and advocacy matches strikingly well with Old Westbury’s ongoing emphasis on student equity and success,” added Makhijani, noting Sams’ views on student empowerment also harmonize with the school’s, “especially [students] from underserved backgrounds.”
Trumpeting “an engaged faculty, a community who cares for its students and stakeholders who fully understand the educational gem” that SUNY-Old Westbury is, Sams – who will officially succeed SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Chief Diversity Officer Teresa Miller, who’s served as SUNY-Old Westbury officer-in-charge since August – called his next job “the highlight of my career.”
“I am proud to follow President Emeritus Butts in this capacity,” Sams said. “Old Westbury’s mission to cultivate critical thinking, empathy, creativity and intercultural understanding, to endeavor to stimulate a passion for learning and commitment to building a more just and sustainable world, is perfectly aligned with my worldview.
“I can imagine no better place for me to be a president.”
