Should NYU faculty and their dependent children receive full tuition remission?
"I've always been a math and science man," said Peter Blair Henry, the new Stern School of Business dean.
Hailing from Jamaica, Henry wanted to understand why the difference of income between his country and an affluent neighborhood in the U.S. was so large.
"I've always been interested in problem-solving," Henry said. "What drew me to macroeconomics was my interest in finding out why some countries were poor and others rich, and how to go about solving those issues."
Henry was formerly an economics professor at Stanford University and leader of President Barack Obama's transition team's review of the International Monetary Fund.
Henry has a number of plans he'd like to push to advance the Stern School since he took the post on Jan. 15, including focusing on globalization — certainly where his problem-solving qualities are handy.
A recent BusinessWeek article stated that in 2007, 44 percent of the graduating Stern class entered the financial services and investment banking field. In 2009, 18 percent of college graduates could not find a job — a 10 percent increase from 2008.
But Henry is "very focused on the job market" and ensured that employers are "looking at the big picture."
A double major in actuarial science and marketing, Stern sophomore Adjani Delgado said that Henry's presence and his emphasis on globalization will help improve the school's reputation.
Stern sophomore Tony Huang also has high hopes for the dean.
"Even though the dean of all Stern won't be interacting directly with many undergraduates, his ideals and choices still affect us," Huang said. "It's very good that he is encouraging the idea that Stern is a strong and well-rounded school in many areas, not just finance."
Henry agrees that the Stern community is strong, but he does not stray from his firm conviction that the NYU community as a whole is equally welcoming and collaborative.
"I've received nothing but warmth from President Sexton and the NYU community," he said of his first few weeks as dean.
When Henry is not "deaning" or doing research, he said, he enjoys spending time with his wife and four sons, the youngest is just 18 months old , Henry said he is extremely busy. His other interests include sports and reading Arabic novels.
"In a consistently more globalized world, it's extremely important to be able to interact internationally," Henry said. "Many great opportunities are found outside the U.S."
Foreign languages are essential to this idea. Although his wife and two of his sons can speak Spanish, Henry admits to only knowing a little.
"My biggest mistake in college was letting math substitute for a foreign language," he said. "Math in itself can be a language, but in today's world it's absolutely necessary to be able to understand other cultures and languages."
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