As NYU returns to its regular schedule, catch up on all of the on-campus news you’ve missed since May. During New York City’s second-hottest summer on record, NYU Langone Health won top honors for its stroke care, administrators prepared for major leadership transitions and more than 1,600 alumni demanded that administrators grant a Gallatin valedictorian who protested the “genocide currently occurring” in Gaza during his graduation speech his diploma.

NYU and the LSE sign on new master’s program

In July, NYU President Linda Mills and LSE President and Vice Chancellor Larry Kramer signed an agreement at Bobst Library for a joint dual master’s degree program.

Students in the two-year Media, Culture, and Global Cities program — which has been in the works since April 2024 — will graduate with a Master of Arts from NYU and a Master of Science from The London School of Economics and Political Science. The students will spend their first year at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and their second year at Steinhardt’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication.

Administrators emphasized that the program will be the first dual degree focused on media, culture and communication in major cities. Applications for the first cohort of students, who will begin attending LSE in the fall of 2026, will open this semester. 

“This dual degree programme with LSE stands among our most important, both because we are now neighbours in London and also because it builds on a long-standing and much-valued scholarly collaboration,” Mills said in a July statement. “We learned long ago that ideas don’t have boundaries — this new program fulfils this important academic mission.” 

The program is the third initiative between the two institutions, who began collaborating in April of last year and have since raised more than $100,000 via their joint research fund. 

NYU employees donate over $100,000 to NYC mayoral candidates

This year’s Democratic mayoral primary race had New York City in a chokehold, and the NYU community was no exception. From NYU Langone x-ray technicians to law professors, employees of the university — those who listed NYU or an NYU-affiliate institution as their employer — donated more than $100,000 to city mayoral candidates. 

The largest sum, nearly $35,000, went to Democratic primary winner Zohran Mamdani. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo received about $15,500 and Mayor Eric Adams received about $6,900, while Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who lost to Adams in 2021, received $520.

In June, 33-year-old Mamdani won the democratic mayoral primary through ranked-choice voting after no candidate surpassed the 50% threshold in the first round. Cuomo finished second, and Brad Lander, who garnered over $17,000 from NYU employees, placed third. 

Mamdani, Cuomo, Adams and Sliwa will go head-to-head in a crowded mayoral race this November. 

AJP members demand that NYU admin grant Logan Rozos’ diploma

Over 1,600 NYU alumni signed letters to NYU leadership demanding that they grant Gallatin valedictorian Logan Rozos his diploma, which the university withheld after he condemned the “genocide currently occurring” in Gaza during his graduation ceremony speech in May.

The letter, which was circulated by NYU Alumni for Justice in Palestine, aims to garner 3,200 signatures from alumni with a pre-written email to NYU President Linda Mills and Gallatin dean Victoria Rosner expressing that Rozos was “unfairly and unjustly punished.”

Shortly after Rozos’ speech, NYU spokesperson John Beckman released a statement claiming that Rozos “lied about the speech he was going to deliver” and condemned him for using the speech to “express his personal and one-sided political views.”

AJP’s letter claimed that in revoking Rozos’ diploma, the university failed to uphold its mission statement to embrace “diversity among faculty, staff and students” and is instead “silencing a graduating student for expressing a widely shared moral stance.”

“Withholding Logan’s diploma in retaliation not only undermines NYU’s credibility but also sends a chilling message to other students: that their degrees may be conditional on silence,” the letter said. 

Senior leadership restructures to brace for administrative changes

President Linda Mills announced the expansion of three senior administrators’ roles ahead of Executive Vice President Martin Dorph’s retirement in October. The changes were formally implemented Sept. 1 and aim to strengthen the university’s ability to respond to “institutional challenges,” Mills said in the statement.

Taylor Jantz, the senior vice president for finance and budget and chief financial officer, will now report directly to Mills. Jantz will also lead NYU’s Information Technology and Capital Project and Facilities Division, which encapsulates three finance and management offices that account for $200 million and $60 million in capital construction and deferred maintenance projects, respectively. He will also oversee the Investment Office, which distributes NYU’s nearly $6 billion university endowment to financially support university operations. 

The Department of Global Campus Safety and the Human Resources Division will be led by Emma Wolfe, Mills’ current chief of staff. Senior Vice President for Financial Strategy Neil Radar will also act as the senior advisor for operations, overseeing NYU’s largest financial and structural changes and working closely with Wolfe. 

NYU Langone stroke centers rack up titles 

NYU Langone’s three Comprehensive Stroke Centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island, as well as its Stroke Center in Suffolk, received awards from the American Heart Association for providing the “fastest and most advanced” stroke care in the state. 

The Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Award represents the highest distinction in U.S. stroke treatment and has been received by the two medical centers after providing “more than two consecutive years of outstanding care.”

Both the CSCs and the Stroke Center received awards specifically for their advanced care to type 2 diabetes patients, who are at higher risk of stroke. The CSCs were also recognized for providing care to more than half of their patients within 60 to 90 minutes of arrival. 

“The recognition from the American Heart Association shows our dedication to providing timely, effective quality care to our patients in need,” Koto Ishida, the medical director for the CSCs, said in the press release. “Our multidisciplinary teams are trained to respond rapidly and effectively because time is brain — second counts.”

Contact Leena Ahmed, Natalie Deoragh, Jennifer Jesus, Eva Mundo and Kaitlyn Sze Tu at [email protected].