2006 NETWORKING® MAGAZINE’S DAVID AWARD HONOREE.

STUART RABINOWITZ, J.D.

President, Hofstra University

When accepting the position as eighth
president of Hofstra University four years
ago, Stuart Rabinowitz says he was ready for
the challenge. He had joined the faculty as a law professor
in 1972, served as dean of the Law School for 11
years, and watched and talked to university presidents,
so he believed he could make “substantive, tangible
improvements,” and bring Hofstra “to the next
step of development.”

“Hofstra has dramatically increased the credentials
and diversity of its incoming students,” Rabinowitz
notes, and, this fall, 48% of the incoming freshman
class came from outside New York State. He considers
broadening the University’s attractiveness to students
beyond Long Island’s borders as “an essential way to
build a national reputation.” Yet, he continues, “It’s
not only important to recruit your students, it’s important
to retain them,” and Hofstra is enhancing student
services and raising student satisfaction.

Rabinowitz has won the support of the board of
trustees to upgrade and renovate facilities. The university
opened Hagedorn Hall, housing the School of
Education and Allied Human Services, and a new
south campus building will provide room for the
University’s exploding music, drama, communication
and history programs.

To carry out these plans, Rabinowitz has overseen a
$75 million increase in endowment. “A good start,” he
says. In addition to the success the University enjoys
in attracting foundations and individual donors wish

ing to invest in excellence on Long Island, Hofstra has
focused on alumni, discovering successful graduates,
including Lehman Brothers president Joseph Gregory,
who happens to serve as vice chair of Hofstra’s board
of trustees, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, and
chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, Avi Arad.

Under his leadership, Hofstra has established a
Center for Suburban Studies, which is conducting a
national search for faculty with specialties in suburban
issues and planning. As other suburbs across the
country begin to sprawl as Long Island has,
Rabinowitz sees suburban studies as “an exciting, cutting
edge field” where a higher education vacuum
exists. He’d like to see the Center develop an academic
program and provide services to business communities
and planners.

Hofstra also launched a Financial Technology
Center with a simulated trading floor and 34
Bloomberg terminals, one of the largest facilities of its
kind in the New York area. “It’s a great training
ground,” he says, where “students can experience the
trading process and see how quickly financial decisions
must be made.”

Just as Rabinowitz now says, “I love what I’m
doing,” he enjoyed the twist in his career—after
Columbia School of Law and three years experience at
a major New York City law firm—that brought him to
teaching. As a professor, he combined three interests:
teaching young people, being a scholar, and practicing
law.

Rabinowitz believes “there’s an obligation to give
back to the community,” and during the 1990s,
offered his skills in service to Nassau County as a
member of the Blue Ribbon Financial Review Panel,
chairman of the Local Advisory Board, and a member
of the Commission on Government Revision charged
with drafting a charter and forming a new system of
government.

“I had the legal background, and as Law School
dean, the knowledge of running an institution,” says
Rabinowitz, “so working on the Charter Revision
Commission was very fulfilling, like a dream—playing
a role in constructing an entire system of governance
for a very complex county.” A political science
buff, he says governing and governance, as well as
individual rights, are among his interests. Rabinowitz
has also served on the board of directors of the Long
Island Association, and he currently sits on the
boards of Fair Media Council and Long Island
Technology Network.

Agood neighbor, Hofstra reaches out to local
school age children through its reading/writing/
learning clinic and to middle school teachers through
its development of math teaching methods. Hofstra
has designed math and science strategies for the
Roosevelt School District; helped raise scholarships
for more than 300 young men and women through
the 30-year Hempstead for Hofstra/Hofstra for
Hempstead program; works with elected officials to
host constituent and informational meetings; provides
counseling services at the Saltzman Community
Center, and runs five clinics at its Law School, assisting
those who cannot afford counsel.

President Rabinowitz feels that every Hofstra student
should be exposed to the opportunity of community
service, tells students of its benefits and plans
to establish an office dedicated to connecting students
with community involvement opportunities. Students
and faculty often come out in support of people in
need, and, he recalls, students mounted campaigns
following the disasters of 9/11, hurricane Katrina and
the Asian tsunami, and together with staff have traditionally
supported blood drives. His encouragement
includes a pledge to seek private donor gifts to match
funds students or faculty raise on behalf of worthy
endeavors.

Rabinowitz uses “the bully pulpit of the presidency”
to foster leadership, and acknowledges that his faculty
models leadership by their community involvement.
He adds that Hofstra has “an active and
aggressive, in the best sense of the word, student government,”
whose representatives meet with him on a
regular basis and are included “at the table.”

Rabinowitz has been honored with the Martin
Luther King Living the Dream Award, Legal Aid
Society’s Distinguished Service in the Cause of
Justice, UJA Federation Leadership Award, Bar
Association of Nassau County Proclamation for
Outstanding Service in the legal profession and community,
Conference of Jewish Organizations’
Community Service Award, and most recently,
Townsend Harris Medal from the Alumni Association
of City College of NY, a prestigious award won by
such notables as Jonas Salk and Ira Gershwin.

Rabinowitz was raised in the Bronx, educated in
New York City public schools and attended Bronx
High School of Science and City College. He and his
wife Nancy have four children — Dr. Deborah
Rabinowitz, a George Washington University
Hospital radiology resident; David, an Atlanta hedge
fund manager; Amy, a London recording company
employee, and John, a Long Island computer wiz.

NETWORKING® January 2006