Friedman to Leave as Pace President After Next Year

Feb 3, 2016 Examiner Media Pleasantville

By James Best

Pace University President Stephen Friedman informed faculty and students last week of his decision against requesting reappointment beyond the 2016-17 school year.

Friedman, who arrived at the university in 2004, wrote in a Jan. 26 letter to the school community about his love for Pace and the growth he has seen in his time as president.

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve this university that I have come to love so much over the past 12 years and for the valuable contributions that so many of you have provide during my presidency,” Friedman wrote in his letter.

“As a community we have faced and overcome significant challenges. We have come a long way together renewing and strengthening virtually every aspect of the academic, physical, and student life of Pace University, as well as its management and administration, and I am very proud of what we have achieved.”

Friedman said in an interview Tuesday that his time as president and dean of the law school has been both challenging and rewarding but the school needed a change in leadership and new ideas.

“Ten years is enough to accomplish a great deal,” Friedman said. “I think we have a wonderful senior administrative team, really superb. The university would benefit from a change in leaders and new ideas.”

Friedman said the university will continue with the Strategic Initiative Plan after he is gone and that his successor can build off of the success the university has had.

During his tenure Pace has hired 200 new faculty members, every school has new undergraduate and graduate degree programs and faculty scholarship has increased, he said.

Friedman, who will be 79 by the time he leaves his post, said he isn’t certain what he will do once he leaves Pace, but is thankful for the opportunity he has had.

“It has been privilege to be part of (students’) lives and the life of Pace University,” he stated.