Shirley Strum Kenny

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shirley Strum Kenny (born 1935) is the current President (since 1994) of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and the first woman to hold that position. She previously served as the president of Queens College from 1985 to 1994.

[edit] Academic Life

Dr. Kenny has taught at the University of Texas, Gallaudet University, the Catholic University of America, the University of Delaware, and the University of Maryland. At Maryland, she was successively Chair of the Department of English and Provost of Arts and Humanities. Dr. Kenny holds bachelor's degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Texas, an M.A. from the University of Minnesota, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and honorary doctorates from the University of Rochester, and Chonnam National, Dongguk, and Ajou Universities in Korea.

She is a graduate of University of Texas Dallas. Dr. Kenny has published five books and numerous articles in the field of Restoration and eighteenth-century British drama. Her two-volume scholarly edition of the dramatic works of George Farquhar was published by Oxford University Press.

[edit] Achievements

Dr. Kenny sits on the board of directors of numerous corporations. During her time as president at Stony Brook, she has worked on a several initiatives including chairing a nationwide commission on increasing the quality of undergraduate education, as well as overseeing closer connections with Brookhaven National Laboratory and has overseen vast growth of the University. She is married to Dr. Robert W. Kenny and they have five children and four grandchildren.

Shirley Strum Kenny became President of Stony Brook University in 1994, and continues to serve in that position as of December, 2006 as first female president in its history. In the years of her administration, Stony Brook University has flourished, both academically and aesthetically.^{[citation needed]} She has overseen the purchase of lands dedicated to research facilities, and has associated Stony Brook with such universities as Yale and Princeton by earning Stony Brook a role in the management of Brookhaven National Laboratories - a position Yale University and Princeton University no longer hold after a recent management shakeup. She has worked to beautify the campus by overseeing the construction of new academic buildings, as well as the Student Activities Center. However, many students believe she has spent too much time and money beautifying the campus, presumably to boost enrollment, but has not done enough to improve student life. Students feel that she should work to improve the University from the inside out - that is, to first improve what already exists for current students, then improve the campus' appearance^{[citation needed]}. Issues of concern to students are severely inflated food prices on campus (2-3 times or more than local supermarket prices as of December, 2006), annual increases in food prices on campus despite them already being inflated, and maintenance of the campus' residence halls.^{[citation needed]}