Michael Steiper

Dear Commons Community,

The State University of New York Board of Trustees voted yesterday to name Michael Steiper, Ph.D. as the seventh president of Purchase College. Dr. Steiper has served in administrative capacities at CUNY’s the College of Staten Island and Hunter College. Below is the announcement from the SUNY Board of Trustees.

Congratulations Dr. Steiper!

Tony

————————————————-

New York, NY – The State University of New York Board of Trustees voted today to name Michael Steiper, Ph.D. as the seventh president of Purchase College. Dr. Steiper currently serves as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at CUNY’s College of Staten Island. The appointment is effective August 11. During today’s meeting, SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. and the SUNY Board of Trustees thanked Dr. Milly Peña for serving as Purchase College’s president and recognized her service to the Purchase community.

“Purchase College is a leader in accessible and extraordinary arts and arts-adjacent education and is an outstanding liberal arts institution,” said SUNY Chancellor King. “This storied college has a proud history of supporting students and helping them grow, create, and inspire, and SUNY looks forward to working with Dr. Steiper as he leads Purchase through the institution’s next chapter.”

The SUNY Board of Trustees said, “We commend Dr. Steiper on being appointed to serve as Purchase College’s new president, and are confident that he will help take Purchase College to new heights. As an academic, administrator, musician, and lifetime New Yorker, Dr. Steiper’s experience on-and-off the campus will help support a strong future for Purchase College.”

Dr. Michael Steiper said, “I am honored and thrilled to be selected as the next president of Purchase College, SUNY. With its renowned conservatories and outstanding liberal arts and sciences programs, Purchase is a rare gem in higher education where both critical thinking and creativity thrive. Throughout the search process, I have been inspired by the dynamism of the Purchase community. It is a campus where deeply engaged faculty and dedicated staff nurture the aspirations of exceptionally talented students. I am committed to building on Purchase’s vibrant culture to advance its mission of access and excellence, enhance student success and opportunity, and expand Purchase’s impact across New York and beyond. I am grateful to the SUNY Board of Trustees, Chairman Tisch, Chancellor King, the Purchase College Council, Chair Glazer, and the Search Committee for their confidence and support.”

Dennis Glazer, Purchase College Council Chair and Presidential Search Chair, said, “After a comprehensive nationwide search, Purchase College has a terrific new President in Dr. Michael Steiper. Dr. Steiper’s intellect, experience, and highly collaborative leadership style are an excellent match for our campus. Our College Council, Foundation Board, faculty, staff and students were all part of the selection process and we very much look forward to partnering with President Steiper as we build on the special community that is Purchase College.”

About Dr. Michael Steiper

Dr. Michael E. Steiper is a mission-driven academic leader dedicated to faculty and student success who currently serves as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at CUNY’s College of Staten Island (CSI). At CSI, Dr. Steiper coordinated the campus’ vision for student success, contributing to strong increases in student retention and growth in enrollment. In his current capacity, he oversees the development and implementation of academic programs and policies and represents the campus on CUNY system-wide initiatives.

Prior to his time at CSI, Dr. Steiper spent two decades at Hunter College, where he had roles as a faculty member and administrator, most recently as Associate Provost for Academic Success, Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Analytics. During his time at Hunter, he served as the inaugural director of Hunter’s Human Biology Program, now the college’s second largest major. He led an active research lab that explored key questions in primate evolution and mentored students at all levels, many of whom have gone on to careers in academia and STEM fields.

As a biological anthropologist, Dr. Steiper’s research centers on human and primate evolution, with particular emphasis on primate molecular evolution, the relationship between genetic and fossil records, and the interplay between skeletal and genetic variation. His work primarily utilizes genetic and bioinformatic techniques, and he has participated in paleontological fieldwork across three continents.

Dr. Steiper is a lifelong New Yorker and current Westchester resident who earned his Ph.D. and MA from Harvard University and his bachelor’s from New York University.

About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.16 billion in fiscal year 2024, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.

JD Vance

Dear Commons Community,

A poll conducted by JL Partners  shows Vice President JD Vance as the “clear favorite” to succeed Trump, with 46% of Republican voters supporting him for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination. Other potential successors include Ron DeSantis (8%), Vivek Ramaswamy (7%), and Marco Rubio (6%). An Economist/YouGov survey also indicates Vance leads with 43% among Republicans.

Throughout his second term, President Donald Trump has joked about the possibility of a third term. The 22nd Amendment prohibits any president from being elected to more than two terms. Amending the Constitution proves difficult, as it requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate or a two-thirds vote from state legislatures. Ratification by three-fourths of the states is also necessary for change, which has cast doubt on claims that Trump may seek a third term by way of amending the Constitution in his favor.

Vance seems the logical choice to succeed Trump as a GOP nominee but  a lot can happen between now and 2028.

Tony

Police responding to shooting and suspect walking to the tower.  Courtesy of NDTV.

Dear Commons Community,

 A man, identified as Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, stalked through a Manhattan office tower firing a rifle yesterday, killing four people, including a New York City police officer, and wounding a fifth before taking his own life, officials said.

The shooting took place at a skyscraper on East 52 Street between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue that is home to the headquarters of both the NFL and Blackstone, one of the world’s largest investment firms, as well as other tenants.

Tamura had a ‘documented mental health history,’ according to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, but his motive was still unknown.  As reported by The Associated Press and other media.

“We are working to understand why he targeted this particular location,” Tisch said.

The rampage happened at the end of the workday in the same part of Manhattan where the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down outside a hotel late last year.

Surveillance video showed the man exiting a double-parked BMW just before 6:30 p.m. carrying an M4 rifle, then marching across a public plaza into the building. Then, he started firing, Tisch said, killing a police officer working a corporate security detail and then hitting a woman who tried to take cover as he sprayed the lobby with gunfire.

The man then made his way to the elevator bank and shot a guard at a security desk and shot another man in the lobby, the commissioner said.

The man took the elevator to the 33rd floor offices of the company that owned the building, Rudin Management, and shot and killed one person on that floor. The man then shot himself, the commissioner said. The building, 345 Park Avenue, also holds offices of the financial services firm KPMG.

The officer killed was Didarul Islam, 36, an immigrant from Bangladesh who had served as a police officer in New York City for 3 1/2 years, Tisch said at a news conference.

“He was doing the job that we asked him to do. He put himself in harm’s way. He made the ultimate sacrifice,” Tisch said. “He died as he lived. A hero.”

One man was seriously wounded and remains in critical condition, Mayor Eric Adams said. Four others got minor injuries attempting to flee.

Adams said officials are still “unraveling” what took place.

Officers found a rifle case, a revolver, magazines and ammunition in Tamura’s car, Tisch said. They also found medication that belonged to Tamura, she said.

She said an initial investigation shows his vehicle traveled across the country, passing through Colorado on July 26, then Nebraska and Iowa on July 27. The car was in Columbia, New Jersey, as recently as 4:24 p.m. Monday. He drove into New York City shortly thereafter, she said.

Rudin is one of the largest privately owned real estate companies in New York City. The company dates back to 1925 and is still managed by members of the Rudin family.

Tisch said there were no indications so far that Tamura had prior connections to the real estate industry or to the city.

No one answered the door at the address listed for Tamura in Las Vegas.

Islam, the slain officer, leaves behind two young boys, and his wife is pregnant with their third child, Tisch said.

Local TV footage showed lines of people evacuating the office building with their hands above their heads in the hours after the killings.

Nekeisha Lewis was eating dinner with friends on the plaza when she heard gunfire.

“It felt like it was a quick two shots and then it was rapid fire,” she told The Associated Press.

Windows shattered and a man ran from the building saying, “Help, help. I’m shot.” Lewis said.

Jessica Chen told ABC News she was watching a presentation with dozens of other people on the second floor when she “heard multiple shots go off in quick succession from the first floor.”

She and others ran into a conference room and barricaded tables against the door.

“We were honestly really, really scared,” she said, adding that she texted her parents to tell them that she loves them.

Some finance workers at an office building down the block were picking up dinner at a corner eatery when they heard a loud noise and saw people running.

“It was like a crowd panic,” said Anna Smith, who joined the workers pouring back into the finance office building. They remained there for about two hours before being told they could leave.

Tisch says she believes two officers were working in different parts of the building as part of a program where companies can hire NYPD officers to provide security.

The building where the shooting happened is in a busy area of midtown, located a short walk north from Grand Central Terminal and about a block east of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Through late July, New York City is on pace this year to possibly have its fewest homicides and fewest people hurt by gunfire in decades. But the city’s corporate community has been on edge since last December, when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed outside a hotel hosting a conference.

The man charged in that killing, Luigi Mangione, is awaiting trial. Prosecutors accuse him of killing Thompson because he was angry at perceived corporate greed, particularly in the health insurance business. He has pleaded not guilty.

Tony

Mark Kelly

Dear Commons Community,

Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in an interview on CNN gave a fleeting answer when asked if he’s planning to run for president in the 2028 election.

“I’m going to give you a yes-or-no question here, senator … you did a town hall in Michigan and you’re [livestreaming right now] from Pennsylvania, both of them are key battleground states,” CNN’s “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper said Sunday. “Yes or no, are you considering running for president in 2028?”

“That is a good question. I know you want a yes-or-no answer,” Kelly responded before ultimately declining to answer. “I’m not going to give you a yes or no. Because I’m just trying to do this job, get the word out to the American people.

“And I’m trying to improve the polling that you talked about, and just listen to voters wherever they are about, you know, what are the problems they’re dealing with and how do we fix them,” he added.

Kelly’s name has arisen as a potential candidate for both president and vice president in the past. Kelly, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020 when he defeated Republican Martha McSally, was floated as a potential running mate with Vice President Kamala Harris after former President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid.

Kelly, a retired NASA astronaut and Navy combat veteran, is the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who in 2011 survived an assassination attempt. Kelly, 61, is up for reelection in 2028.

Kelly would be a fresh consideration for the Democratic nomination!

Tony

Sam Altman and Dario Amodei

Dear Commons Community

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has been making waves recently after a speech in Washington. 

He warned of his vision of an AI-dominated future where entire categories of jobs would be taken over.

It’s a pretty bleak image, and possibly one of the darker warnings from inside the AI world. Recently, the likes of Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, warned similarly of the risk of AI taking over jobs, but phrased it as a much smaller problem than Altman.

“Some areas, again, I think are just like totally, totally gone,”

“There are cases where entire classes of jobs will go away” he said. “There are entirely new classes of jobs that will come, and largely, I think this will look somewhat like most of history, in that the tools people have to [do] their jobs will let them do more,” Altman said, speaking at the Capital Framework for Large Banks conference at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

“Some areas, again, I think [are] just like totally, totally gone,” he went on to say, addressing customer service jobs. “Now you call one of these things and AI answers. It’s like a super-smart, capable person. There’s no phone tree, there’s no transfers. It can do everything that any customer support agent at that company could do. It does not make mistakes. It’s very quick. You call once, the thing just happens, it’s done.”

“That’s a category where I just say, you know what, when you call customer support, you’re on target and AI, and that’s fine,” he added, talking about customer support roles.

Altman went on to highlight the same issue in healthcare, suggesting AI’s diagnostic capabilities were better than any human. He did share that he believed AI could never fully replace healthcare staff.

Altman and Amodei know of what they speak!

Tony

David Letterman and Stephen Colbert

Dear Commons Community,

Former “Late Show” host David Letterman scorched CBS on Friday and took aim at his old network’s leadership over the decision to cancel the Stephen Colbert-led franchise, one Letterman began over three decades ago.

“I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is gutless,” he told former “Late Show” producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay in a Zoom chat uploaded to his YouTube page.

Letterman — in his first public comments since the network’s shock announcement — called the move “pure cowardice” before alluding to its parent company Paramount Global’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over his widely criticized “60 Minutes” lawsuit.

The settlement raised questions as it arrived weeks before the Trump-favoring Federal Communications Commission chair approved a multibillion-dollar deal Thursday that sees Paramount merging with Skydance Media, which is headed by multibillionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison.

CBS has claimed that the move to cancel “The Late Show” — hosted by frequent Trump critic Colbert — was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

While reports have indicated that the program faced financial challenges in recent years, Letterman argued that “goons” like David Ellison know all too well that the TV business isn’t the same as it once was.

“There’s no fairness to these goons. You’re telling me they don’t know that? These guys are bottom feeders. That’s exactly what this is. Of course they know that broadcast television is withering,” he said.

“So now they just want to make sure — on top of buying something that doesn’t have the same value as it had 30 years ago — they don’t want to be hassled by the United States government. So they want CBS to take care of all of that mess!”

Letterman further questioned whether the network was “losing so much money” with “The Late Show.”

“They did not do the correct thing, they did not handle Stephen Colbert — the face of that network — in the way he deserves to have been handled,” he said.

Earlier this week, Letterman uploaded a 20-minute video compilation to his YouTube page full of criticism directed at CBS during his “Late Show” run.

While he acknowledged that the news was both shocking and a “bummer,” Letterman told his former producers that he loves the move for Colbert, nonetheless.

“He’s a martyr, good for him,” Letterman said. “If you listen carefully, you can hear them unfolding chairs at the [Television] Hall of Fame for his induction.”

Tony

Jack Schlossberg and the Trumps

Dear Commons Community,

JFK’s only grandson Jack Schlossberg incinerated Republicans for trying to rename the prestigious Kennedy Center’s Opera House after First Lady Melania Trump, saying that Trump is “obsessed with being bigger than JFK.”  As reported by The Hill and other media.

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces — but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers,” Schlossberg wrote on Instagram, quoting his late grandfather.

“JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” he continued.

“He took political heat for it at the time — for inviting black artists to the White House, like the Staples Singers. For supporting black Americans like Harry Belafonte and James Baldwin on global tours to showcase the best of our society,” he went on.

“Pablo Cassals, a symbol of resistance to fascism, played for President Kennedy. Yo-yo Ma did too… when he was just 6 years old. Robert Frost performed at JFK’s inaugural. The Mona Lisa came and visited the WH,” wrote Schlossberg.

“The Trump Administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression. He uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear. But this isn’t about the arts.”

“Trump is obsessed with being bigger than JFK, with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn’t,” he added.”

“But there’s hope — art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for,” he concluded.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee shamelessly approved an amendment to the interior, environment, and related agencies annual spending bill that would mutilate the reputation of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ opera house by changing its name to the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”

The effort is a blatant attempt on the part of Republican politicians to pander to the MAGA cult leader. It’s especially pathetic given the fact that Melania has not a single real accomplishment to her name. History will remember her as the cowardly woman who enabled her husband’s fascism by remaining silent as his anti-democratic abuses escalated.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Trump administration said yesterday it will release billions of dollars in education funding that have been on hold for review for weeks.

Approximately $1.3 billion in money for after-school programs was released by the administration last week, with yesterday’s move marking the release of the remaining portion of the nearly $7 billion in funding that the administration withheld. The remaining dollars include money to support teacher preparation and students learning English, among other initiatives.

The administration says it has now installed “guardrails” for the federal cash so that grantees will not use the funding in violation of any of Trump’s executive orders or policies of his administration, the official said.

The release comes after bipartisan pressure on the White House Office of Management and Budget from Capitol Hill, after the withholding of cash left state education leaders and local school districts scrambling.

“The education formula funding included in the FY2025 Continuing Resolution Act supports critical programs that so many rely on,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the subcommittee overseeing education spending, said in a statement Friday. “The programs are ones that enjoy longstanding, bipartisan support.”

The West Virginia Republican led a group of prominent Republican senators, pressing White House budget chief Russ Vought to release the school aid, in a notable intraparty challenge to the administration.

The freeing up of funding was lauded by several other Republican lawmakers.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) said the release will “undoubtedly have a positive impact” on his state and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who also pressed for the cash, praised the decision.

The White House had faced mounting pressure from federal, state and local leaders to distribute the education cash amid growing concerns from districts about plugging budget holes in the absence of the federal dollars Congress approved for fiscal 2025.

“There is no good reason for the chaos and stress this president has inflicted on students, teachers, and parents across America for the last month, and it shouldn’t take widespread blowback for this administration to do its job and simply get the funding out the door that Congress has delivered to help students,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement Friday.

“This administration deserves no credit for just barely averting a crisis they themselves set in motion,” the Washington Democrat added.

This was a crisis of Trump’s own making!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

This is how the Scottish newspaper, The National, is welcoming Trump!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I was alerted to the above by my colleague, Gary Miller.

It says it all!

Tony