The State University of New York Board of Trustees has announced that Timothy E. Sams will be the next president of SUNY Old Westbury. He will take office on January 11.
SUNY Old Westbury enrolls just over 4,800 undergraduate students and about 300 graduate students according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 29 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“Assuming the presidency of SUNY Old Westbury is an honor and the highlight of my career,” Dr. Sams said. “I have spent three decades seeking to transform student’s lives through access, excellence, success, and impact. Old Westbury’s mission to cultivate critical thinking, empathy, creativity and intercultural understanding, to endeavor to stimulate a passion for learning and commitment to building a more just and sustainable world, is perfectly aligned with my worldview. I can imagine no better place for me to be a president.”
Dr. Sams currently serves as vice president of student affairs at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sams was senior vice president for student development at Morehouse College in Atlanta and vice president for student life at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
A native of Syracuse, New York, Dr. Sams earned a bachelor’s degree in history and sociology from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He holds a master’s degree in Africana studies from the University at Albany of the State University of New York System, and a Ph.D. in African American studies from Temple University in Philadelphia.
