Letter from the President

MAKING GREAT STRIDES LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

he last year has been the most challenging and heartbreaking I can recall, though at times we were buoyed by the unwavering and positive response to the pandemic by the NJIT community. We all have made concessions and changes in the way we lead our lives, for our own health and safety and for those with whom we share our planet. Throughout this challenging and stressful time, the NJIT community has remained strong, caring, empathetic and resilient, marshaling our know-how and resources in heretofore unimaginable ways. Our university community, including our alumni, trustees, overseers, Student Senate, Graduate Student Association, administration, faculty, staff and friends, has given back to help our students, stocked the campus pantry, volunteered at vaccination sites, created personal protective equipment to alleviate the shortage experienced during the pandemic’s early days and continuing in some locations now, designed a swab for COVID testing and a model for contact tracing and tracking, and partnered in the development of deployable mobile medical care units for health care delivery.

We thank our students, faculty and staff, who have been diligent in following pandemic protocols. In so doing, they have enabled NJIT to keep our campus open and provide the education we have come to be known for as New Jersey’s public polytechnic university, providing a hands-on curriculum, conducting applied research, giving back to the community and supplying the state with its high-demand science and technology workforce.

In addition to helping mitigate the coronavirus crisis, NJIT continued to make great strides in research, education and the community at large. In fiscal year 2020, our research expenditures exceeded $160 million and supported a wide range of investigations that have earned NJIT the distinction of being an R1 university (for “Very High Research Activity”) by the Carnegie Classification®. The work of our researchers has addressed real-world problems in ways that improve the quality of life and has brought deserved national and international recognition to our faculty and our university.

During the past year, we complemented our No. 1 national ranking by Forbes for the upward economic mobility of our students with accolades from U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal and The Princeton Review, along with a new designation: QS World University Rankings® 2020, which ranked NJIT third in New Jersey and 74th among colleges and universities nationwide. These acknowledgments energize our community as we pursue our mission to prepare students for leadership roles in today’s innovating, entrepreneurial, science- and technology-dependent economy.

NJIT has made a significant and lasting impact on the local community and the Garden State as well. Our annual economic impact on New Jersey is $2.8 billion, and we consistently seek to enhance both our campus and the surrounding neighborhoods through a $400 million capital improvement plan. The university’s next strategic plan, Building on a Strong Foundation—NJIT 2025, reinforces those contributions, upholds the community’s core values and builds on the amazing outcomes of 2020 Vision, our previous strategic plan.

NJIT is proud to offer our student population an inspiring living and learning environment within which to experience diversity of people and ideas, have their career aspirations nurtured and be proud of their contributions to the local community, the State of New Jersey and society as a whole. In the pages that follow, you will read about some accomplishments and milestones we achieved during 2020.

I wish you a safe, healthy and happy 2021! n Sincerely,

T

Joel S. Bloom President