Baruch College President S. David Wu Named to City & State’s 2020 Higher Education Power List

September 15, 2020

City & State has named Baruch College President S. David Wu, PhD, to its “2020 Higher Education Power 50” list which recognizes the 50 most influential people in academia throughout New York, including leaders of some of state’s best-known colleges, universities and professional schools.

Dr. Wu, who ranks #28 on the highly selective list, began his tenure as president of Baruch College on July 1. Just weeks into his leadership position, Dr. Wu was named by City & State as one of New York’s most influential leaders in the Asian community on its inaugural “Power of Diversity: Asian 100” list.

Read Dr. Wu’s profile in City & State’s special issue featuring the “2020 Higher Education Power 50” honorees.

“It is an incredible honor to receive another recognition from City & State, and to be acknowledged among my esteemed colleagues in higher education—chancellors, presidents, deans, and innovative influencers,” said Dr. Wu. “These are unprecedented times for higher education and for our society. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead Baruch during this pivotal moment in history, and I see the College to be at the forefront of reimagining higher education in this country.”

Dr. Wu added: “Baruch originated from the Free Academy, which pioneered a set of different ideas about higher learning—a scholastic “experiment” focused on educating individuals from all backgrounds and social classes with the highest academic standards. From its radical beginning to its current vision, Baruch serves both the private good—one that advances our students’ personal and career success—and the public good, expanding the base of higher education to deliver the most rigorous, high-caliber academic programs at an affordable price to an historically underrepresented population. This, in turn, provides the access to opportunity desperately needed in underserved communities, while producing talents that are in short supply for the innovation economy of New York, and beyond.”

Bold Academic Leader and Technology Innovator

Dr. Wu, an accomplished scholar and visionary academic leader, has a career that spans more than 30 years at renowned public and private institutions. He previously served as provost and executive vice president of George Mason University, where he led the largest public university in Virginia to achieve Carnegie research-one (R1) status. Dr. Wu led Mason’s Access to Excellence campaign—expanding access while achieving excellent academic outcomes regardless of race, ethnicity, and Pell eligibility. Prior to Mason, he was Dean and Iacocca Professor at Lehigh University’s Rossin College of Engineering. Dr. Wu has been a long serving board member of Dartmouth College’s engineering school, and a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

A technology innovator in systems engineering and operations research, Dr. Wu has published extensively in such areas as game theory, optimization, and econometrics, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Wu’s field work in data science and statistical leading indicators has been implemented or tested at such firms as Intel, HP, and IBM.

A Communicator: Baruch College and Beyond

According to Dr. Wu, New York and its communities—along with the entire nation—face an arduous journey to address today’s most difficult and demanding challenges: from Covid-19, to the resulting economic fallout, to systemic racism across the country.

“To build a better tomorrow, we must continually communicate to spark imagination, deepen understanding, and create a collective sense of purpose,” explained Dr. Wu, who has been leveraging blog posts and social media to voice opinions, share perspectives and discuss research on these issue that impact the campus community, higher education, and society at large.

In his message “Welcome to a New Academic Year—on the Brink of a New Era at Baruch” and his most recent blog post, “Reimagining Higher Education—and Baruch—in a New Normal,” Dr. Wu encourages the Baruch community to engage with him to exchange ideas.

Read and subscribe to Dr. Wu’s blog, follow him on Twitter @DavidWuBaruch, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

City & State

City & State is the premier media organization dedicated to covering New York’s local and state politics and policy. Its award-winning in-depth, non-partisan coverage serves New York’s leaders and the public as a trusted guide to the issues impacting New York.

The “2020 Higher Education Power 50” list was developed by City & State’s editorial department through a combination of research and interviews with experts.

# # #