David A. Caputo became the sixth president of Pace University on July 17, 2000. As chief executive officer, he leads a dynamic, diversified, and comprehensive university serving more than 14,000 students in undergraduate, graduate, professional and specialized programs on seven campuses in New York City, Westchester County and the Hudson Valley.
During Dr. Caputo's tenure, Pace, founded in 1906, has underscored its commitment to being a regional and national educational leader in business, law, education, nursing, computer science and the liberal arts and sciences. Pace's part-time MBA program and environmental law program are recognized as among the nation's finest. In 2003, five Pace graduates were awarded prestigious Fulbright Fellowships. Through Pace's Center for Downtown New York and the Pace Poll, an independent center for survey research, Dr. Caputo has intimately involved the university in the revitalization of post-9/11 lower Manhattan; a new partnership between Pace and the National Actors Theatre has raised the curtain on new educational and theatrical opportunities Downtown; the recently launched Pace Academy for the Environment is forging a new consortium of colleges and universities in the Hudson River Valley to address environmental concerns there and across the country. Plant improvements include new student residences on Fulton Street and state-of-the-art educational facilities on William Street downtown; a modern, multi-purpose fitness and recreation center in Pleasantville; and the New York State Judicial Institute in White Plains.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Caputo has authored or co-authored five books and more than 50 articles, book chapters, and research notes. He serves as co-chair of the New York State Regents' Professional Standards and Practices Board, as a director of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, on the Council of Presidents of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and as a director of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Westchester Arts Council. He is an immediate past member of the Commission on Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness of the American Council on Education and an active member of Project Pericles, an initiative designed to increase civic responsibility on college campuses.
Dr. Caputo is the recipient of a Senior Fulbright Chair appointment at the University of Bologna, a National Science Foundation Faculty Fellowship, a Lilly Endowment Fellowship and a Visiting Fellowship at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and served as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for Population Studies. He received his B.A. in Government from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. Prior to his appointment at Pace he served for five years as president of Hunter College, the largest college in the City University of New York system. Before that, he was at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, for 25 years, last serving as dean of its School of Liberal Arts.
Dr. Caputo and his wife, Alice, reside in Manhattan. They have three adult children.
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