Commencement 2023 just got 5x more exciting! This May, the Class of 2023 will celebrate with a creative genius and fashion entrepreneur, an intrepid US Senator, a renowned legal scholar, a former CEO of the largest telcom company in the US, and a nonprofit leader dedicated to justice and equality.
Pace Professor Receives NSF Grant to Develop Touchless Smart Glasses
Pace University Seidenberg School of CSIS Professor Zhan Zhang, PhD, recently received a $499,966 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop touchless smart glasses that will allow emergency care professionals to collect data, communicate with other specialists, and pull up medical protocol checklists with a gesture of the head or through voice controls. They’ll no longer need to take their hands—or their eyes—off the patient or risk transferring germs to and from a computer keyboard.
Live the Legacy Podcast - Andrew Goodman Foundation
Hayley Piazza, a sophomore Health Science major at Pace University was interviewed about her work to support student voters at Pace. Hayley has been working with CCAR since her first semester. Hayley discusses her passion for getting STEM students civically engaged. She also discusses her and her peer's reactions to climate change, the lack of gun control laws, and safe access to reproductive services.
"Didn't Do It": 34 Times Kids Were Caught In The Act But Still Denied Any Responsibility
Internet users shared the most confusing and hair-pulling examples of kids doing things they really shouldn’t have. We also reached out to Brenna Hassinger-Das, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Pace University-NYC to learn a bit more about children’s creativity. So scroll down and upvote the stories that made you feel happy it wasn’t your kid and comment if you have any tales of your own.
Department of Justice
“If they look at the nypd, what they are going to look at are the arrest statistics, the number of complaints, such as civilian complaints, internal affairs complaints, excessive force that was applied officers within the department,” Darrin Porcher. Pace University Professor and former NYPD Lieutenant Darrin Porcher says it's still unclear if the justice department will include the NYPD in its new review of specialized police units.
Matty Healy, Morgan Wallen and when your favorite artist shares racist, hateful views
"These instances are simply the latest chapters in the recurrent global novel of white men publicly exhibiting racist behaviors and being positively rewarded," says Melvin Williams, associate professor of communication and media studies at Pace University.
Westchester leaders, in letter, balk at Hochul housing plan. Here's why
Hochul has been crisscrossing the state (she spoke at Pace University in Pleasantville last month), pushing her budget and, in particular, the New York Housing Compact that was the lynchpin of her State of the State address in January. Her plan is a mix of policy carrots and sticks, incentives to foster development and a mechanism to approve development over the opposition of local government.

States with the Highest & Lowest Tax Rates
Pace University Lubin Professor Philip G. Cohen was featured in WalletHub's recent article about States with the Highest & Lowest Tax Rates.

St. Louis prosecutor’s staff down by nearly half as caseloads jump. ‘Seriously underwater.’
Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in New York, said he had seen that kind of workload only on misdemeanor or lesser felony cases, which take far less time to clear. “It’s insane,” he said. “How can you handle a criminal justice system with integrity when you have one lawyer with so many cases that it’s almost impossible to navigate and manage in a fair, responsible, professional way?”
Member Spotlight
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Dean Horace Anderson has a Q&A with Westchester Lawyer.

March 2023: A Message from President Krislov
It is a busy time for news at Pace University. This morning we’re announcing our speakers for Commencement 2023; yesterday we announced the formal appointment of our new Provost; and now, in the latest issue of Pace Now, we're sharing more faculty success, some amazing go-getters, and so much more.

It is a busy time for news at Pace University.
This morning we’re announcing our speakers for Commencement 2023. Telfar Clemens ’08, the Lubin grad and world-recognized fashion designer who’s as well known for his commitment to access and inclusion as he is for his must-have bags, will address all of our graduates and their guests at the main ceremony. At the Haub Law ceremony, Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be the featured speaker, and she’ll be joined by her husband, Harvard Law Prof. Bruce H. Mann. And at the ceremony for the Seidenberg School and the College of Health Professions, Trustee Ivan Seidenberg will speak to mark the 40th anniversary of his namesake school of computer science and information systems. It’s an impressive lineup that speaks to the breadth and ambition of Pace and our Class of 2023 graduates—and it’s just a small part of what I know will be a truly extraordinary day of celebration at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Monday, May 15.
But that’s just our latest news. Yesterday afternoon, the Board of Trustees appointed Prof. Joseph R. Franco as our new provost. Dr. Franco has been serving as interim provost since last summer, and he is doing an extraordinary job. A faculty member since 1987, he is a full professor in the Psychology and Mental Health Counseling Department on the Pleasantville Campus with a deep well of respect across the University. I am excited to continue working with him, as I know so many of us are.
There’s a lot of other news in this edition of Pace Now, from the highly prestigious National Science Foundation grant recently won by Seidenberg Prof. Zhan Zhang to an intercontinental experiential education success story to the little-known story of a tiny Pace library that makes a big impact.
And don’t forget all of the news in my State of the University speech, delivered just a few weeks ago: Our big plans to renovate the east side of One Pace Plaza, the nearly complete 15 Beekman Street, and academic innovations and investments like the Pace Entrepreneurship Studio, the expansion and upgrade of CHP’s simulation labs in Pleasantville, Seidenberg’s forthcoming Cyber Range on that campus, where cybersecurity students will be able to practice defending against the latest threats.
There’s a lot going on, and there’s more to come.
Let’s go get it.
More from Pace
Highly motivated economics student Hanyu Li, alongside Dyson Professor Mary Kaltenberg, are investigating a little-studied topic: how does a person’s general appetite for risk impact fertility decisions?
Pace’s best kept secret is also New York’s smallest library. Pace’s Zine Library is under 100 square feet but what it lacks in size it makes up for in unique literary sources, student-created research, and pedagogical resources for faculty looking to change things up in the classroom.