Dr. Stanley Boylan to Receive Honorary Degree
VP for Undergraduate Education to Headline Commencement for Touro’s Lander Colleges
(New York, NY)—Dr. Stanley Boylan will receive an honorary degree and serve as commencement speaker for Touro’s Lander Colleges, to be held on May 29 at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Dr. Boylan serves as Vice President of Undergraduate Education and Dean of Faculties.
Dr. Boylan has a long history with Touro, joining the faculty in 1976 as both a mathematics and Judaic studies professor. As one of Touro’s early leaders who was a close confidante of Founding President Dr. Bernard Lander, he helped craft and create the collegiate academic and scholarship infrastructure of the undergraduate division as well as the professional foundation of the Touro faculty body.
Dr. Boylan has since led myriad committees pivotal to Touro’s mission with distinction, including the Presidential Task Force on Academic Integrity and Project Strive, the Student Success initiative. He also served as a Touro liaison to the New York State Education Department and as a member of an NYSED Task Force.
“Dr. Boylan is a model combination of educator and academic leader. He is committed to supporting colleagues, faculty and students,” said Dr. Alan Kadish, Touro President. “As a respected Talmudic scholar who is an expert in Jewish thought and a noted mathematician, Dr. Boylan has brought expertise and creativity in multiple areas, to his many key roles at Touro.”
Advice for Today’s Graduates
In sharing his personal world view, Boylan said, “I have tried to always be the same person, both in my professional and personal interactions. I have learned to consider the impact of decisions I might make on individuals as well as society, and to structure those decisions to be in the best interest of all.” Boylan urges students to follow the dictum of Rebbe in Pirkei Avot, to pursue a derech yashara, a straight path—one of excellence and one that can provide personal satisfaction and growth while balancing the needs and opinions of society.
“We are confronting a changed world where innovation and creativity is essential, but one in which the values we have learned and incorporated into our lives must be preserved and treasured,” said Boylan. “In the long run, those timeless values are more important than the particular skills you master.”
Dr. Boylan earned a B.A. in Mathematics, with honors, from Yeshiva College; an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Science at New York University, where his awards included being named Woodrow Wilson Scholar, National Science Foundation Fellow, and Sloan Foundation Fellow. Dr. Boylan also received Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshiva University, studying under Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, whom he considers his rebbe and mentor.
