President Rodríguez, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. I'd like to start with the remodeling of the President's Reading Room. With all the portraits and the University history, what message do you want this space to convey to students?

I think it's important for our entire University community—including faculty, staff, and students—to know about the history of the institution. When you know about some of the senior leaders, the University presidents, and the impact that they have had right along with their leadership teams, you get to understand the growth and the development of the institution we have today. So, having people reflect on our rich history and on our impact is incredibly important, right? 

And this is for everybody to learn about! Not only our students, but our faculty, our staff, the visitors to the University Library, and other individuals that might be interested in the history of the institution. This space is a good way to showcase who we are, what we have done, and what we will continue to do.

What makes the University Library a natural home for the President’s Reading Room?

For me, the University Library is a space for innovation. It's a space for teaching. It's a space for learning. It's a space for engagement in which our students engage with their fellow students, engage with faculty, engage with staff, with the librarians. This is the place where we come to learn and to interact and to interface with others. So having the Reading Room centered in the University Library—for me, it's just the perfect location given the goals and what the University Libraries aim to do in our education process.

You know, I asked that first question with the student perspective in mind because, in a lot of ways, I think you are a mirror of our student population. You were a first-generation student from Puerto Rico and the Bronx. Your mother was a taxicab driver in New York City. You served in the Air Force, while you were studying for your bachelor’s degree. Our students could see themselves in you. Is that important to you as we place your portrait in the Reading Room?

Well, first of all, you've done your homework!

And second of all, I think it is. I think it is very important, right? I grew up in primarily a single-mother household. We had a mother who was dedicated to her children and who worked hard to ensure that we succeeded. Now she had not finished high school at that time, so we really never had an academic role model, somebody that we would say, “Wow! Look what this person has achieved. Maybe we could do that ourselves.” And so, you're right, my demographic characteristics and social characteristics while growing up parallel quite closely the demographics of the majority of our students here at the University at Albany. 

So, having role models, having people where you can say, “Look what this President went through, he started out as an auto mechanic and ended up in the Air Force and now is the President of one of the major Research 1 institutions in the country,” is important. I think that's something that our students can aspire to be. 

When I talk to our students, I say, “Hey, this is what you can also do as a student.” Having students be able to look at what our faculty and our leadership teams have achieved, with many very similar demographic characteristics of our students, is a good thing.

Can you tell us a little bit about your history with libraries and in what ways they set you on this path or helped move you along your journey?

Obviously as a student, both undergraduate and graduate, I made heavy use of the of the library and of the index cards. Do you remember those? Yes, I was a heavy user of the library. It was a space where I could go and take some time to be by myself while studying. Having access to books, to literature, and to journals was particularly critical to me, especially as I was doing my doctoral dissertation. 

But once I graduated and worked at my first university job at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayagüez, through several leadership iterations, I became a Dean of Academic Affairs. At Mayagüez, being the Dean of Academic Affairs is equivalent to being Provost at UAlbany, and as such, one of the offices that reported directly to me was the library. So, I began to interface in my professional career very closely with the library. I learned the issues, the challenges, the opportunities and the work that we needed to do to enhance and strengthen the library. That all started very early in my professional career. Then I transitioned to the University of Delaware as Deputy Provost and then to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as Provost. Of course, the library also reported directly to me as Provost, so I've been interfacing directly with the library both in my growing up as a student and in my professional life, working very closely to ensure the development of the library in all the different institutions. 

On the subject of your undergraduate studies, how did you use the libraries at Maryland?

I actually started my bachelor’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico at Ponce, which was a community college at the time. I then transferred to the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, which is a four-year institution. At both of those institutions I made use of the library, and then I joined the Air Force. So, I did get my degree from the University of Maryland, but it was from their Global Campus. I was stationed at a place called Royal Air Force (RAF) Alconbury, a U.S. base in England. While I was primarily taking in-person classes at that time, the Maryland libraries were not accessible to us all the way across the ocean. 

You would need some interlibrary loan for that.

That's right. Exactly. Exactly.

Do you have any childhood memories of libraries or librarians that were meaningful to you?

You know, not really growing up as a kid. As I mentioned, I grew up between Puerto Rico and New York. I grew up primarily in a single mother household, and being the eldest of three kids, I was often the person in charge for my mom. So for us it was really about going to school and running back directly home. But what she instilled in us was this passion and love for reading. And not just reading, but taking a careful look at what was being written in different areas of knowledge that we wanted to take advantage of. That got me started on the path which really extended when I went to college.

"For our students, it's critically important that the library turns into a home away from home, whether it be their homes, across the state, across the country, across the U.S., the globe, or in their residence halls."

On a related note, in your opinion, how can libraries ensure equitable access to information and knowledge?

I strongly believe that libraries play a critical role in enhancing the knowledge of our students, and they do so by providing access to new and innovative knowledge to students. Not only to students, of course, but to our faculty members, to our staff, and to community members as well. 

I mentioned growing up as a kid, I had very little exposure to the library. That hasn't changed that much for low-income or first-generation students who do not have that opportunity to access information. So being here at the University at Albany, one of the most diverse Research 1 institutions in the country, providing that access to first-generation students, to low-income students, to students of color is critically important. Access and equity, that’s our instrument for student success, and it’s one that the library can play incredibly well.

What would you like to see from our librarians, our faculty, and our staff to support that?

I think libraries need to continue to grow, to be innovative, to be spaces where students can engage and interact and exchange information. Also, libraries need to be a place for students to learn from librarians’ expertise. Students have access to all this information, and in this changing world where we're significantly being impacted by technology, including artificial intelligence, it’s all the more important to improve the services that we provide. 

For our students, it's critically important that the library turns into a home away from home, whether it be their homes across the state, across the country, across the U.S., the globe, or in their residence halls. This is a place where our students come in significant numbers, so providing them with the know-how, the technology, the skills—it's a critically important mission that libraries have to fulfill, and that's what we're doing at the University at Albany.

That's a great point, especially on the artificial intelligence side of things. That's going to be one of the topics of the Great Dane Dialogue and what are the roles of libraries in navigating the world of generative AI in the classroom. On a related note, you recently listed freedom of expression as one of the University's most important values. How do you see events like the Libraries’ Banned Books Week or the Free Speech Symposium as advancing that goal?

Extremely important. We are in a situation where across the country there's deep polarization, and people unable or unwilling to come together on differences of ideas. So, the ability to have a space where you can express your thoughts and your beliefs while respecting the thoughts and the beliefs of others, or where you can agree to disagree with others, is crucial. These types of events serve to raise awareness, to educate our students, to emphasize that we are a community, that we are the Great Dane family, and as such we need to come together and interact. Yes, there will be significant differences of opinions, of ideas, of beliefs—and that's okay! That is what makes this University distinct. It's what makes this University great. But we need to come together as a community first. These events and the University Libraries can play a critical role in bringing our community together.

What better place to come together than the library?

Exactly.

Before we go, we like to do book recommendations as librarians.

Of course.

What have you been reading lately? Do you have any book recommendations? 

Oh, there's so much. I read quite a lot of books from Latin American and Latino authors. I always say One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a great, great book to read. There are many, many references there that we can apply to our daily lives. Many things that happen that make you say, “Wow! This is really a fantastic story about how lives and communities are really impacted.”
 

I think we have a title to add to our book club.

There you go. I think it's a great, great story. It's in English, so students can read it. Everybody can read it, and it's quite fascinating.
 
Well, thank you, President Rodríguez. It's been an honor. Before we leave, would you like to invite the community to the re-opening of the President's Reading room.

Yes, it is September 12th at 11:15 A.M., and you know this an event that's open to everybody. It’s meant to celebrate our history and the great work that the University at Albany has achieved throughout its 180 years, and the impact it’s made on our communities.