Dr. Linda G. Mills will be New York University's first woman president
NEW YORK -- New York University announced some long-awaited news Wednesday with a history-making hire, and it doesn't end there.
After a six-month search for their 17th president, NYU has their woman. Their choice follows a budding trend in leadership appointments at some of New York's most prestigious universities.
For the first time, the position will be held by a woman. Dr. Linda G. Mills succeeds Andrew Hamilton.
Her resume? Equal parts professor and administrator at the university for over two decades.
Students like Jordan Hubbard are thrilled with the decision.
"Linda Mills is incredible. I had the chance as a student leader to work with her personally. She really cares about the university and just kind of our future. I also want to be a lawyer and she's a lawyer, so just seeing the vision that she has for the university, I'm excited," he said.
"Most institutions talk about bringing changes, like feminist changes, obviously, but very few actually enact them. So I am happy that NYU did something about it," student Subhomita Chakraborty said.
There were more than 100 candidates that were considered by a dedicated committee. Mills was the unanimous choice.
CBS2's Doug Williams caught up with NYU's soon-to-be president on the day of the announcement.
"Incredibly humbled, honored. I'm so excited," she said.
Much of Mills' work is focused on scholarships and research dedicated to domestic abuse and treatment, but that's not the only field that students noticed her dedication to.
"Her emphasis on ... diversity, equity and inclusion. Addressing issues of race here at this campus, injustice, financial aid," Hubbard said.
In January, Columbia University made news by hiring its first-ever female president, Minouche Shafik.
READ MORE: Minouche Shafik tapped as first woman to be president of Columbia University
Mills says it's an honor to be part of what she hopes will become a trend.
"I hope that we have a chance to all come together and ask the question: what does leadership look like? Does it change under an administration that's run by a woman? How do we do things differently? How does that show up differently? Why might that be relevant now?" she said.
She starts officially on July 1 of this year, and as you can tell, it's a decision that really resonates with the student body.