CMsummer13 CM Spring 09 6/4/13 6:42 PM Page 1 CUNYMatters‘T

WILLIAM P. KELLY, president of the GraduateSchool and University Center, has been namedinterim Chancellor following Matthew Goldstein’s14-year tenure that transformed the Universityinto a truly integrated world-class institution,revamped and expanded to promote academic suc-

cess and access for students of all levels.President Kelly, a distinguished scholar of American literature,

vice chairman of the CUNY Research Foundation, and trustee ofthe John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, has served theUniversity for nearly four decades.

At Chancellor Goldstein’s recommendation, the Board of

Trustees approved President Kelly to serve in the interim poststarting July 1.

“I want to say what an honor it is to carry forward the extraor-dinary work of Chancellor Goldstein,” Kelly said at the April 23Board Executive Session unanimously approving hisappointment. “I am grateful beyond words for your confidence. Ipledge my very best effort to be worthy of that confidence.”

Chancellor Goldstein’s announcement that he would stepdown brought expressions of praise for his leadership, and cast aspotlight on an extraordinary period in CUNY history that beganwhen a mayoral task force, led by Benno Schmidt, former presi-

c u n y . e d u / n e w s • T H E C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K • F O U N D E D 1 8 4 7 S U M M E R 2 0 1 3

CUNYMattersGRANTS&HONORS

RecognizingFacultyAchievement

Continued on page 3 ‰

THE UNIVERSITY’S renownedfaculty members continuallywin professional-achieve-

ment awards from prestigiousorganizations as well asresearch grants from govern-ment agencies, farsighted foun-dations and leading corpora-tions. Pictured are just a few ofthe recent honorees. Brief sum-maries of many ongoing researchprojects start here and continueinside.

Vice Chancellor forResearch Gillian Small is theprincipal investigator for acollaborative project involvingCUNY, Columbia University andNew York University that isknown as the NSF I-Corps NewYork City Regional InnovationNode, or NYCRIN, and isdesigned to fast-track researchto the marketplace under athree-year $3.74 million grantfrom the National ScienceFoundation. “Its aim,” ViceChancellor Small said, “is tobecome a global leader intechnology innovation andentrepreneurial businessdevelopment by leveraging theexisting innovation ecosystem inNew York City, which meshesperfectly with other currentinitiatives aimed towardsbuilding research andentrepreneurship at CUNY.”NYCRIN will offer educationaland networking services to allregional technology start-upentities.

Debra Auguste of CityCollege has been awarded$2,295,000 from the NationalInstitutes of Health for“Personalized Therapeutics forInhibiting Breast CancerMetastasis.” David Steiner ofHunter College has received$890,459 from the N.Y. StateEducation Department for“2008-2013 21st CenturyCommunity Learning CentersProgram.” The NationalEndowment for the Humanitieshas provided $157,807 to ClareCarroll of the Graduate Schooland University Center for“Researching Early ModernManuscripts and Printed Books.”Marzie Jafari of Lehman College

‘The experiment is to be tried…whether the children of the people,the children of the whole people,

can be educated; whether an institution of learning,of the highest grade, can be successfully controlledby the popular will, not by the privileged few, but by the privileged many.”

— Horace Webster Founding Principal, The Free Academy

Auguste

Mondesir

Morabia

Molina

Chan

Steiner

Small

Cano

Jafari

Friebel

INSIDEPAGE

2 More Access, DiversityWith Transfers, Development

Martin Luther KingAt City College in 1963

Getting theKnow-How to ProvideFinancial Savvy

Timing YourRetirement

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Non-Profit OrgU.S. Postage

PAIDPermit # 153

New Haven, CT

Office of University Relations205 East 42nd St.New York, NY 10017

CUNYMatters

MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN, CUNY’S CHAMPION, RETIRES


William P. Kelly Is Named Interim Chancellor

Chancellor Goldstein withInterim Chancellor Kellyat the CUNY Welcome Center

CMsummer13_CM Spring 09 6/4/13 6:42 PM

Chancellor Matthew Goldstein graduated from The City College of New York in June 1963at a turbulent time in the nation’s history — the height of the Civil Rights movement. Hereflected on his own graduation, and on the challenge posed by its celebratedcommencement speaker, in his own commencement address to CCNY’s Class of 2013. The following column, Dr. Goldstein’s last as Chancellor, is excerpted from his address. For the full address see: cuny.edu/chancellors-speech

TRANSFER STUDENTS are streaming into the University’sfour-year baccalaureate colleges at unprecedented rates —expanding diversity as a CUNY redefined by a decade ofimproved academics, record-breaking enrollments and$1.8 billion in campus facility upgrades is increasing accessto a high-value education as never before.

The upward transfer trend, evident among all majorracial and ethnic groups — Asians, blacks, Hispanics and whites — hasenhanced racial diversity at the 11 senior colleges, where transfersincreased from 15,423 in 2001-2002 to 24,056 in 2011-2012.

The trend not only spotlights an increasingly well-trod pathof access to CUNY’s baccalaureate programs, but also therobust mobility within its more tightly integrated system ofcolleges. A majority — 62 percent — of the transfers camefrom within the University, and almost all of the within-CUNY transfers, 87 percent, moved from a less-selectivecollege to a more selective one, according to the Office ofInstitutional Research.

Broken down by race, the 10-year transfer trend is asignificant factor in expanding CUNY’s diversity —already a given with the overwhelming number of fresh-men entering from New York City’s diverse public andprivate high school systems.

From 2001-2002 to 2011-2012, Asian transfer enroll-ment in the four-year colleges went up from 2,230 to4,593 or 19.1 percent of the transfer enrollment; blacktransfer enrollment increased from 4,473 to 5,879, or24.4 percent; Hispanic transfers climbed from 3,151to 5,651 or 23.5 percent of baccalaureate transferenrollment, and white transfer numbers went upfrom 5,539 to 7,884 or 32.8 percent.

These trends, along with a decade of improvingone-year retention rates among black andHispanic full-time freshmen in the baccalaureateprograms, have contributed to steady increasesin black and Hispanic baccalaureate enrollment.This diverse profile is likely to remain stable forthe foreseeable future, based on the improvingretention rates, rising graduation rates at theCUNY-feeding New York City public schoolsand the upward transfer trend.CUNY is one of the most diverse public uni-

versity systems in the country — with black, Hispanic and whitestudents each representing more than a quarter of all undergradu-ates, and Asians 18 percent — according to fall 2011 figures. In fact,the University has the highest percentage of blacks enrolled in seniorcolleges, the second-highest percentage of Asians and the third high-est percentage of Hispanics when compared with the six other largestand most diverse public systems, including the State University ofNew York and systems in California, Connecticut, Florida, NewJersey and Texas, according to the National Center for EducationStatistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.Students hail from 208 countries of origin, 58 percent of undergradu-ates are female and 28 percent of students are 25 or older.

The University’s community college enrollment has also increasedamong all racial groups from fall 2001 to fall 2011, according toUniversity figures. The surge has been fueled in part by transfer stu-dents, whose enrollment rose from 11,293 in 2001-2002 to 14,713 in2011-2012, a trend reflected among all racial/ethnic groups.

Freshman enrollment also rose substantially at the communitycolleges — from 24,217 in 2001-2002 to 34,340 in 2011-2012 – and

2 CUNY MATTERS — Summer 2013

FIFTY YEARS AGO, I sat in LewisohnStadium, waiting for my CCNYdiploma. I was in my best shirt andtie, my mortarboard was square onmy head — and, I admit it, I was a

little bored. But something unusual happened the

night of June 12, 1963 — because the speakerwho rose to address our class was Dr. MartinLuther King Jr.

It was less than 24 hours after civil rightsactivist Medgar Evers had been murdered.And one day after Gov. George Wallace hadtried to prevent two black students fromentering the all-white University ofAlabama. And just one night after PresidentKennedy’s televised address in support of hiscivil rights bill.

So Dr. King wasn’t at City College to sug-gest how we might achieve personal success.He was there to tell us what our educationwas really for.

We live in a day of great crisis, Dr. Kingtold us. Our dilemma was that “we haveallowed the means by which we live to out-distance the ends for which we live.” A com-plete education, he said, bestows not only“the power of concentration” but also “wor-thy objectives upon which to concentrate.”

Dr. King’s call for moral clarity and actioncarried to every corner of the stadiumthrough his emotion, his cadence, the timbreof his voice. “We must honestly see that theharvest of violence that we are now reapingis due to seeds of apathy planted in the past,”he said. What’s more, the violence wasn’tjust a result of “the vitriolic words andactions of the bad people,” but “the appallingsilence and apathy of the good people.”

And indeed, there was silence in the stadi-um. Word by word, my own boredom andapathy were held up to me. My classmatesand I were confronted by this truth, straightfrom the soul: our apathy was a weapon forothers to use.

Two months later, during Dr. King’s his-toric speech at the March on Washington, Iheard some of the same words he had said atCity College, including his unforgettableending: “With this faith, we will be able totransform the jangling discords of our nationinto a beautiful symphony of brotherhood ….when all of God’s children … will be able tojoin hands and sing in the words of the oldNegro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last!Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ ”

That day in June 1963 was an awakeningfor me. I began to focus more deeply on theroad ahead. The way I made choices startedto change. Was I only doing the expected,what might make me look good? Or was Itrying to do good? The truth wasn’t alwayscomforting. But over the years, I began tounderstand that when I attempted difficultthings because I knew they had the potentialfor real impact, the answers to those ques-tions changed.

My life has taken turns I never could haveexpected. I certainly never expected to bechancellor of this wonderful institution —the most fulfilling choice I ever made.

I grew up on Manhattan’s Lower EastSide in a family that didn’t have much.When I came to CCNY, I encountered a mag-ically different world. It was like being letinto a secret place in the city, an enclave ofgreat architecture, smart people and bigideas — just like it is today. Since then, I’veseen thousands of graduates have their livestransformed by it. In turn, they’vetransformed the lives of countless others.

That journey happened because Dr.King was right. There is no room forboredom or apathy or silence in yourlife. “Human progress never rolls inon the wheels of inevitability,” Dr.King said 50 years ago. “Humanprogress comes through the tirelessefforts and the persistent work of dedi-cated individuals.”

Graduates, you haven’t reached thisday in order to be something; you’vereached this day in order to do something— something meaningful. Dr. King under-stood that graduation isn’t about accom-plishment; it’s about commitment.Education doesn’t bestow privilege, butresponsibility.

I’m reminded of a story about a tribalelder living his last days on an Indian reser-vation. He is accosted by three thugs, whotaunt him. One says, “If you’re such a wiseman, then you should be able to answer thisquestion: I have a bird in my hand. Oldman, is the bird alive or dead?” If the oldman says the bird is alive, the thug willpinch the beak and it will die. If he answersthat it’s dead, the thug will open his handand the bird will fly away. The old man issilent for a moment. Then he says, “Theanswer is in your hands.”

And so it is with you.

THECHANCELLOR’SDESK

Dr. King Spoke to My Life

Kafui Kouakou Terrence F. MartellChairperson, Chairperson,University Student Senate University Faculty Senate

Philip Alfonso BerryVice Chairperson

Hugo M. MoralesBrian D. ObergfellPeter PantaleoKathleen M. PesileCarol Robles-RománCharles A. ShorterJeffrey Wiesenfeld

Benno SchmidtChairperson

Valerie L. BealWellington Z. ChenRita DiMartinoFreida D. FosterJudah GribetzJoseph J. Lhota

Matthew Goldstein Jay HershensonChancellor Secretary of the Board of Trustees and

Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations

Michael ArenaUniversity Director for Communications and Marketing

Kristen Kelch Managing Editor

Rich Sheinaus Director of Graphic Design

Charles DeCicco, Ruth Landa, Neill S. Rosenfeld Writers

Miriam Smith Issue Designer

André Beckles Photographer

Articles in this and previous issues are available at cuny.edu/news.Letters or suggestions for future stories may be sent to the Editor by e-mail [email protected]. Changes of address should be madethrough your campus personnel office.

BOARDOFTRUSTEESThe City University of New York CUNYMatters

• A majority —

62%— of the

transfers

came from within

the University,

and almost all

of the within-CUNY

transfers,

87%moved from

a less-selective

college to a more

selective one.[ ]

CUNY Transfers,New FacilitiesDrive Access andExpanded Diversity


took place among all racial groups except for white students,whose freshman numbers have essentially remained stable.

Graduation rates at the University for students of all raceshave increased dramatically in recent years. The six-year gradua-tion rate for Asian and white students increased 13.8 percentagepoints between the freshman cohorts of 1995 and 2005, whilethe graduation rate for black and Hispanic students went upmore — by 14.4 percentage points. Between 2001 and 2011, thenumber of bachelor’s degrees earned by black students rose 16.3percent, from 4,055 to 4,714. The number earned by Hispanicstudents sharply increased by 48.2 percent, from 2,727 to 4,042.

Driven primarily by rising graduation rates in the city’s publichigh schools, overall undergraduate enrollment has grown sub-stantially, by 70,000 students, over the past decade. It crested atmore than 272,000 — approximately 105,000 in associate pro-grams and some 114,000 pursuing baccalaureate degrees — dur-ing the 2011-2012 academic year.

THE SURGING DEMAND for classroom seats has beenfed by the strengthening of academic standards in thesenior colleges, including establishment of TheMacaulay Honors College at CUNY and other college-based honors programs — and the creation of strongercollege-readiness programs in the communitycolleges including the model Stella and Charles

Guttman Community College and the graduation-rate-boosting Accelerated Study in Associate Programs,

or ASAP.The University’s Invest

in CUNY campaign hasraised $2.3 billion since2004 to fund initiativessuch as student scholar-ships, and CUNY is nowin the midst of an exten-sive capital constructionprogram, with $1.8 billionspent so far to expandstudent capacity at col-lege campuses across thefive boroughs.

Antiquated facilitieshave been upgraded andnew buildings housing21st-century classrooms,laboratories, libraries andmeeting spaces have beenconstructed, transform-ing the CUNY studentexperience and fuelingthe city’s economy withsteady construction jobsin the process.

Senior, comprehensive

and community colleges have all seen significant, value-enhanc-ing facilities improvements. John Jay College of CriminalJustice has a new, $650 million campus on Manhattan’s WestSide.

Other upgrades at comprehensive and community collegesthat have been completed or are under way include MedgarEvers College’s new, $235 million academic building, a$31 million Academic Village at KingsboroughCommunity College and a new $77 million build-ing at Lehman College showcasing its strength inplant-science education.

At City Tech, a $406 million aca-demic building to address the col-lege’s acute space shortage is underway; at the College of Staten Island,a $200 million interdisciplinaryhigh-performance computationalcenter is in the pipeline, and thereare design funds for a $120 millionacademic village/conference cen-ter at York College to house classand conference rooms, abookstore, student government,clubs and lounges.

This past fall a new libraryopened at Bronx CommunityCollege; Borough of ManhattanCommunity College’s FitermanHall, rebuilt after its destructionon 9/11, opened for classes; andthe CUNY Law School moved toa new, modern facility in LongIsland City.

CUNY’s integrated system of24 colleges and schools encom-passes 11 senior and compre-hensive, and seven communitycolleges. The new CUNY isexpanding academic accessand entry points, and upgrad-ed facilities, at all institution-al levels — raising the overall quality of thesystem while attracting new students to an array of educationalopportunities.

Opportunities are also expanding as a result of the University’sincreased commitment to adult and continuing education,English-language immersion and GED classes. Online degreeprograms coordinated through the School of Professional Studiesare also creating new options for returning adults and students inthe workforce seeking training and advanced education.

The University has also broadened its educational outreachover the last dozen years through satellite educational centers incity neighborhoods infused with immigrants seeking credit andnoncredit courses.

has received $109,512 from the HospitalLeague, Local 1199, for “BSN RN BRIDGE.”Carlos Molina of Hostos Community College hasreceived grants totaling $2,962,608 from theU.S. Department of Health and Human Servicesand the N.Y. State Education Department for thefollowing: “Health Profession Opportunity Grantto Serve TANF Recipients: Allied Health CareerPipeline;” “Vocational Educational Program;”and the “Liberty Partnerships Program” — aswell as $783,812 from the U.S. Department ofLabor/Employment and Training Administrationfor “TAA CCT/Career Pathways,” co-directed byFern Chan; and $709,087 from the N.Y. CityHuman Resources Administration, with CorwinSpivey, for “JOBS PLUS.”

John Jay College has received $5,100,000from the Center for EconomicOpportunity for the “New YorkCity Justice Corps,” directedby Ann Jacobs. The N.Y. StateEducation Department hasawarded $473,893 to MarcieWolfe and Paul Wasserman

of Lehman College for “Workforce InvestmentAct” and $150,000 to Marcie Wolfe for “AdultLiteracy Education.” Mirian Detres-Hickey ofQueens College has received $213,180 from theU.S. Department of Education for “QueensCollege Disabled Student Services.” ThomasFriebel of Kingsborough Community College hasreceived $120,000 from Single Stop USA for an“On-Campus Single Stop Center.”

Jane Cramer, a government informationspecialist and associate professor at BrooklynCollege Library, received the N.Y. Library

Association Government InformationRoundtable’s Mildred Lowe Award for“continuing leadership to the field,professionalism with ongoing impacts ongovernment information users and serviceproviders.” Angela Anselmo has accepted the2012-2013 NASPA ExcellenceGold Award in Administrative,Assessment, InformationTechnology, Fundraising,Professional Development andrelated categories, on behalf ofBaruch College’s SEEKProgram. NASPA is a leadingassociation for the advancement, health andsustainability of the student affairs profession.

Queens College has received $527,940from the Centers for Disease Control/NOISH for a“World Trade Center Heart Cardiovascular HealthImpact and Prediction of Incident (Primary andSubsequent) Cardiovascular Events Among FirstResponders” project directed by AlfredoMorabia. Jonathan Cornick of QueensboroughCommunity College is a co-director, with UmeshNagarkatte of Medgar Evers College, of a$300,000 grant from the U.S. Department ofEducation for a “Minority Science ImprovementProgram.” The National Institutes ofHealth/National Institute on Aging has awarded$150,908 to Laura Rabin of Brooklyn College for“SCORE: Cognitive Complaints in a DiverseCohort of Elders: Novel AssessmentApproaches.” Nieves Angulo of HostosCommunity College has received $114,382 fromthe U.S. Department of Education for “CILES —HSI Title V-Strengthening Hispanic ServingInstitutions.”

Craig Levinsky of City College has beenawarded $646,678 from the U.S. Department ofEducation for “Increasing Retention andGraduation Rates through Enhanced Pedagogyand Improved Technology.” The N.Y. City

CUNY MATTERS — Summer 2013 3

Continued from page 1

Continued on next page ‰

GRANTS&HONORS

Anselmo

Wolfe

John Jay College ofCriminal Justice New, $650 millioncampus on

Manhattan’s West Side

Medgar EversCollegeNew, $235million

academic building

LehmanCollegeNew, $77million

building showcasingits strength in plant-science education

City Tech$406 million academicbuilding to

address thecollege’s acutespace shortage isunder way

College of StatenIsland$200 million

interdisciplinary high-performance computational center is in the pipeline ]

• ASIAN transfer enrollment in the four-year colleges went up

19.1%• BLACK transfers

increased 24.4%

• HISPANIC transfersclimbed

23.5%• WHITE transfers

went up32.8%

(From 2001-2002 to 2011-2012)[ ]• The upward

transfer trend, evident among all major racial

and ethnic groups, has enhanced

racial diversity at the 11

senior colleges,

where transfersincreased from 15,423in 2001-2002 to 24,056in 2011-2012.[ ]

Senior, comprehensiveand communitycolleges haveall seen significant,value-enhanc-ing facilitiyimprovements.

BuildingTo MeetGrowingNeeds[


Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) left, shakes hands with Maj. Gen. Jefforey Smith, commander of the U.S. Army Cadet Command, at a special City College ceremonyMay 21, re-establishing the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program at CUNY.

ROTCRETURNS TO CUNY


CUNY moves to midtown. After 55 years ina former New York City Health Departmentbuilding at 535 E. 80th St., the University’sadministrative offices have been relocatedfrom the Upper East Side near the East Riverto a centrally located, 170,000-square-footheadquarters at 205 E. 42nd St. in midtownManhattan. The University occupies sevenrenovated floors of the pre-war buildingunder a 30-year purchase-lease arrangementwith the Durst Organization. CUNYpurchased the space, formerly used by thePfizer pharmaceutical company, for a 30-year term, after which it will revert back toDurst Organization ownership. Proceedsfrom the sale of the 80th St. building willoffset costs at 42nd Street for the first fiveyears. The proceeds will also purchase state-of-the-art scientific equipment for the CUNYAdvanced Science Research Center, aUniversity-wide research hub that will opennext year on the City College campus.Among the main administration functionsrelocating to the new midtown offices is theUniversity's Welcome Center, above, whichprovides services and information to thou-sands of prospective students. The WelcomeCenter features a new reception venue andstate-of-the-art technology for academiccounseling and financial aid advisement.Also relocated are the Office of theChancellor and senior staff, The Board ofTrustees, the Office of Financial Aid and theOffice of Admissions Services.

CUNY Chancellor MatthewGoldstein, already a member ofthe national Business-HigherEducation Forum (BHEF), hasaccepted an invitation to join its ExecutiveCommittee. The Forum — America's oldestorganization of senior business and highereducation executives dedicated to advancinginnovative solutions to education and work-force challenges — focuses on improvingcollege and work readiness, access and suc-cess as well as on promoting the country'sleadership in Science, Technology,Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The College of Staten Island was official-ly registered as a doctoral-degree grantinginstitution in New York State on Feb. 5,when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo approved theamendment to CUNY's long-range masterplan. The completion of the three-year pro-cess from proposal-to-signature allows CSIto join the ranks ofHunter and CityColleges as the onlyCUNY campusesother than theCUNY GraduateCenter to conferdoctoral degrees to its students. “TheCollege of Staten Island being awarded doc-toral granting status speaks volumes to theacademic rigor of our curriculum and theexpertise of our faculty,” said Fred Naider,interim provost and senior vice president foracademic affairs.

More than 300 students, local businessleaders and families crowded intoLaGuardia Community College on March 2to attend the first CUNY Information Fair —organized for the city’s Colombian commu-nity. Prospective college and graduate stu-

dents visit-ed booths and

gathered brochuresfrom the University’s

leading institutions, includ-ing Hunter, Baruch, Queens and

Brooklyn Colleges. At a reception tokick off the fair, Senior Vice Chancellor

for University Relations Jay Hershensonsaid CUNY had a “great interest in expand-ing education in the Colombian communi-ty.” Indeed at the University, outreach toimmigrant communities has led to 51 per-cent growth in Hispanic student enrollment.Also at the reception, Colombian ConsulGeneral Elsa Gladys Cifuentes Aranzazuspoke about the importance of education forColombians. “The American dream shouldbe to educate yourselves and your children.... Education is what makes us equal,” shesaid. A memo of understanding was alsosigned this year by CUNY officials and theColombian consul in New York to establishmore collaboration between the Universityand the Colombian community.

Kudos to Kingsborough, recently namedone of America’s top four community col-leges by the 2013 Aspen Institute CollegeExcellence Program — earning it a $100,000prize. “Kingsborough Community Collegehas achieved strong results in graduation,transfer and employment outcomes whileworking with an extremely diverse group ofstudents, many who face challenging lifecircumstances,” said the Aspen Institute

program’s executive director, Josh Wyner.“Its staff and faculty are deeply committedto removing the roadblocks that keep somany community college students from fin-ishing what they start.” CUNY ChancellorMatthew Goldstein noted that “an impres-sive 60 percent of its students transfer tofour-year colleges, compared to the nationalaverage of 26 percent.” KCC presidentRegina Peruggi said of its students, whocome from 142 countries: “They are thefuture of our city. When they succeed, we allsucceed,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

HAVE YOU HEARD? What community college was named one of the nation’s topfour, earning it a $100,000 prize? And which University college is the latest to

add doctorate degrees? Or what you’ll find at the new administrative officesCUNY has relocated to on 42nd Street?

NEWSWIRE

Continued from previous page Department of Education has $347,711 to JamieBleiweiss of Hunter College for “ProfessionalDevelopment Services in Special Education:

Asperger’s Syndrome/ASDNest Program.” The N.Y.State Department of Statehas awarded $175,000 toBronx Community College for“Institutional Improvement,”directed by BlancheKellawon. Marie Segares

and Bonne August of New York City College ofTechnology have received grants totaling$269,985 from the N.Y. State EducationDepartment for the “Smart Scholars” project.

City College has received $666,309 from theNational Science Foundation for “InvestigatingHow Cloud Processes Alter the Effects ofMidlatitude Cyclones on the Atmospheric GeneralCirculation,” directed by William Rossow. TheAfghanistan Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs,Martyrs and Disabled/UNICEF has awarded$644,713 to Martha Bragin of Hunter College forthe “Development of National OccupationalSkills Standards for Social Work with a Focus onChild Protection.” The N.Y. City Office ofEmergency Management has awarded $299,659to the CUNY School of Professional Studies, inpartnership with the Christian Regenhard Centerfor Emergency Response Studies at John JayCollege and the Queens College Department ofComputer Science, for “Maintenance andSupport for the Sahana Disaster ManagementSystem,” under the direction of John Mogulescu,senior university dean for academic affairs anddean of the CUNY School of Professional Studies.

The N.Y. City Department of Health andMental Hygiene, Via Public Health Solutions, hasawarded two grants totaling $736,303 to Travis

Wendel of John Jay Collegefor a “National HIVBehavioral SurveillanceProject.” Amy Dalsimer ofLaGuardia CommunityCollege has received$395,377 from the RobinHood Foundation (MDRC) for

“GED Bridge.” The U.S. Department of Educationhas awarded a $186,383 grant to LorraineMondesir and Charlene Kohler-Britton ofBrooklyn College for “Strengthening Access andAcademic Success of Brooklyn College Low-Income Student-Parents through the Provision onChild Care Fee Subsidies and Parent Support.”

Helen Birenbaum of the Graduate Schooland University Center's Stanton/Heiskell Centerfor Public Policy in Telecommunications andInformation Systems, has received $360,000from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation for“Regents Prep Pilot"; she is also co-director of“Project Stretch: Literacy, Learning, andTechnology in Middle School,” with KimRybacki, also of the Stanton/Heiskell Center,which has been awarded $100,488 from theBrady Education Foundation. AndrewRosenberg of Queens College has received$111,111 from the Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency/SRI for “Scalable Prosodic,Anomaly, and Relational Knowledge Explorationof Language with Enhanced Robustness.”

John Jay College has received a $1 milliongrant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance fora “National Network for Safe Communities:Ceasefire University and Violence ReductionStrategies Initiative” project directed by DavidKennedy. Jayne Raper of Hunter College hasbeen awarded $637,714 from the NationalScience Foundation for research concerning the

GRANTS&HONORS

Dalsimer

Kellawon




“Kingsborough Community College hasdemonstrated the leadership and innova-tion that has helped New York City becomea national leader in education reform.”

Study: ASAP Brings $46 Million inBenefits to Taxpayers. A City University of New York initiative designed to help stu-dents earn community college degrees with-in three years delivers $46 million inbenefits to taxpayers per 1,000 participants,

according to an independentstudy by Columbia

University’sTeachers College.

Some 2,200students nowenroll inCUNY’s

Accelerated Studyin Associate Programs (ASAP). A previousstudy by the same team found that althoughASAP has higher institutional costs per stu-dent, it is so much more effective in gradu-ating community college students withinthree years that it delivers each graduate for$6,500 less than for a comparison group intraditional settings.

New Public Health Dean Named. Dr.Ayman A.E. El-Mohandes, an international-ly recognized leader in the field of publichealth, has been named dean of the CUNYSchool of Public Health, effective Sept. 2.

Dr. El-Mohandes is a pediatrician, epi-demiologist, and academician with a deepcommitment to public service. He served asdean of the College of Public Health at theUniversity of Nebraska Medical Centersince 2009. He has also been professor ofepidemiology at the College of PublicHealth, and professor of pediatrics and ofobstetrics/gynecology at the College ofMedicine, University of Nebraska MedicalCenter.

His work in public health includesefforts to reduce infant mortality and

Get daily Newswire reportsat cuny.edu/newswire. To down-load the free app for your mobiledevice, search The City Universityof New York at the Apple orAndroid online stores. Or snap thenearby box with your smartphoneto subscribe to Newswire.

DENI

S

HISTORYLESSON

BEST OF BOXING: Professor emeritus Anthony Cucchiara stands in the middle of the largest collec-tion of boxing memorabilia in the world, now in an archive at Brooklyn College. The collection was dedicat-ed to the college by Hank Kaplan on his death in 2007, with boxing material from as far back as 1814.

FROM ITS BEGINNING 166 years ago, TheCity University of New York has alwayshad a dual mission: Deliver high-

quality education — and serve the citizensof the city.

Today, CUNY’s 6,700 full-time facultycarry on this legacy, contributing in waysthat truly transform our city, benefiting thelives of millions of New Yorkers every day.Many provide critical training for the city’sdiverse workforce. They teach youngscientists to explore new fields likephotonics, biodiversity and nanotechnology;they train municipal employees in emergencypreparedness for large-scale disasters; theycreate programs that teach health industryprofessionals how to detect early incidence

of oral cancer and bettercare for people withdevelopmental disabilities.

In the following months,you’ll find the compellingstories of such CUNYfaculty — just a few of theremarkable men andwomen whose servicereflects the unique, historicbond between theUniversity and its city.

OVER THE PAST fewyears, there has been

growing concern amongpolicymakers, academics,practitioners and

advocates about the impact of the troubledeconomy on children and families. Part ofthe problem is getting good data: What arethe specific racial and ethnic demographicsof the poor, and where do they live,particularly in large metropolitan areas likeNew York.

At Baruch College, professor of publicaffairs Héctor Cordero-Guzmán has made asignificant impact with his work. His recentreport found that poverty here variessignificantly across boroughs and by raceand ethnicity. Non-Hispanic whites, forexample, make up 34.5 percent of the city’spopulation, but only 18.2 percent of the poor.By comparison, Blacks/African-Americansare 24.7 percent of the city population but31.5 percent of the poor and Hispanics are27.5 percent of the city population but 34.5percent of the poor. The highest poverty rateis in Brooklyn at 29.3 percent, followed bythe Bronx at 25.4 percent and Manhattanwith 21.8 percent.

“As a public-affairs professor, I try to be avoice, an interpreter of information,” saidCordero-Guzmán. “My role is to helpcommunities connect to policymakers and tohelp those who make policy betterunderstand low-income communities.”

Throughout his 20-year career at CUNY,Cordero-Guzmán has taught courses onsocial science research methods as well asurban demographics; nonprofitmanagement; race and ethnicity; andmigration policy. A former chair in the Blackand Hispanic Studies Department at Baruch,he also has issued a report on the city’s“disconnected youth,” pointing out the needto increase investments and opportunitiesfor young men, especially those of color. Heserves on the advisory board of the YoungMen’s Initiative, the city’s comprehensive,public-private effort to tackle these issues.

Cordero-Guzmán is completing a studyanalyzing the role of community-basedorganizations (CBOs) in the adaptation andincorporation of immigrants by providingsocial services, supporting communityorganizing and engaging in public educationand advocacy campaigns.

“I’ve always been interested in improvingconditions,” he said. “It’s something thatI’ve lived and have been able to make acareer of it — I’m lucky.”

Cordero-Guzmán also notes that it’simportant for universities to share theirexpertise with community organizations.“The University contributes the time of itsfaculty to help organizations work aseffectively as they can,” he said. “It bringsthe community into the University and takesthe University out to the community.” He hasserved on the boards of directors of severalprominent nonprofits, including El Museo delBarrio, one of the city’s leading Latinocultural institutions; ACCION-New York, thelargest micro-lending organization in thecountry; and the Community Service Society,one of the nation’s oldest and largest anti-poverty groups.

A resident of East Harlem, Cordero-Guzmán has served on the board of theUpper Manhattan Empowerment Zone,among other boards. “I not only believe incommunity economic development, I practiceit, live it and have a huge personal andfamily stake in its success — as do millionsof other Americans,” he said.

“I’m on the street corner like everyoneelse. We call it UCLA: the University on theCorner of Lexington Avenue.”

PROFESSORSATWORK

Practicing What He Preaches

NAME:Héctor Cordero-Guzmán

COLLEGE: Baruch

TITLE: Professor of publicaffairs

FOCUS: “I try to be a voice, an interpreter of infor-mation. My role is to helpcommunities connect to policy makers and tohelp those who make policy to betterunderstand low-incomecommunities.”

These are

extraordinary faculty

who connect the

University to its

community, engaging

their students in the

complex challenges

facing the city.

increase maternal and child health in theU.S. and abroad. “He has also demonstrateda long-term commitment to work with thepublic health practice community and toprovide access to nontraditional learnersand students from underrepresented com-munities,” said Chancellor MatthewGoldstein, who recommended Dr. El-Mohandes’ appointment after a nationalsearch and his unanimous approval by theExecutive Committee of The Board ofTrustees on May 22.

An honors graduate in medicine andsurgery from Cairo University in 1974, Dr.El-Mohandes also earned his MSc in pedi-atrics and his MD in pediatrics, with honors,from Cairo University in 1978 and 1981,respectively. He received his MPH in epi-demiology/biostatistics from GeorgeWashington University, summa cum laude,in 1991.

During Dr. El-Mohandes’ tenure atUNMC, the College of Public Healthreceived its first accreditation, the faculty

doubled, the student bodygrew tenfold, and theresearch portfolioincreased from $5 millionto exceed $15 million inannual expenditures.Under his leadership, sev-eral new concentrations inthe master of public

health program were developed, includingCommunity-Oriented Primary Care; HealthPolicy; Maternal and Child Health; PublicHealth Practice; and Social Marketing andHealth Communication.

El-Mohandes


N THE SPRING OF 1963, the civil rights movementwas in the thick of a tumultuous and pivotal period.The campaign had come to Birmingham, Ala., engulf-ing one of the South’s most virulently segregationistcities in weeks of confrontation and violence. Themovement’s leaders, meanwhile, were mobilizing foran unprecedented demonstration that summer — theMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

In New York City that spring 50 years ago, thepresident of City College was waging a campaign ofhis own. Buell Gallagher very much wanted that

year’s Commencement speaker to be the man guiding it all —the ascendant leader of the civil rights movement, the Rev. Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. And in the midst of battle inBirmingham, King agreed.

Weeks later, on the evening of June 12, he took the stage ofCity College’s Lewisohn Stadium and delivered a speech thatwas to resonate for decades in the minds and memories of theClass of 1963. Among them was a math and statistics majornamed Matthew Goldstein. And 50 years later, in a moment ofsymmetry and poignance, he was at the podium himself —bringing his 14-year tenure as Chancellor of CUNY to a con-clusion by delivering the Commencement address to his almamater’s Class of 2013.

Lewisohn Stadium is long gone from Convent Avenue,replaced by the college’s North Academic Center, but whenChancellor Goldstein addressed the graduates on the same siteon May 31, his speech echoed the words of Martin Luther Kingand the spirit of that time in the nation’s history and his own.

“His complete conviction in the need for moral clarity andaction carried to every corner of the stadium through his emo-tion, his cadence, the timbre of his voice,” the chancellorrecalled. “Dr. King was not — in that moment or ever — aCommencement speaker. He was a nearly biblical voice ofjustice and outrage.”

Perhaps never more than on that night in 1963, by chance ofhistory, the City College Commencement came in the wake of anextraordinary sequence of three seminal events of the civilrights era. And King would not have been there, in that moment,if not for the moral clarity of the man who asked him to come.

Buell G. Gallagher was an unusual college president and a

man ahead of his time. He had called for an end to America’s“color caste” system in a book, Color and Conscience, that waspublished a year before Jackie Robinson integrated baseball.And he knew Alabama’s culture of racism first-hand: Before hisarrival at City College in 1952, Gallagher had spent 20 years aspresident of Talladega College — a white man from New Jerseyat the helm of Alabama’s oldest private black college.

Gallagher was gripped by the events unfolding inBirmingham that spring: The protests led by King and hisSouthern Christian Leadership Conference. The city’s answerwith paddy wagons — 1,000 arrests on one day alone — andthen with fire hoses when the jails were full. The arrest ofKing himself, and his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” towhite clergymen who had called him an extremist.

In early May, at the height of the roiling events in Alabama,Gallagher called Jack O’Dell, a member of King’s inner circlewho was then the head of the SCLC’s New York office.Gallagher told O’Dell that the CCNY commencement, in thecollege’s Lewisohn Stadium, would be an opportunity for Kingto speak before 16,000 people — and to many more listening toa live broadcast — at a critical moment for the civil rightsmovement.

O’Dell liked the idea and tried to call King in Birminghamto recommend the invitation. But he couldn’t reach him, notafter several tries, and front-page headlines like this one fromNew York Times explained why: BOMBS TOUCH OFFWIDESPREAD RIOT AT BIRMINGHAM; Negroes AttackPolice After Blasts Rip Home of King’s Brother and Motel.

O’Dell finally decided to write to King. “Dear Martin,” hewrote. “I hope that this letter finds you well, consideringeverything that has happened. I’ve been attempting to get intouch with you for several days, but I know circumstances aremost difficult.” He conveyed Gallagher’s commencement invi-tation and urged King to accept.

O’Dell, now two months shy of 90 and living in Vancouver,remembers that spring vividly. “It wasn’t just another year,”he says. “There was a lot going on, a feeling that we’re reallygoing down this road. There was Birmingham, and we weremobilizing for the March on Washington. Dr. King was gettinga lot of invitations. But there were few places more important

I


1963 A Momentous Year in Civil RightsJanuary 18: George Wallace is inaugurated as the governor ofAlabama and declares: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segre-gation forever.”

April 3: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern ChristianLeadership Conference begin what becomes known as the BirminghamCampaign, two months of sit-ins and demonstrations in one of thecountry’s most violently segregationist cities.

April 12:King is arrestedfor demonstratingwithout a permit.Four days later, hewrites his “Letterfrom a Birming-ham Jail,” aresponse to eightwhite Alabamaministers who hadcalled him anextremist.

May 3-7: After more than 1,200 arrests, the SCLC calls on children,teenagers and college students to continue the protests. Police use fire hoses anddogs on the young demonstrators, arresting another 1,000 people on a single dayand shutting down Birmingham’s downtown business district. Television coveragebrings support for the protests from across the country.

May 8: White business leaders andcity officials accept most of the protesters’demands to desegregate lunch counters,restrooms and drinking fountains, and hireblacks as store clerks and sales people.

A HistoricMartin Luther King Jr. at City College


GRADUATIONDAY

50 Years Ago:Martin Luther King Jr. atthe 1963 City Collegecommencement.


GRADUATIONDAY

May 11: Segregationists bomb King’smotel and the home of his brother, A.D. King,triggering a night of rioting. A few weeks later,“Whites Only” signs are taken down from pub-lic facilities in Birmingham.

June 11: President Kennedy sends feder-al marshals and National Guardsmen toenforce a federal court order desegregating theUniversity of Alabama, escorting two black stu-dents past Wallace. From the Oval Office thatnight, Kennedy calls segregation a national“moral crisis” and announces what willbecome the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

June 12: Early themorningafterKennedy’saddress,MedgarEvers, thefield secre-tary for theNAACP, is shotand killed infront of hishome inJackson, Miss.


August 28: King leads 250,000 people in the March on Washingtonfor Jobs and Freedom. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he delivershis legendary “I Have a Dream” Speech.

September 15: The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church inBirmingham is bombed, killing four young girls and sparking outrage across

the country.

November 22: President Kennedy’s assassination leaves the fate of thecivil rights bill in the hands of his successor, Lyndon Johnson. Johnson goes on topush it through Congress and sign the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964.

Commencement

June 12: The night of the

Medgar Evers murder,King delivers the commence-

ment address to the City College Class

of 1963.

Dr. King and Dr. Buell G.Gallagher, who was presi-dent of City College in 1963.

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2013:Chancellor Goldstein, who attended the1963 King commencement address as agraduating senior, returned to speak atthe City College 2013 Commencement.


dent of Yale University, issued the 1999report, “The City University of New York:An Institution Adrift.”

Among its many recommendations –including the creation of clear standards,assessment methods and accountabilitypolicies – the task force urged: “CUNYmust strive to become a unified, coherent,integrated public university system, forthe first time in its history.”

A mathematician and statistician, anda graduate of City College, Dr. Goldsteinwas appointed CUNY’s Chancellor thatsame year.He was previously president ofBaruch College, president of the CUNYResearch Foundation and president ofAdelphi University.

From the outset, Dr. Goldstein focusedon raising CUNY’s academic profile whilemaintaining its fundamental goals ofaccess and opportunity. This emphasis onhigh standards, academic rigor and stu-dent preparation, including theUniversity’s strengthened partnershipwith the New York City Department ofEducation, has resulted in record enroll-ments (more than 270,000 degree-seek-ing students and 220,000 individuals inadult and continuing education),increased graduation rates, and everincreasing numbers of high-achievingstudents enrolling at CUNY, as demon-strated by the rise in average SAT scoresof admitted students and the prolifera-tion of CUNY students winning national-ly competitive student awards includingRhodes, Truman, and Marshall scholar-ships.

“Chancellor Goldstein’s signal accom-plishment has been his uncompromisinginsistence on raising the bar, on calling usall to the highest standards of achieve-ment,” said Kelly. “He has never waveredin that resolve and we are so much the

better for it.I want you know that I amfirmly committed to extending that noblelegacy.”

Chancellor Goldstein said he recom-mended Kelly because, “I thought he hadthe stature, and the confidence of the oth-er presidents, and had done an extraordi-nary job at the Graduate School.”

“Dr. Kelly brings an extensive scholarlyrecord, superb administrative experience,and a deep commitment to theUniversity’s educational mission to theposition of Interim Chancellor,” saidChairperson Benno Schmidt. “He willprovide continuity of purpose and policyduring this important transition period.”

Kelly has led the Graduate Center,CUNY’s doctorate-granting institution,since June 2005. He previously served forseven years as the Graduate Center’sprovost and senior vice president, a peri-od marked by the recruitment of interna-tionally renowned scholars to thegraduate school’s faculty. Recently, hechaired a key component of theUniversity’s Pathways to DegreeCompletion reform of general educationand transfer policies, leading faculty com-mittees that selected pathway courses forCUNY’s largest transfer majors.

Under Chancellor Goldstein’s tenure,more than 2,000 additional full-time fac-ulty members have been hired, and CUNYhas achieved significant fiscal stabilitythrough the CUNY Compact fundingmodel, a robust fundraising campaign,and a predictable tuition policy.Chancellor Goldstein also launched theDecade of Science initiative in 2005 toincrease student proficiency in STEMdisciplines, enhance research and buildand upgrade science facilities, includingthe new CUNY Advanced ScienceResearch Center. In addition, the intro-duction of University-wide accountabilitymeasures during the Goldstein yearsensures consistent review, progress andefficiency throughout CUNY.

Chancellor Goldstein fostered the cre-ation of new schools within CUNY,

BRIAN LEHRER: Can I start with a CUNY 101question? What’s The City University for, and howdo you see its mission compared to SUNY or toprivate colleges?

CHANCELLOR MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN:Well, we are the largest urban universitysystem in the United States. A dominantnumber of our students commute each dayas I did when I went to City College, but atthe end of the day we want to give a strongeducational experience to our students andwe are committed to work on the full spec-trum of academic readiness. Many of ourstudents have the option to go to universi-ties of their choice because their academicbackgrounds are quite exceptional, andother students need to be remediatedbecause they had not had the kind of Kthrough 12 preparation that we would liketo see. So as I say, we look to educate the“whole people” and I think over the past 14years my whole focus was to try to reformand redirect much of our energies to reallysecure opportunities for that full spectrumof students.

Q: Let’s go back to the beginning of your time aschancellor, 1999, when the big change that youinstituted … was to end open enrollment at themajor four-year colleges but keep it for the com-munity colleges, open enrollment meaning thatany New York City public high school graduateautomatically qualifies for CUNY. Why did youbelieve that was necessary and how would you sayit has worked out?

A: I think it has worked out splendidly. Asyou indicated or at least alluded to in yourintroductory remarks, we have the largestenrollment today in the University’s histo-ry and so many, many students are comingto the University in part because they viewit as a place where they can get a valueddegree, and by valued degree I mean repu-tation in the marketplace and cost.

Why did I look to implement that pro-gressive program? Very simply, as an edu-cator — I have taught mathematics fromfreshmen students to directing doctoralstudents — one of the things that you learn… is that it is very, very difficult to target acurriculum when there is great variance in


ON APRIL 12, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced he will be stepping downthis summer after leading CUNY for 14 years, longer than any other chancellor inUniversity history. On April 17, he talked with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer about the

changes he’s made, his legacy and the challenges ahead for the next chancellor.

14 Years of Big Challenges,

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the academic preparednessof the students. Everybody loses. Thepoorly qualified students get lost veryquickly because the level of instruction ishigher than they can accommodate, andthe much more prepared students often-times are bored, and they want to see amuch higher level of instruction. So what Iwas hoping to do by this reform was toreduce variance in the academic prepared-ness of the students so that we can targetthe educational experience… and I think itwas exactly the right thing to do. Ourretention rates are much higher, our grad-uation rates are higher, and students aregoing on to do important things. So I thinkit was one of the most progressive thingsthat we did here at the University duringmy tenure.

Q: A New York Times article last May concludedthat the effect of the changes that you were justdescribing has been what many on both sides ofthe 1990s debate predicted. The top four-yearcolleges — Brooklyn, Queens, Baruch, CityCollege and Hunter — rose in status, but blackand Hispanic enrollment declined, and that hasbecome more pronounced during the recession… as more middle-class, higher-achieving highschool students apply to CUNY because it is soaffordable. How true would you say that is andhow much of a concern?

A: I think that thatstory was seri-ously flawed forthe followingreasons. It isnot where youstart, it iswhere youend up with adegree, andthat’s whatour reformsultimatelysucceeded indoing. If a student is notready to get into, say, Baruch Collegewhere today the average SAT scores areprobably around 1230, but ultimatelywants to get a Baruch degree because it isviewed in so many quarters as a valueddegree, we give students an opportunity tostart in an institution within CUNY thatwill prepare them and remediate theirbackgrounds and then go on and finish atBaruch, for example.

If you look at the overall racial balanceof the top four-year institutions, they lookvery different than the entering class. Yes,it is less black and Hispanic in the entering

class,but when you lookat the graduating class of theseinstitutions, Hispanic enrollment hasgone up and black enrollment has gonedown a bit but not very much at all. So atthe end of the day, for me it is where youget your degree, not where you enter theinstitution.

Q: And remediation is still a huge issue. It wasreported just recently that 80 percent of NewYork City high school grads entering the commu-nity colleges today need remedial courses before

qual-ifying for college level

work. Is that 80 percent CUNY’s ownnumber, your own number?

A: That is our number. Eighty percent ofthe students, approximately, who enterour seven community colleges need someform of remediation. These are studentscoming from largely the public schools butother institutions as well. It is a numberthat is much too large. It is a number thatconcerns us, and it is a number that neces-sitates a lot of money that we have tospend to remediate these students to getthem ready for college-level work. Sothose are the facts as we know them today.

Q: Does that suggest an ongoing failure of theK-through-12 education system in the city evenafter 12 years of the Bloomberg administration,

, Bigger Victories

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including the William E. Macaulay HonorsCollege, the CUNY School of ProfessionalStudies, the CUNY Graduate School ofJournalism, the CUNY School of Public Health,and the Stella and Charles Guttman CommunityCollege, the first in the city in more than 40years. The Macaulay Honors College, launchedin 2001, offers a globally competitive programfor some of the most academically talented stu-dents in New York. Guttman CommunityCollege, which opened in Fall 2012 as the NewCommunity College before being formallynamed in May, is based on the University’s suc-cessful ASAP (Accelerated Study in AssociatePrograms) initiative to improve communitycollege graduation rates.

Today CUNY comprises 24 colleges and pro-fessional schools throughout New York City.

Chancellor Goldstein initiated thesystemwide Pathways to Degree Completionreform initiative, enhancing general educationat CUNY and bringing it more in line withnational norms; streamlining student transfer;and ensuring University-wide learningoutcomes.

His leadership at CUNY brought Dr.Goldstein to prominence as a national advocatefor public higher education and a civic leader.He has served on the U.S. Teaching Commissionand the New York State Commission on HigherEducation, and led two national summits on thefuture of public universities. Mayor MichaelBloomberg appointed him to chair the 2010New York City Charter Revision Commission; atGov. Andrew Cuomo’s appointment he co-chairsthe New York City Regional EconomicDevelopment Council and is a member of theNew NY Education Reform Commission.

In announcing that he would step down,Chancellor Goldstein said, “Serving this excep-tional university alongside so many extraordi-nary colleagues has been the greatest privilegeof my professional life. … As the first CUNYgraduate to lead the University (City College,Class of 1963), I take enormous pride in what wehave accomplished together to ensure an unpar-alleled educational experience for every CUNYstudent.”

“I think few of us could have imagined . . .that he would accomplish so much in so manyways that have lifted CUNY beyond our highestexpectations,” Chairman Schmidt said ofChancellor Goldstein atthe April 23 Trusteesmeeting. “I have said onseveral occasions thathe is the finest publichigher education chan-cellor in the country,and that is no exaggera-tion. I also believe it isfair to say he is thegreatest chancellor inthe history of The CityUniversity of NewYork.”

The Trustees willconduct a nationalsearch for a permanentchancellor, consistentwith establishedUniversity guidelines.


when as we know he came into office saying hisbig legacy would be improving K through 12?

A: What it means to me is that theUniversity has to work even more closelywith the DOE schools. We probably havegreater linkages and channels of commu-nication with the schools that feed intoCUNY than any other university in theUnited States. We cannot ignore the con-nections that we need to make to ensurethat students in K through 12 understand

what they need to doto preparethemselves. I am notpointing fingers atanybody. What Ithink we need to do isjust to communicateand make sure thatthe teachers, the cur-ricula, at the schools… need to be alignedwith what the expec-tations are at a uni-versity.

Q: You say the Universityneeds to work even moreclosely with the publicK-through-12 system.What more can theUniversity do?

A: One of the things that I am concernedabout and I am very supportive of, is thenew common core curricula that will beinstituted in most states … and certainlyin New York State. When the studentstake these examinations, I suspect thatthe preparedness metric is going to pointmuch more south than not. So when yousay what more can we do, I think we mustbe vigilant in working with … the com-mon core curricula even more aggres-sively than we were before.

Q: Another of your initiatives at CUNY has beento establish an Honors College that requires ahigh school average well over 90 and SAT scores… close to 1400 out of 1600 to get in. Thatmeans you are competing for students whocould get into prestigious private colleges orother colleges. Who goes to the Honors Collegetoday?

A: We get about 10,500 applicants for theMacaulay Honors College, and we areonly able to provide seats for about 400.So it is a very selective institution, highlysought after. I go to every graduation, andI am just delighted when I see these stu-dents getting into the best medicalschools, law schools, coveted Ph.D. pro-grams, into the best training programs ofmajor corporations.

Who goes to Macaulay? Some of thefinest, most well-prepared studentsacross New York City. Many of them areimmigrant students, the first in theirclass and first in their families to go tocollege. It is a wonderful, diverse group ofstudents, and it is a great shot in the armto the University to attract these extraor-dinarily talented students. It has had aresidual effect as well in that many of thestudents who are rejected find out aboutthe City University in a much more in-

depth way and decide to come and availthemselves of other kinds of scholarshipsthat we provide. So it has had a wonder-ful effect and something I am deeplyproud and excited about.

Q: One of the critiques of the Honors Collegewhen you launched it was that the CityUniversity is primarily for those students withoutother financial means, and students who didthat well in high school can always get financialaid at other schools. So why spend tax dollarsand limited CUNY resources on them?

A: I will go back to what I said to you ear-lier in our discussion: We are here to edu-cate the “whole people” and by the wholepeople I don’t mean their ethnicity ortheir race. I think the “whole people” alsomeans the full spectrum of academicability. Much of what we do at theHonors College is funded with moniesdeveloped through fundraising and yes,there is some tax levy money, but wespend a lot of money for people who arepoorly prepared and there is no reasonwhy we shouldn’t spend money for peo-ple who are very well prepared.

Q: About five years ago, you told the Center foran Urban Future that you have been able tomake your biggest changes through “enlight-ened management,” and I know you didn’t justmean yourself, but meaning with little privatemoney and no real investment on the publicside. Those were your words. But most peoplethink of CUNY as a publicly funded school. Sowhat did you mean by no real investment on thepublic side and would you characterize it thatway today?

A: Well, you know we haven’t had stronginvestment over a sustained period oftime for our operating budget, but I mustsay that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and I must

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MATTHEW GOLDSTEINWilliam P. Kelly

14 Years ofBig Challenges,Bigger Victories

Matthew Goldstein, co-chair of the New York CityRegional Economic Development Council, as Gov.Andrew Cuomo announces funding for the regions.

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give a shout-out to him … he allowed bothCUNY and SUNY to generate levels of sup-port in ways that we were never able to dobefore … by allowing us to have a morepredictable tuition policy, and second, cre-ating a maintenance-of-effort provision,which meant that in year two our operat-ing budget from the state would not dipbelow the operating budget that the stategave in year one. That has given us a senseof stability that we have been able to capi-talize upon. It has enabled us to developwhat we call the CUNY Compact, a newfinancing model that requires variousstakeholders to participate in the develop-ment of our operating budget. When Icame in in 1999, the University was raisingunder $50 million a year where now,because it’s in a very different place, it’sraising close to a quarter of a billion dollarsa year. So that fundraising has become asignificant component of supporting ouroperating budget.

So when I say “enlightened manage-ment,” it is starting almost tabula rasa inthe way in which we find creative ways tonot only manage the institution throughproductivity measures that never wereused before, but also to find differentmechanisms to generate revenue and cap-ital to invest in the University.On the other hand, we’ve had wonderfulinput of capital dollars, and the Universitywhen you look at it today looks so differ-ent than it was, say, 15 years ago, becausewe’ve literally spent billions of dollars onthe capital side of our budget, which hasbeen quite robust and made theUniversity look and feel so different thanit was a few years ago.

Q: Circling back for a minute to the two-yearversus the four-year colleges, we’ve gotten a

couple of comments coming in, I guess, fromCUNY faculty members who think on the oppositeside of what we were talking about before,whether it is too restrictive for lower-income orblack and Latino students to get into the four-years, that the transfer from community collegeto the four-year schools for junior and senioryear has become too easy and in accomplishingthat, you’ve watered down the curriculum for thefour-year schools so that people could succeed,and I gather there is a faculty lawsuit about this.Can you comment on that?

A: I think that is totally ill-informed bythe data. Let me give you just a metricthat will vitiate that comment totally.When you look at what happens to stu-dents who start at our community col-leges and then transfer to our seniorcolleges on a going-forward basis, the suc-cesses of the students who transfer rela-tive to the successes of the students whostarted as first-time freshmen, are almostindistinguishable. That’s why I said it isnot where you start. It is where you getyour degree. And the new Pathways ini-tiative, which has had a fair amount offaculty push-back, and I am not debatingthat, but I think this is again one of thosereforms that over a period of years — likethe changing of the number of creditsfrom 128 to 120, like remanding remedia-tion to our two-year institutions — willshow over time that it was the right andproper thing for the University, and thatthe students are going to succeed ingreater numbers with no dilution. And, infact, I think the entire process is going tobe accretive.

You know, at the end of the day whenyou force so many students to take aninordinate amount of general educationcourses, you restrict their ability to bemuch more bold and imaginative in takingmuch more rigorous courses that theymay not have had the options to take, andthat’s what these reforms are ultimatelydoing. So I dispute that quite aggressively.

Q:: Very briefly, congratulations on the GraduateSchool of Journalism. That’s only been in exis-tence for a few years and I can tell you wealready get some of our best news employeesfrom the Graduate School of Journalism as theyfinish up and also as interns while they are going.So we can talk from WNYC’s perspective, at leastfrom my perspective of that as a recent CUNYsuccess. Just tell us how you see the job aheadfor your successor?

A: You know, The City University of NewYork is a complicated place. It is a bigplace. There are going to be a number ofchallenges that my successor will have toconfront. One is the vigilance in gettingmore and more private money … given theweak balance sheets of states in general,especially after this very nasty recessionthat we’ve experienced (private money)will be necessary in order to keep theUniversity going.

I think technology must have a muchmore prominent position in this universi-ty as it is with other universities and wemust be very, very vigilant to our verybasic mission, and that is to educate tothe best degree that we can this full spec-trum of students. That’s going to requirecare and imaginativeness and doggednessin the way in which we manage the insti-tution.

than New York for anything progressive.”King accepted the invitation the day he

got it, and Gallagher was overjoyed when heheard the news. He wrote to King the sameday: “It will be good to renew an old friend-ship, and particularly appropriate to do itpublicly at this critical moment in our com-mon struggle.”

A few weeks later, Gallagher escortedKing, in cap and gown, into LewisohnStadium, the college’s coliseum-style land-mark on Convent Avenue. There were 3,541graduates and another 12,000 guests, andwhat they experienced together was amoment sharply juxtaposed with history.

In the month since the turbulent days inBirmingham, the focus had moved toTuscaloosa, where Wallace was defying afederal court order, personally barring twoblack students from registering for the sum-mer session at the University of Alabama.The day before King’s commencementaddress in New York, President Kennedysent Deputy Attorney General NicholasKatzenbach, accompanied by federal mar-shals and National Guardsmen, to enforcethe court order. In one of the most famousimages of the civil rights era, Wallace finallystood aside as the students were escorted in.

That night, in a historic address from theWhite House, Kennedy declared segregationa national “moral crisis” and announced whatwas to become the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

And then, early the nextmorning, Medgar Evers, thefield secretary of theNAACP, was shot to death infront of his home inJackson, Miss. He wasreturning home from anearly-morning meeting withNAACP lawyers and carry-ing a stack of T-shirts thatread “Jim Crow Must Go.”

It was against this back-drop, only 12 hours later,that Martin Luther Kingaddressed the City CollegeClass of ’63. There were oth-er prominentCommencement speakers inNew York that same day —Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver atFordham, Supreme Court Justice ArthurGoldberg at Yeshiva — and Adlai Stevensonwas speaking up at Radcliffe. But none wasin King’s league as a speaker, or appearingunder such compelling circumstances.

The graduates would be “moving into aworld of catastrophic change and calamitousuncertainty,” King said in his openingmoments. A few minutes in, he veered fromthe speech he had traveled with.

“Less than 24 hours ago, a dastardly actoccurred in the State of Mississippi whichrevealed the moral degeneracy to whichsome will sink on the question of race,” hesaid. “In the death of Medgar Evers, Americahas lost one of those pure patriots whosemost passionate desire was to be anAmerican, and to be acknowledged as anAmerican. Truly Mr. Evers died in thetrenches, on the front line where the issue isnow joined between that which ourPresident has called for and the last ditchstand of the segregationists who would pre-fer to create a bloodbath of violence than to

relinquish the deadening status quo.”King held the audience as he always did,

his soaring, poetic, prophetic rhetoric lead-ing to hope for a time “when all of God’s chil-dren … will be able to join hands all over thisnation and sing in the words of the oldNegro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last!Thank God almighty, we are free at last!’”

It was a precursor to the iconic wordsthat were to ring out to 250,000 people atthe Lincoln Memorial two months later: “Ihave a dream… ”

In his own Commencement address 50years later, Chancellor Goldstein recalled forthis year’s graduates what it was like to be intheir seats that day, hearing words that areno less relevant today.

“Dr. King wasn’t at City College that dayto suggest prestigious professions we mightenter, or how to achieve personal success, orhow our degrees would impact our income,”said the Chancellor. “No. Dr. King was thereto tell us what our education was reallyfor. And none of us who listened to him thatday ever forgot it. We live in a day of greatcrisis, Dr. King told us. … A complete educa-tion, he said, bestows not only ‘the power ofconcentration,’ but also ‘worthy objectivesupon which to concentrate.’”

But it was the feeling, more than the mes-sage, that the Chancellor says was mostaffecting and impactful. “His speech, inter-estingly enough, was not something that all ofus fully understood at the time,” he said in an

interview a few weeks beforethe Commencement. “He wasshaking us to be aware that theworld was changing very quick-ly in front of our eyes.”

Bert Mitchell was sittingnext to Goldstein that nightand remembers the speechfrom a different perspective.Mitchell was among CCNY’srelatively few black students,one of a handful in what wasthen the college’s BaruchBusiness School. But for him,too, it was the fact of King’spresence, and the force of hisvoice that he remembers morethan the particular words hespoke. “His cadence, his into-

nation … It was a powerful thing,” saysMitchell, who went on to found what is nowthe nation’s largest minority-owned account-ing firm. Years later, his son was preparing agraduation speech as president of his highschool class. “He didn’t want my help, and Isaid, ‘I’ve heard some great speeches. Thespeaker at my college graduation was MartinLuther King — how do you like that?’”

Five years later, on the night of King’sassassination in Memphis, Gallagher cameout of his house to speak to a crowd of stu-dents and Harlem residents. A reporter for aCCNY student newspaper, The Campus,recorded the scene:

“‘Ghandi was the same type of man andhe died the same way,’” whispered Dr.Gallagher. For a few moments the presidentwas very far away. In barely audible tones,he recalled commencement exercises someyears ago which Dr. King had attended.”

That night in 1963 echoed again in 1970,when CUNY opened a new senior college inBrooklyn. The Board of Trustees voted toname it Medgar Evers College.

A Historic Commencement Continued from Page 6

Civil rights activist MedgarEvers, murdered June 12, 1963.


ChancellorGoldstein teachesa calculus courseat Hunter College

GRADUATIONDAY



Asian American/Asian Research Institute. AsCUNY officials began working with DCA andbecame aware of the course’s importance, theUniversity adopted it in 2011 as a three-creditclass that counts toward either a CUNYdegree or a financial studies certificate.

The city requires counselors at its net-work of nearly 30 Financial EmpowermentCenters to take and pass the CUNY course.But increased demand for the course hasalso led to enrollment from social workersand staff members at nonprofit community-based organizations and government agen-cies that assist low-income families.

In addition to helping their clients, manycounselors said the course has been helpfulin improving their own finances. “Thiscourse was an eye-opener for me personal-ly,” said Judith Albury, program specialist forthe Administration for Children andFamilies, “to see how ineffective I was inmanaging my money, dealing with creditorsand most important my fear of even having adiscussion about my finances.”

The course’s popularity is due mainly tothe passion of Moy. She said her interest infinancial education came about when shewas head of a Small Business DevelopmentCenter at LaGuardia Community Collegethat opened after 9/11.

“We had counselors who spoke English,Spanish, Korean and three Chinese dialects,”she said. “Many of the new immigrants hadno credit and didn’t understand how to buildcredit, so we worked with them on thoseissues. We served more than 1,000 clientsand community members in seminars, one-on-one sessions, and in workshops.”

“The need to professionalize the field iscritical given widespread variability in thequality and consistency of current financialeducation and counseling programming andthe importance to recipients of counselingservices,” a DCA Office of FinancialEmpowerment report states.

In a recent statement, DCA

WHEN Neighborhood Trustfinancial adviser AdalbertoJaimes first met Ruben Felix inSeptember 2011, Felix wasdrowning in nearly $17,000 in

debt, living paycheck to paycheck and feelingoverwhelmed by expenses that surpassed hisearnings as a tailor.

After negotiating with creditors and cre-ating a strict budget, Jaimes was able to low-er his client’s debt to $193 — in 10 months.

Though wealthy executives regularly seekfinancial advice, few financial counselingoptions have existed for low-income workersstruggling with money. But, skilled adviserslike Jaimes, based at New York City’sFinancial Empowerment Centers, are nowworking to pull the city’s poor out of debt.

Like the hundreds of other advisers,Jaimes received his financial education andcounseling skills from a rigorous trainingprogram developed by a CUNY professorthat is now offered as a course through theUniversity’s School of Professional Studies.

“The class focused on giving us thesetools to be sure that our clients can under-stand and manage their debt,” said Jaimes,who advises more than 600 clients a yearfrom his Washington Heights office.“Everything that I learned in that class, I useit every day.”

Recognizing a critical need to providelow-income residents with expert financialguidance, the city Department of ConsumerAffairs (DCA) teamed up with CUNY in 2009to establish a course for advisers at the city’sFinancial Empowerment Centers. Thecourse standardized procedures for helpingclients reduce debt and repair credit; createa budget; and handle debt collection andharassment problems as well as investmentsand retirement.

Initially, the course was taught indepen-dently by Joyce Moy, professor of smallbusiness management and entrepreneur-ship and executive director of CUNY’s

Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said:“Financial counseling and education hasbecome too critical a service to not have gen-uine standards of quality and excellence,including delivery, content and impact.”

The CUNY course is an outgrowth of aDecember 2008 citywide call-in project: YourMoney Helpline, in which the University part-nered with the city and The Daily News to givepeople free advice by phone.

Two hundred volunteer experts in all typesof financial issues staffed phone banks for aweek. They came from banks and credit unionsand CUNY’s business, finance and economicsfaculty, staff and student financial aid expertsand trained volunteers — including ChancellorMatthew Goldstein.

Moy developed and led training sessions forthe call-takers in live classrooms and throughwebinars.

Nearly 9,000 people called the Helpline.“We had teachers, office workers, retirees,young people with problems with studentloans. We helped them with their mortgages,credit card debt, and referrals to legalassistance,” Moy said. “It was very moving. Wehad no idea there would be so many people indistress.”

As a result, she said later, the city realizedthere was a need to provide expert help to thegeneral public — particularly the working poor.

At the Neighborhood Trust offices inWashington Heights, adviser Jaimes said coun-seling low-income clients requires uniqueskills such as building a credit score fromscratch and communicating complex financialterms in a different language.

Felix, the Washington Heights tailor who isa native of the Dominican Republic, said theone-on-one counseling sessions with a finan-cial adviser were essential in helping himunderstand credit and building his confidence.He is now saving up to make a down paymenton his first home.

“When you receive the right support, youcan change your life around,” Felix said.

Ruben Felix, right, with financial adviserAdalberto Jaimes at the NeighborhoodTrust Federal Credit Union

Helping Raise Financial SavvyCUNY course prepares city advisers to aid low-income clients in reducing debt, repairing credit and creating a budget

COURSEWORK

Continued from page 4“Basic Mechanisms Underlying Species-SpecificTrypanosome Resistance.” The College of StatenIsland has received $243,418 from the N.Y.State Education Department for the “WorkforceInvestment Act,” under the direction of HugoKijne. Natalie Bredhikina of KingsboroughCommunity College has received $105,000 fromthe N.Y. State Office of Temporary & DisabilityAssistance for “Educational Resources.”

Elizabeth Cardoso of Hunter College hasreceived $615,296 from the National ScienceFoundation for “MIND Alliance for MinorityStudents with Disabilities in Science,Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.” TheNational Institutes of Health has awarded$346,500 to Shireen Saleque of City College forresearch concerning “Genetic and EpigeneticRegulation of Hematopoiesis.” LaGuardia

Community College has beenawarded $324,226 from theN.Y. City Department ofHousing Preservation &Development for “FamilySelf-Sufficiency,” directed bySandra Watson. BrianGibney of Brooklyn College

has received grants totaling $883,195, one fromthe National Institutes of Health for“Thermodynamic Evaluation of the CoupledBinding of Zn(II) and DNA to a Zinc FingerProtein Tumor Suppressor,” and another fromthe European Commission for “Peptide-basedDiodes for Solar Cells.”

“Reducing SocioeconomicDisparities in Tobacco DependenceTreatment Outcomes,” a project directed byChristine Sheffer of City College, has beenawarded $318,772 from the National Institutesof Health. Nathaniel Cruz and Maria Cano ofHostos Community College have received$231,144 from the N.Y. City Human ResourcesAdministration for “College Opportunity toPrepare for Employment (COPE) at Hostos.” TheU.S. Department of Education has awardedgrants totaling $976,425 to Anthony Carpi and

Nathan Lents of John JayCollege for “CreatingHispanic Scientists: A ModelArticulation Programbetween Hispanic ServingInstitutions” and “PRISM –Program for ResearchInitiatives for Science Majors

at the Hispanic-Serving Institution;” AnthonyCarpi and Kate Szur have received $641,211from the U.S. Department of Education for “TitleV: Success through Engagement: Development ofa Comprehensive Program to PromoteUndergraduate Research and First YearTransition Toward Increasing Persistence andGraduation Rates of Hispanic Students.” QueensCollege has received $303,400 from the NationalInstitutes of Health for “Research Genomics ofLINE Retrotransposons in Vertebrates,” under thedirection of Stephane Boissinot.

The National Science Foundationhas awarded $600,000 to Lynn Francesconi,Charles Michael Drain and Pamela Mills ofHunter College for “IGERT: Returning the Radioto Chemistry: Integrating Radiochemistry into aChemistry Ph.D. Program.” Lynn Francesconihas also received $100,000 from Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research/Department of Energy for “Integrated ManhattanProject for Excellence in Radiochemistry(IMPER).” Wendy Woods of New York CityCollege of Technology has received $211,217from the U.S. Department of Education for“Childcare Access Means Parents in School.”

GRANTS&HONORS

Carpi

Gibney


Mrs. Earp atthe O.K. CorralLady at the O.K.Corral: The TrueStory of JosephineMarcus Earp, byAnn Kirschner, is

the definitive biography of aJewish girl, born in New York andraised in San Francisco, who wonthe heart of the famous lawman ofthe Old West, Wyatt Earp.Kirschner is dean of MacaulayHonors College and the acclaimedauthor of Sala’s Gift, a memoir ofher mother’s wartime rescue fromNazi Germany.HarperCollins

Coming of AgeIn CambridgeHarvard Square,by Andre Aciman.The author’s thirdnovel centersaround a Harvard

University graduate student in1977, a Jew from Egypt, as he pre-pares to become the assimilatedAmerican professor that he longsto be. Aciman teaches compara-tive literature at the GraduateCenter, where he also directs theWriters’ Institute.W.W. Norton & Company

Tale of TwoCitiesNew York and LosAngeles: TheUncertain Future,co-edited byAndrew Beveridge,

provides in-depth comparativestudies of the two largest citiesand metropolitan areas in theUnited States. Written by leadingexperts, the chapters discuss andcompare a host of economic, socialand political issues. Beveridge is aprofessor of sociology at QueensCollege and the Graduate Center.Oxford University Press

Harlem’sPromised LandMaking a PromisedLand: Harlem inTwentieth-CenturyPhotography andFilm, by Paula

Massood, examines the intercon-nected histories of African-American representation, urbanlife and citizenship as documentedin still and moving images ofHarlem over the past century.Massood is a professor of filmstudies in the department of filmat Brooklyn College and the doc-toral faculty in the Program inTheatre at the Graduate Center.Rutgers University Press

Reflections on Sylvia PlathAmerican Isis: TheLife and Art ofSylvia Plath, byCarl Rollyson,offers a modern

view of her work and tragic death50 years ago. Rollyson, a professorof journalism at Baruch College,has published more than 40books, including a biography ofMarilyn Monroe.St. Martin’s Press

Rosa McCauley Parks finally gotpostal justice back on February 4,when the Postal Service issued herstamp (the day was her centennial).That honor was bound to come, for

after Parks died in 2005 at the age of 92, shebecame the first woman to lie in state in theCapitol rotunda.

But before you start congratulatingAmerica on becoming a post-racial society,read Brooklyn College professor of politicalscience Jeanne Theoharis’ The RebelliousLife of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Beacon), whichseethes with cool eloquence — as Parks her-self did over a long life of political activism.That Rebellious Life is the first full-dressscholarly Parks life is itself telling, and theauthor stays loyal to her discipline, focusingon the political and leaving discussion of herfriends, family, faith, and daily life as “a taskfor others.”

Theoharis writes in an exhilarating, let’s-set-the-record-straight mode, as you willgather in her acerbic take, in the final pages,on Parks’ coffin lying beneath the rotunda:“An avalanche of congressmen, senators, andpresidents rushed to honor Parks, hopingperhaps that ‘a tired old woman’ lying in theCapitol would cover up the federal travestyof inaction around Hurricane Katrina twomonths earlier.” Theoharis is referring tothe “fable” that Parks’ famous refusal torelinquish her bus seat was due to her beinga “simple tired seamstress” after a hard day’swork. Later, Parks would say her bus resis-tance was “just a regular thing with me andnot just that day.” She would also later say, “Ididn’t move because I was tired of beingpushed around.”

That iconic Look magazine photo of Parkson The Bus (it is now in the Ford Museum inDearborn) was part of the smoke-and-mir-rors media coverage: It was staged — thestern white man behind her was a UPIreporter. It is not included in Rebellious Life.

Theoharis’ thesis is simple: The fatefulday of Dec. 1, 1955, was no act of resistanceby miraculous immaculate conception. Ithad been prepared for through two decadesof work for racial justice.

Raymond Parks, whom Rosa married in1932, was, she said, “the first real activist Iever met.” He joined the NAACP in the early’30s and worked to support the notoriousScottsboro Boys. Both worked for voter reg-istration and anti-lynching legislation and

against poll taxes. Bus resistance had begunin Montgomery in 1945 (the system hadbeen segregated since 1900), and Parks wasnot the first whose resistance drew thepolice. Parks also attended the HighlanderFolk School inTennessee, a training-place for activists, justmonths before the red-letter day, which evokeda storm of red-baiting from furious segrega-tionists.

Rebellious Life adds some odiously color-ful details to the arrest story and the 382-dayblack bus boycott that ensued. Two exam-ples of the exquisite cruelty of segregation:Black bus patrons had to enter the frontdoor, pay their dime fare, disembark, thenre-enter by the back door; when Parks wasarrested, she asked for water but was at firstdenied it — only the jail’s “white” fountainserved it. We also learn that the bus driverinsisted on Parks’ arrest, not merely theejection the policewould have been happyto perform. (Parksrefused to board thatdriver’s bus for the next12 years.) And yes —the courtroom in whichParks eventuallyappeared was also seg-regated.

Within a week theMontgomery blackcommunity roused toaction, led by a 26-year-old newcomer to town,Martin Luther King,who was soon electedto the newly formedMontgomeryImprovementAssociation (MIA),which organized theboycott (it ended after 382 days when theSupreme Court declared bus segregationdead). The boycott put King on the nationalmap, and you can see him beginning to prac-tice for his speech on the Mall eight yearslater in his speech urging the boycott.

Redneck backlash made life inMontgomery difficult and dangerous. Parkssoon lost her job as assistant tailor at aMontgomery department store, and eightmonths after the boycott ended, Rosa andRaymond moved to be near family in

Detroit. The rest of the book is devoted toshowing that Parks continued her advocacyfor racial justice for nearly 50 years in thatcity. Her first full-time job in her chosenfield was in the office of newly elected Rep.

John Conyers, where shefought segregated housing,unequal public schools andpolice brutality. “I can’t say welike Detroit any better than

Montgomery,” she said.“Women,” Theoharis notes, “provided the

backbone of the boycott,” and one theme ofher book is the back seat — pun intended —that women were relegated to within theblack social justice movement. She notesthat Parks was not invited to speak at theMIA founding meeting. Later, she also icilyobserves how prominent women leaderswere eased to the sidelines at the 1963March on Washington. Lena Horne was sentto her hotel when she started introducingParks to reporters, “This is who started the

civil rights movement, not Martin LutherKing. This is the woman you need to inter-view.”

Another recurrent theme for Theoharis isthe extent to which Parks’ “unassuming”personality contrasted with the brasher,more in-your-face demeanor of her (mostlymale) activist colleagues. She was at heart ahumble, well-dressed, devout (AmericanMethodist Episcopal), and dignified woman— unthreatening markers for all the “spin”doctors to revel in after the bus incident.Though Parks was “a woman of action,” she

“did not favor direct confrontation.” Buttoward the end of her study, Theoharischooses several assessments of Parks thattell the real story. Conyers says “she had aheavy progressive streak that was uncharac-teristic for a neat, religious, demure, church-going lady.” A prominent Detroit blacknationalist put the paradox more succinctly:She was “quiet and sweet ... but strong asacid.” A friend perhaps put it best: “She’squiet ... the way steel is quiet.”

(I spotted one typo in the book, but it is avery scary one! Theoharis says “19 senatorsand 892 congressmen” issued a “SouthernManifesto” in response to Brown v. Board ofEducation. A mere 435 of them, I do believe,can create quite enough havoc.)

Parks was increasingly irked in her lateryears by reporters — seemingly frozen intime — asking her to retell how she wore herblack badge of courage. A lifetime ofactivism taught her that resting on her lau-rels would not do: Eternal vigilance is theprice not only of liberty but also racial jus-tice. She made this point when she returnedto Montgomery in 1975 for the 20th anniver-sary of the boycott. From the same pulpitwhere the MIA was founded, she urged acheering crowd, “Don’t stop. Keep on. Keepon keeping on.” The last image of her inRebellious Life is true to that spirit; it is ofParks marching against apartheid at theSouth African embassy in 1985.

Parks in the end made peace with the factthat her 15 minutes of famous resistancewere indelibly engraved in the nationalmemory. “Interviewers still only want to talkabout that one evening in 1955 when Irefused to give up my seat,” she wrote in her1992 autobiography, “I understand that I ama symbol.” Rebellious Life fills in vividly theother days of her life.


BOOKTALK

NEWTITLES / CUNYAUTHORS

By Gary Schmidgall

—————————————————The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Jeanne TheoharisBeacon

—————————————————

CUNY Matters welcomes information about newbooks that have been written or edited by facul-ty and members of the University community.Contact: [email protected]

Keep On Keeping On — A Life of Rosa ParksThe last image of her in Rebellious Life

is true to that spirit; it is of Parks

marching against apartheid at the

South African embassy in 1985.

Rosa Parkson thecourthousesteps,MontgomeryAlabama,1955


MENTION THE WORD“retirement” and you’ll hearsome say, “Yes, I’d like to doit. But not so quickly!”In recognition of this cau-

tious approach, the University haslaunched a voluntary, three-year pilot pro-gram for faculty and other instructionalstaff. It will enable eligible, permanentfull-time instructional staff to “phase” theirretirement over a period of time. The pro-gram is in keeping with CUNY’s implemen-tation of other employee friendly policies.

The agreement is between CUNY andthe Professional Staff Congress, and partic-ipants are required to be PSC members.Those who do participate will be requiredto retire at the end of the phasing period.

Vice Chancellor for Labor RelationsPamela Silverblatt notes that manyUniversity faculty have spent much of their

careers at a particular college. “Their iden-tities are embedded in those colleges andthe important work they have done there.Envisioning what they will do next is notalways easy. This program will help facultyto explore other options while keepingtheir ties to their research and their stu-dents for a while longer.”

Faculty members who are at least 65years old and have worked continuously forthe University for at least 15 years may nowphase their retirement. They can work on apart-time basis for up to three years, as theyplan ahead. A modified version of this pilotprogram will also be available for HEO orCLT-series employees for up to a year.

“We have had an expansion of benefitsin general over the last five years that arefamily friendly and people friendly, such asdedicated sick leave pay and parentalleave,” Silverblatt added, “and we are work-

ing on a catastrophic bank for sick leave.This is in that spirit — to be more respon-sive to our workforce.”

Other universities have similar programs,Silverblatt noted, and CUNY decided toexplore the possibilities after Executive Vice


FORYOURBENEFIT

WHEN THE WORST HAPPENS, CUNY isthere for its employees. After thebombing incident at the Boston

Marathon, CUNY employees received thefollowing email from Corporate CounselingAssociates:

“In response to the incident at the BostonMarathon today, we wanted to reach out toremind you that CCA is available to assist youor any of your employees who may be impactedby this tragedy. During times such as this, it ishelpful to remind employees and their familiesthat the EAP & Work/Life Assistance Program isavailable to provide confidential support andassistance, 24 hours a day. Even if none ofyour employees were directly impacted by thisevent, please remember that events such asthis can trigger memories of past traumas thatemployees may have experienced.”

Michael Kochman, CCA manager of businessdevelopment, said that the effect of traumatic

eventsis oftenfar-reaching. “Inour experience, whenever a tragedy such as theBoston Marathon bombing occurs, theincidence of members contacting the programfor stress and anxiety-related issues increasessignificantly for a period of time. Although wecan’t reveal details, some callers wereimpacted.”

Kochman said that this year, “HurricaneSandy had probably the most impact on calls.”Superstorm Sandy also set off a flurry offundraising in CUNY offices. The Office ofHuman Resources Management, for example,raised $3,785 for New York Cares HurricaneSandy Relief.

Work/Life Ready to Help AfterTrauma of Boston Bombing

TIMINGRETIREMENTPilot Program Allows Faculty, StaffTo Work Part Time Over Three Years

Assisting Colleagues After Superstorm Sandy

IN DIFFICULT TIMES, CUNY employees are alsothere for others in the University community.The Central Office’s Computing and

Information Services took up a collection for threeemployees. And the University gave employees anopportunity to donate annualleave days to a bank thatcould be tapped by otheremployees in need who didn’thave enough accumulatedtime of their own.

According to Gloriana B.Waters, vice chancellor forhuman resourcesmanagement, “Over 100 dayswere donated to the bank andabout half were used by employeesneeding the time to address Sandyrelated issues.”

In another act of kindness,Lorraine Sanders, associateprofessor at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing,returned an interest-free loan shereceived from the University so thefunds could be used by others.

Like many in Long Beach onLong Island, a community

hard hit by Sandy, at first Sanders couldn’t live inher home or get back to work because oftransportation problems. But “my colleaguespitched in,” she said, and “the support I got fromHunter was phenomenal.”

Sanders’ dean at the school,and Hunter President JenniferRaab, heard about herdifficulties, and PresidentRaab arranged for theUniversity to provide theinterest-free loan to her.

When Sanders was able toreturn to work, she realizedthat many others, including

her own students, were in farworse shape and needed help.

One had lost her house in ahurricane-related fire.

Sanders said shedidn’t lose income, andby giving the loan back,

“I could help someoneelse.”

“But for the president of thecollege to reach out to you andsay, ‘We can help,’ – It was

amazing!”

ATYOURSERVICE

“But for the president of

the college to reach out to

you and say, ‘We can help.’

— it was amazing!”


I M M I G R A N T S M E E T W I T H E S L S T U D E N T S A T B C C

This spring, as in past semesters, Bronx Community College’s intermediate English As A SecondLanguage students read a nonfiction book: Muddy Cup: A Dominican Family Comes of Age in a

New America. In May, students met in person — and via Skype — three of the immigrantsportrayed in the book, published by Scribner in 1997.

Muddy Cup author Barbara Fischkin met the subjects in 1986, when they were living in PuertoPlata. Mauricio and Elizabeth Almonte and Flor Seecharan now have successful careers in the

United States, and the students asked them all for advice. Fischkin organizedthe event with ESL teacher Nancy Gear, who inspired BCC student Franky Berasto email the author and ask her to do this. “It is important tous that you wrote about a typical Dominican family,” he noted.“Many of the students in our class are Dominican.” Gear hasinvited Fischkin to return, and Muddy Cup will soon beavailable as an e-book.

search.cuny.edu “Muddy Cup”

Chancellor and University ProvostAlexandra Logue suggested that phasedretirement might work well here, too.

Requisites for participation aredetailed and some are described below.But those who are interested should dis-cuss plans with their college humanresources officers. Those consideringphased retirement will need some time toconsider the program, Silverblatt said.“We are not expecting a huge response forthis coming September,” she added.

Here are some of the requirements anddetails regarding participation:

To be eligible faculty and staff mustbe participants in the OptionalRetirement Program — TIAA-CREF(including alternative offerings fromMetLife and Guardian). This program isnot available to members of the Teachers’Retirement System.

Tenured faculty members who par-ticipate will work 50 percent of their con-tractual full-time workload, includingteaching and other professional responsi-bilities. Their compensation will be 50percent of their full-time salaries. Theycan phase into retirement over one, twoor three years. Tenured faculty includinglibrarians, counselors, and lecturers witha certificate of continuous employmentare eligible to participate.

HEO or CLT-series employees canphase their retirement by working 80 per-cent of their full-time workload for 80

percent of their full-time salary. They canphase for six months or a year.

Faculty will be required to begin theprocess on the first day of the fallsemester, while HEO or CLT employeesmay begin on the first day of either thefall or spring semester.

Faculty members serving as depart-ment chairs or as executive officers ofPh.D. programs will need to resign fromthose positions before participating.Faculty members serving in predomi-nantly administrative positions, such asdirectors of institutes or centers, mustconsult with their college presidents — ortheir designees — to determine whetherparticipation in the phasing program isfeasible.

Eligible faculty who want to use uptheir accrued sick leave (Travia LeaveProgram) can do so in the final springsemester of their phasing period; eligibleHEOs and CLTs may take Travia Leaveimmediately following their phasing peri-od. Alternatively, faculty and staff maychoose to be paid for their Travia Leavein a lump sum, following their phasingperiod.

A webinar for administrators who willadvise about the program was held in ear-ly May by the Office of Human ResourcesManagement, and earlier, Silverblatt metwith college presidents and other high-level administrators. The pilot programshe said “has been roundly applauded.”


W E R E M E M B E R — STANLEY SNADOWSKY

BROOKLYN COLLEGE ECONOMICS PROFESSOR Robert Cherry says that while CUNY faculty membershave protested tuition hikes on grounds that student debt is unacceptably high, his recent survey of

BC students “found that few have significant loan indebtedness.” Only 15.2 percent of 402 studentssurveyed took out loans of at least $1,000 for the current academicyear, with only 7.2 percent having current loans of at least $4,500,

Cherry says in a blog published on the Manhattan Institute’s “Minding theCampus” page. Reports of high CUNY student indebted-

ness “reflects the indebtedness of non-NYC highschool graduates, especially when the dataincludes the loans transfer students took outat their former schools,” he continues.

H O W M U C H D O S T U D E N T S R E A L LY O W E ?

Nostalgia buffs tend to romanticize it, but forgenerations of immigrants who were forced to

live in its jam-packed tenements, the Lower EastSide was a place to leave as soon as possible,

according to Mark Russ Federman. “Today you have hotels, bars, clubs,restaurants — it’s a vibrant place,” says Federman, who was at the Graduate

Center to discuss his new book, “Russ & Daughters: Reflections and Recipes From theHouse That Herring Built.” A third-generation, former owner of the venerable appetizingstore, Russ & Daughters, Federman says that people are feeling nostalgic for the fewiconic institutions that remain. “You’ll find pockets of the old Lower East Side — likeRuss & Daughters and Katz’s — people come from all over to recapture that scene.”

S L I C I N G A N D S C H M O O Z I N G A T R U S S & D A U G H T E R S

search.cuny.edu “College Debt”

search.cuny.edu “Herring”

(More)On the Web at cuny.edu

Campus Wellness Fairs

ANOTHER BENEFIT for CUNY employees, WellnessFairs, are held on many campuses, typically onceor twice a year.

“Our fairs link people to information,” says SerafinaRutigliano, human resources director at Hunter College.The college holds its fairs in the fall and spring, andmore than 300 employees attended in April.

The fairs link people to lifelines, too. At a recentfair, an employee had his blood pressure taken, foundthat it was dangerously high and went immediately tosee his physician.

The services offered at the fairs are usually similarbut colleges often provide some extras, as well.

At Hunter, employees could also obtain informationabout pension plans — thus boosting their financialhealth — as well as information on Social Security,Medicare, and mental health support. A QueensCollege fair offered information on smoking cessationand on union welfare benefits. The school’s athleticprogram had information regarding gym membershipbenefits for employees, and the college’s nursing staffand healthy eating and cooking staff also providedinformation. York College’s fair had representativesfrom BJ’s Wholesale Club and Costco. York usuallyholds its fair in October to coincide with health planenrollment and transfer periods.

Human resources officers also strive to make thefairs fun — Hunter’s fall fair has a Zumba class.And, yes, while getting a massage at work does soundlike something out of Silicon Valley, it can happen atCUNY, too – at a Wellness fair.

HUNTER COLLEGE ALUMNUS Stanley Snadowsky, co-founder of the landmark Greenwich Village night-club the Bottom Line, died recently at age 70. The club’s legendary 1974 opening-night concert drew

a star-studded audience including Mick Jagger, Carly Simon and Stevie Wonder — who all took to thestage for a jam session with the featured headliner: NewOrleans R&B artist Dr. John. It set a tone that made theBottom Line a premier showcase through the 1970s and’80s for rising stars including Bruce Springsteen, MilesDavis and Billy Joel. A cavalcade of folk,jazz, rock and country performers crossedits stage until Snadowsky and his partner,childhood friend Allan Pepper, closed itin 2004.

search.cuny.edu “Snadowsky”

Tier 6 Plan Contribution

ARE YOU ENROLLED in aretirement plan with CUNYunder the new Tier 6 plan? If

so, you may have noticed a highercontribution deduction in your firstpaycheck of April 2013. Because of anew state law, Tier 6 employees’contribution rates regardingretirement plans are based on theannual wage paid to them by theiremployers. The deductions for thosein Tier 6 now range from 3 percentfor those who make $45,000 or lessto 6 percent for those earning morethan $100,000. If you havequestions about this change, pleasecontact your campus HumanResources office.

Faculty members who are at least 65 years old and have worked continuously

for the University for at least 15 years may now phase their retirement. They

can work on a part-time basis for up to three years, as they plan ahead.


Through June 15Palaem

on: A Survey ofPaintings by Jon Im

berQueens College 11 a.m

. - 5 p.m.

Free

Through June 27Year of India Exhibit: Art from

the Land of the PeacockQueens College 9 a.m

. - 8 p.m. Free

Through June 27Contem

porary Artists GroupShowQueens College 9 a.m

. - 8 p.m.

Free

Through Aug. 16Staten Island Through theLenses of CSI StudentsCollege of Staten Island12 - 5 p.m

.

Through Sept. 1Laura Del Prete ExhibitionCollege of Staten Island9 a.m

. - 5 p.m.

Through Aug. 4‘AS YOU LIKE IT’ BYW

ILLIAMSHAKESPEARETom

Waites presents

the play, a happycom

edy for summ

erfun and great m

usic,and one ofShakespeare’s m

ostadm

ired works. W

aites drew nationalacclaim

for his short film“Pandora’s Box,” winningBest Director and BestScreenplay for a Short Filmin the Atlantic City FilmFestival. As You Like Itopens July 12 and runsthrough Aug. 4 at theBaruch Perform

ing ArtsCenter’s Bernie W

estTheater.Baruch College

July 24MAYORAL CANDIDATES FORUMM

ayoral contenders will discuss higher education,health care, affordablehousing and econom

icdevelopm

ent in BCC’sGould M

emorial Library

Auditorium. NY1 political

anchor Errol Lewis will bem

oderator.Bronx Com

munity College

6:30 p.m.

Free

Winning the ‘God’s

Particle’ LotteryFor physicists, it’s like hittingthe m

egamillions jackpot

over and over. “After decadesof thinking and searching, itseem

s that one of the major

building blocks of our under-standing of what the world ism

ade of has fallen intoplace,” says Neal W

einer, pro-fessor of physics at New YorkUniversity.

Search.cuny.edu“Neal W

einer”

Steve Earle Speaks Candidly of His Life in M

usicTo write a good song you haveto find a connection between

what youknow andwhat theaudienceknows,accordingto three-tim

eGram

my award winner Steve

Earle. “Early on, I wrote asong called ‘Little Rock onthe Road’ —

about my

then 3-year-old son —while I was on the road,”said Earle.

Search.cuny.edu“Steve Earle”

ART/EXHIB

ITS

>>Go to search.cuny.edu

From the Beginning,

a War to End Slavery

Graduate Center history pro-fessor Jam

es Oakes shattersa widespread belief that theCivil W

ar was first a war torestore the Union and, onlygradually, when it becam

e am

ilitary necessity, a war toend slavery. “Liberty andunion, now and forever, wereone and inseparable,” saysOakes. “That is what Lincolnand the Republicansbelieved.” Oakes, whoserecent book, FreedomNational: The Destruction ofSlavery in the United States,1861-1865, is a powerfulhistory of em

ancipation,appeared at the GraduateCenter as part of theConversations series, alongwith Sean W

ilentz, professorof history at PrincetonUniversity.

Search.cuny.edu“Jam

es Oakes”

In the World & on the W

eb

SPECIAL EVEN

TSLEC

TUR

ES/PANELS

Aug. 14M

MR Vaccination Clinic

The Graduate Center10 a.m

. – 4 p.m. Free

Search.cuny.edu“Vaccination”

Aug. 20Im

munization Clinic

York College 10 a.m

. – 5 p.m. Free

Search.cuny.edu“Im

munization”

Aug. 28CLASSES RESUM

E

THEATER

/FILM

June 8W

illie ColónLehm

an College8 – 10:30 p.m

.$50, $45, $30

June 13The George Gee SwingOrchestraKingsborough

Comm

unity College 8 p.m

.

June 14A Father’s Day W

eekendCelebration with Ram

sey LewisThe City College of NewYork 7 – 9 p.m

.$40 & $20 for students

June 20The Hot Sardines

KingsboroughCom

munity

College 8 p.m

.

July 27David Oswald’s

LouisArm

strongCentennial Band

KingsboroughCom

munity

College 8 p.m

.

Aug. 17A Life of Salsa with Ism

ael Miranda.

Lehman College

8 - 10:30 p.m.

$45 - $60

MU

SIC/D

ANC

E

June 18Celebrate The Nam

ing of

Guttman Com

munity College

Although announced in April, the naming

of the new comm

unity college as the

Stella and Charles Guttman Com

munity

College becomes official with a celebration

on June 18.

The University received a $25 million gift

from the Stella and Charles Guttm

an

Foundation that includes a $15 million

endowment for the new com

munity college,

a $9 million endowm

ent for scholarships to

help academically qualified students

from all seven CUNY

comm

unity col-

leges transfer to

CUNY senior

colleges, and $1

million to expand

the University’s

Accelerated Study

in Associate

Programs (ASAP)

initiative.

Much of the

work of thefounda-

tionfocuses

on educa-

tionalprogram

s

andsocial

services to support low-income New York

City children, youth and families. The son of

imm

igrants, Charles Guttman was raised on

the Lower East Side and attended public

school until age 13, when he began working

odd jobs to help support his family. In adult-

hood he built a successful business, The

Paddington Corp. In 1959, he and his wife,

Stella Rappaport Guttman, established the

foundation for the “improvem

ent and benefit

of mankind, and the alleviation of hum

an

suffering.” Upon their deaths in 1969, with-

out leaving descendants, the Guttmans

bequeathed substantially all of their assets

to the foundation.

Guttman Com

munity College

9-11 a.m. Free

Search.cuny.edu

“Guttman”

cuny.edu •cuny.tv •

cuny.edu/radio • cuny.edu/youtube •cuny.edu/events

Dreams for

a Cuban Free PressCuban dissident Yoani Sánchez gained internationalrecognition for her eloquent and outspoken opinions onCuba in her blog, Generación Y, translated into 20 languages.In her visit to City College inM

arch, Sánchez praised blogsand social m

edia as “vital”journalistic tools and describedher dream

s for a free press inher country: “In this futureCuba, I expect that words willbe m

ore comm

on and more

powerful than military uni-

forms, that inform

ation will bem

ore comm

on than ideology.”City College professor CarlosRiobó, chair of ForeignLanguages and Literatures,was m

oderator for the event,and Baruch College professor ofBlack and Hispanic Studies TedHenken served as translator.

Search.cuny.edu“Yoani Sanchez”

June 13 through Aug. 12Sum

mer

StargazingThe AstrophysicalObservatory at theCollege of Staten Islandwill be open to the public

at the following times:

June 13- The planet

Saturn, the crescent Moon

8:30 p.m.

June 18- Solar Observing

11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m

.

Also, there’s a lot going onin your own backyard!June 12

- Mercury at its

greatest distance from the

sun after sunsetJuly 27-28

- DeltaAquarids m

eteor showerpeaks the late evening ofJuly 27, m

orning of July28. An average of about 20an hour.Aug.11-12

- Perseidsm

eteor shower. Up to 60 anhour. Peaks late evening ofAug. 11, m

orning of Aug. 12.Best after m

idnight.

Bring a beach chairand look up!

Search.cuny.edu“Stargazing”


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