Two New CUNY Trustees Appointed

Susan Gushee O’Malley

A priest from the Archdiocese of New York and a specialist in English Renaissance drama have recently joined the CUNY Board of Trustees. Father John S. Bonnici officially joined the Board on April 16 as a gubernatorial appointee; his term expires in 2008. By virtue of her recent election to a two-year term as chair of the University Faculty Senate, professor of English Susan Gushee O’Malley has become a non-voting ex officio member of the Board, succeeding Bernard Sohmer.

Bonnici, who was ordained at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1991, earned a B.A. in Biology and Philosophy at St. John’s University and three advanced degrees in theology from the John Paul II Institute in Washington and the St. John Lateran and Gregorian Pontifical Universities in Rome. He is the author of a book on the life and theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar and co-author of a handbook on the celebration of marriage in the Catholic Church.

Father Bonnici currently directs the Family Life/Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of New York and is chair of the New York State Catholic Conference’s Human Life Coordinators and a member of its Public Policy Committee.

O’Malley, who has taught at Kingsborough Community College since 1974, has been a member of the Senate’s executive committee since 1990. She is also the second holder of the chair from a CUNY community college campus.

Nilda Soto Ruiz

The recipient of several grants, including an NEH, a Mellon, and a Fulbright, O’Malley earned her B.A. at Smith College and her M.A. and Ph.D. at Tulane University. She taught there for several years before arriving at CUNY’s Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn campus.

O’Malley has published in several fields: early modern drama and pamphlet literature, women’s studies, education, and disability studies. Her book “Custom is an Idiot”: Jacobean Pamphlets on Women is forthcoming next year from the University of Illinois Press. O’Malley has also taught for many years at City College’s Center for Worker Education, and now teaches in the Liberal Studies program at the Graduate Center.

At press time, Governor Pataki nominated Dr. Hugo Morales, a prominent physician with a longstanding record of community and civic leadership, to the Board. A profile on Morales will appear in the next issue of CUNY Matters.

Also at press time, Trustee Nilda Soto Ruiz, Superintendent of Monitoring and School Improvement for the New York City public school system and a member of the Board of Trustees since 1996, was renominated by the Governor. Trustee Ruiz chairs the Board’s Committee on Academic Policy, Programs, and Research, and a special Committee on Community Colleges.