Today, almost half of all undergraduates in the United States are attending a community college. Here in New York City, the six community colleges of The City University of New York–Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and Queensborough Community College–serve nearly 79,000 degree-credit students, [...]
Today, CUNY and most other public universities entrusted with the same important public mission that they have always had, are challenged to meet that mission in a very different marketplace. Several trends are pushing us to rethink established models of public higher education. First, there has been a steady decline in state support of public [...]
On Dec. 17, 2007, the New York State Commission on Higher Education released its preliminary recommendations to Governor Eliot Spitzer. My colleagues on the commission and I worked diligently to propose bold ideas to reinvigorate serious investment in the state’s public universities. New York’s citizens, students, and faculty deserve public universities whose stature is nationally [...]
This fall the University welcomed 800 talented new faculty members to its 23 colleges and professional schools. I am delighted that students and the community alike will benefit from the expertise and experience of scholar-teachers in disciplines ranging from biology to art history to journalism. Increasing the ranks of full-time faculty is a high priority [...]
On the first page of this and every issue of CUNY Matters is a quote from Townsend Harris, the founder of the University, reminding us of CUNY’s mission to “open the doors to all,” with “no distinction save that of industry, good conduct, and intellect.” As we start a new academic year 160 years after [...]
When I reflect on the current state of education in our country today, I see an alarming trend: I see fewer students enrolling and succeeding in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We all need to try to understand this development, because our common future depends on our ability to reverse it. [...]
Last month I traveled to Albany to testify on the State Executive Budget at a joint hearing of the New York State Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees. There I spoke about many CUNY initiatives and programs currently underway, and emphasized how much we rely on the State’s continued investment in order to [...]
Last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg convened a Commission for Economic Opportunity to recommend strategies to reduce poverty and increase pathways to financial success. Higher education must be a central partner in the fight integral to this campaign against poverty, and CUNY’s community colleges, in particular, must be the sites where low-income students can begin to [...]
Scientific literacy is a sine qua non of an educated citizenry. Yet today, with students’ participation and proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields on the decline, our country’s preeminence in science education and innovation is in question. The business and research communities have taken notice of this situation. The Business Roundtable recently led [...]
Last year, we introduced the CUNY Compact as a new approach to funding the University. We proposed the Compact to the University’s constituencies, including lawmakers, and we have begun to see the results of this fresh approach to financing. As we look toward our 2008 budget and the second year of the Compact, our goal is to build on these investments and address important University-wide initiatives.
