October 29th, 2008 | The University
As the city and nation sink into an economic recession, The City University of New York this week is hosting a gathering of American community college representatives, who will share ideas on combating poverty through higher education.
Given the current financial crisis, with unemployment and government cutbacks looming, the conference of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is generating extraordinary interest among community college trustees and administrators.
CUNY, which boasts growing enrollment at its six community colleges – a result, in large part, of New Yorkers seeking to bolster their value in a toughening job market – will conduct tours of its associate degree-granting institutions.
“Our record enrollments indicate that students understand that community colleges are their educational beacons,” says Philip Berry, Vice Chair of the CUNY Board of Trustees, in keynote remarks he is preparing to give ACCT attendees at a closing event on Saturday.
Two thousand ACTT representatives are convening at the Marriott Marquis Times Square beginning October 29th. Over the course of four days they will participate in more than 80 roundtable discussions, special panels and a Town Hall Meeting.
The theme of the annual conference this year is “the role of community college . . . in combating poverty through education,” ACCT officials say.
Vice Chair Berry, a prominent management consultant and managing principal of Berry Block and Bernstein LLC, a global consulting firm, has served for many years as vice president and corporate officer for Colgate-Palmolive.
He entered college at CUNY’s Borough of Manhattan Community College, and then at CUNY’s flagship Queens College. Berry went on to obtain a M.S. from Columbia University and an MBA from Xavier University.
A notable number of CUNY’s leaders, in fact, have had their start at the University’s community colleges.
The longest serving CUNY Trustee, appointed in 1998, is Kathleen M. Pesile, principal of the Pesile Financial
Group, which specializes in retirement and estate planning. Pesile is the holder of bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance from CUNY’s Baruch College, which has one of the highest ranked business programs in the nation.
“But I wouldn’t have had any of those opportunities if I hadn’t been able to go to a CUNY community college,” said Pesile, who received an associate’s degree in finance from Staten Island Community College, which was later absorbed into the present day College of Staten Island.
At the opening session of ACCT on Thursday morning, Pesile will give a keynote address, constructed around the idea of “Moving from College Access to College Completion.”
The sign language interpreters will be Mary Kay Adams and Luciana Pais, both 2005 graduates of LaGuardia Community College’s Interpreter Education Program.
The mission of attempting to attract and retain students from difficult circumstances has defined the career of Jay Hershenson, CUNY’s Senior Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees.
Vice Chancellor Hershenson, who attended Queensborough Community College before going on to obtain his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Queens College will address ACCT attendees at Thursday evening’s “Town Hall Meeting,” where the topic will be “Community Colleges Combating Poverty: A Call to Action!”
Noting that community college students tend to be part-time, and that they often attend for many years before finally attaining their degrees, Hershenson says, “We have to make clear the value of full-time study and the benefits, intellectual as well as professional, of earning a degree as quickly as possible.”
He pointed to CUNY’s ASAP program as a model for addressing those needs.
On Friday, there will be a Roundtable Discussion on ASAP, which is an acronym for Accelerated Study in Associate Programs but which also, very intentionally, calls to mind the phrase as-soon-as-possible.
ASAP is supported enthusiastically by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is located on all six CUNY community college campuses, offering tuition waivers, free books, “block scheduling” that reduces travel time, assistance in finding jobs, and personalized counseling and tutoring.
Nate Wheeler, 28, an ASAP student enrolled at Borough of Manhattan Community College, is scheduled to be on that panel.
“This has been a really big step for me and, more than anything else I could imagine, it is helping me to move toward my overall goal, which is the obtaining of a graduate degree,” said Wheeler in an interview.
Through ASAP, Wheeler found a job with Macy’s where he works 40 hours a week in the “divisional operations,” using spreadsheets to follow the company’s expenses, among other tasks, even as he takes a full 15-credit load at BMCC.
Wheeler expects to graduate this spring, after five semesters of study, a relatively speedy achievement, given that community college students often take many years to obtain their degrees.
Wheeler hopes immediately afterward to attend CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice for a bachelor’s degree, and then to study for a master’s in forensic accounting at John Jay.
He said ASAP is a welcome opportunity for an African American male like himself, given the obstacles that group faces in New York and elsewhere.
Among the myriad other programs that will be touted this week are CUNY’s new Leadership Academy, which was developed by CUNY Vice Chancellor Garrie W. Moore and provides networking opportunities and social skills development to students; and the College Now program that prepares public high school students for college.
One of the biggest challenges facing community college trustees and administrators in the current economy is reduced funding from state and local governments.
CUNY officials on Thursday will present a panel on how the so-called CUNY Compact, proposed by CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, which aggressively uses public and private resources.
Trustee Pesile will lead that panel, which will feature: Eduardo J. Marti, President of Queensborough Community College; Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College; Antonio Perez, President of Borough of Manhattan Community College; Carolyn G. Williams, President of Bronx Community College; Dolores M. Fernandez, President of Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College; and Ernesto Malave, CUNY Vice Chancellor for Budget and Finance.
Hostos President Fernandez issued a statement saying: “The Compact for Public Higher Education has brought major benefits to all the campuses of the City University system. Among the most significant of these for Eugenio María de Hostos Community College have been the increase in full-time faculty positions and the maintenance of affordable tuition for the low-income student population we serve.”
The statement concluded, “As we weather the current economic downturn, the Compact will continue to be an invaluable source of support for our ongoing pursuit of excellence.”
The ACCT conference will not be without entertainment, including a Thursday evening welcoming performance by the Medgar Evers Jazz Ensemble, and the Thursday morning singing of the “National Anthem” by Rachel Zevita Smyth-Godinger, from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and the singing of “America the Beautiful” by Leticia Smith of Queensborough Community College.
The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public university. Founded in New York City in 1847 as the Free Academy, the University comprises 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the Graduate School and University Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. The University serves 243,000 degree-credit students and more than 240,000 adult, continuing and professional education students. College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program for 32,500 high school students, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 300 high schools throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The University offers online baccalaureate degrees through the School of Professional Studies and an individualized baccalaureate through the CUNY Baccalaureate Degree.