Carlos A. Flynn

As we approach 2012, we congratulate the colleges of CUNY for raising more than $2.1 billion since the launch of the “Invest in CUNY” Campaign!   This past decade of philanthropic growth has been a key driver of the CUNY renaissance.  Enrollment has grown; student awards reflect increasing excellence; the Macaulay Honors College, the Graduate School of Journalism, and the CUNY School of Public Health have opened; and the New Community College is preparing to open its doors.  Many of our campuses are being reborn with growth in full-time faculty, scholarship programs and new and renovated buildings.

The support of our committed alumni has been the catalyst for these many advances.  The gifts and events highlighted in this newsletter bear testimony to this growth.  During the coming months the CUNY advancement offices will be planning for the final four years of our campaign and on January 25th Chancellor Goldstein and the college presidents will offer an evening recognition event for all our college foundation board members as well as our alumni, corporate and foundation donors.  We look forward to celebrating with you.

Carlos A. Flynn

University Dean for Institutional Advancement

City University of New York

Brooklyn College alumnus and Foundation trustee, Murray Koppelman (’57) donated $2.5 million to purchase a 24,000-square-foot property adjacent to the college campus.  The college hopes to develop the land and an adjacent parking lot as a future school of business for the college.  Mr. Koppelman, who also helped negotiate the land deal, told the Wall Street Journal, “I came from being on home relief to becoming president of a firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange.  I’m paying back now for future generations to benefit and have the opportunity I did.”

Another major gift to Brooklyn College was made by Barry Feirstein (’74) who donated $5 million to create a Graduate School of Cinema at Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn College Navy Yard.  The school, scheduled to open in 2013, will be the first public graduate school of film in New York.  Describing his gift as an investment, Mr. Feirstein, a former hedge fund manager who chairs the Brooklyn College Foundation Board, told the Wall Street Journal last winter that “We are going to create something that will have major impact on the film industry, Brooklyn College and New York City.”

In honor of a gift of $3 million from alumnus Allen G. Aaronson (’48), Baruch College has named the Allen G. Aaronson Department of Marketing and International Business at the Zicklin School. Mr. Aaronson made the gift after returning to Baruch to celebrate his 60th reunion. His gift will support department activities including faculty recruitment, retention and research, curriculum development, and provide enhanced training and education for students.  In expressing gratitude to Baruch for his college experience and education, he said he wished to transform the student experience of those enrolled in the department’s programs with his gift.

Hunter College received a generous donation from the Caravan Institute: the Parliamo Italiano Language School, including the assets of the school, and its townhouse located at 132 East 65th St. Hunter President Jennifer J. Raab heralded the gift, valued at $10 million, as an opportunity to expand for-credit and continuing education Italian language classes as well as to link Italian language education to other language and lecture programs. 

Baruch College has established a new chair in Latin American Studies in honor of the grandfather of longtime friend of Baruch and adjunct professor Hedwig (Hedy) Feit, who teaches in the Department of Black and Hispanic Studies and who donated $3.2 million in his honor.  The new chair, Dr. Ana Yolanda Ramos-Zayas, will take an active role in expanding the Department of Black and Hispanic Studies and the Latin American Studies program.  A dedication of the Valentin Lizana y Parrague Chair in Latin American Studies was held on October 11, 2011.

City College received a $1 million gift from Toni and Martin Sosnoff to create the Martin and Toni Sosnoff President’s Fund for Excellence in the Arts.  This fund will enable the president to sponsor a diverse array of artistic events, activities, and endeavors on campus including literary programs highlighting prominent writers, concerts and musical performances, and new theater productions written, directed and acted by CCNY students.  The college is also proud to announce the creation of a $1 million fund to support study abroad programs, student preparation for national and international fellowships, and student participation in conferences and cultural events.  The fund will be named the Herbert and Ruth Aschkenasy Opportunity Fund at the City College Honors Center.

CUNY TV received a $4 million bequest from radio pioneer and Brooklyn College alumni Himan Brown, who passed away in June 2010. Brown was an American producer of radio programs and member of the Radio Hall of Fame. He worked with such actors as Helen Hayes, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra and Orson Welles while creating more than 30,000 thousand radio programs over 65 years.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded Queensborough Community College a $500,000 Challenge Grant to support endowed scholarly activities at The Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives (KHRCA).  QCC is one of only six community colleges in the country to receive this prestigious award.  The College’s fundraising goal is to add $1 million to the KHRCA endowment.  For further information about this grant, click on the following link http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011 /08/11/queens/qns_qcc_grant_20110811.txt

Last spring, four leading CUNY donors — Sy Sternberg, retired Chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Company; Emily Tow Jackson, Executive Director and Board President of the Tow Foundation; Mark Kupferberg, Vice President for Manufacturing and Engineering of Kepco Inc.; and Larry Zicklin, retired Board Chairman of Neuberger Berman — kicked off the University’s first all-day conference on philanthropy with a lively discussion about their philanthropy, volunteer leadership and reasons for supporting CUNY.

The four, who together have brought some $60 million in support to CUNY, were panelists at the CUNY Philanthropy Forum, which drew approximately 160 CUNY alumni and development professionals and University leaders including, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, Board Chair Benno Schmidt and Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson.

Emily Tow Jackson is the daughter of Brooklyn College alumnus Leonard Tow, a former chief executive of Citizens Communications and Century Communications. The Tow Foundation has provided $10 million to support the Leonard and Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College and $3 million to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Mark Kupferberg, whose father Ken Kupferberg and Ken’s three brothers founded Kepco in Queens shortly after World War II, is a member of the Board of the Queensborough Community College Fund.  Following in his parents’ footsteps, Mark is a generous supporter of the college, to which his parents donated $1 million. The Harriet and Ken Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Archives at Queensborough College is named in their honor.

Sy Sternberg, a City College alumnus (’65) who served as Chairman of the New York Life Foundation, was instrumental in the Foundation’s $10 million grant to establish the New York Life Endowment for Emerging African-American Issues at CCNY’s Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies.  He has served as a member of the City College 21st Century Foundation Board, the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies Advisory Council, the Macaulay Honors College Board of trustees, and chair of the CUNY Business Leadership Council.

Baruch alumnus Larry Zicklin (’57) and his wife, Carol, are amongst the college’s greatest champions.  In 1998, they endowed the business school with a historic gift; the Zicklin School of Business was named in recognition of that gift.  They later endowed the Center for Financial Integrity, the Lawrence and Carol Zicklin Chair in Corporate Integrity and Governance, and the Zicklin Strategic Impact Fund.  Mr. Zicklin is a past President and current Chairman of the Board of the Baruch College Fund.

The conference, collaboration among the Invest in CUNY Campaign Office, the School of Professional Studies and CCS Fundraising, included workshops with representatives of NYC corporations and foundations, fundraising consultants, and higher education fundraising professionals.  The second CUNY Philanthropy Forum will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center in April 2012.  Learn about the awards for Philanthropic Excellence at http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/news/press/pecunyaward.html

Dr. Champer

Seven years out of high school, Robert Champer (’81) was still looking for a direction in life.  He was working construction throughout Queens, and short stints studying at three colleges had left him unsure about higher education.  “I planned to go back to study electronics,” and “York was closest to where I was working,” says Champer.

At registration, fate intervened.  Champer ran into a friend who advised him to sign up for biology.  “I did okay, no great shakes, on the first few tests.  But the teachers gave me the confidence to study harder.”  Champer credits professors Amadeo D’Adamo, Gene Levin, Jack Schlein, Leslie Lewis and Paul Young, among others, with pushing him to shoot for the moon.  For Champer, it meant something he never imagined: medical school.  His hard work paid off.  Champer scored in the top 2 percent on his MCATs and within six years completed an M.D./Ph.D. program at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Today Champer is an ophthalmologist and surgeon in Eugene, Oregon, where he lives with his children and wife of 26 years, whom he met at York.   “To honor my professors and the difference York has made in so many lives,” Dr. Champer recently made York College’s first six-figure commitment from an alumnus, and he hopes others will follow suit.

To learn more about donors to CUNY and gifts made to the CUNY colleges, click on the following links:

Expanding Higher Ed: Gillian Small – Crain’s New York Business, Oct. 9, 2011

Expanding Higher Ed: Carlos Flynn – Crain’s New York Business, Oct. 9, 2011

Hunter College’s School of Social Work to Open in East Harlem,  Sept. 26, 2011

Gift to Hunter Continues Legacy of Italian School – WSJ.com, Aug. 9, 2011, to read about donor Fiona Lally and The Caravan Institute

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Supports CUNY’s Decade of Science; $1M Grant will support early-career scientists, Aug. 1, 2011

Queens College Receives Three Major Gifts, July 18, 2011

Funds Available to Help with Student Emergencies, Feb. 28, 2011

Joseph H. Flom, M&A Pioneer and Philanthropist, dies at 87 Feb. 23, 2011

College launches contest for entrepreneurs – Crain’s New York Business, Nov. 11, 2010, to read about CCNY alumnus Harvey Kaylie

This year we will honor institutional donors as well as members of foundation boards from the CUNY colleges.  A formal invitation and event details will be sent in December.  Mark your calendars; we look forward to another exciting event.

Nov. 8                     Fundraising Academy Day 1

Nov. 10                   Fundraising Academy Day 2

Nov. 11                   Invest In CUNY News # 1

Nov. 15                   Fundraising Academy Day 3

Nov. 15                   Financial Management Conference

Nov. 16                   Endowment Council Meeting #2

DECEMBER ’11

Dec. 2                     Fundraising Academy for Deans

Dec. 7 & 8               Advancement Executives Meeting #2

JANUARY ’12

Jan. 6                       CAE Reports Due

Jan. 25                  “CUNY Salute To Partners” Reception

FEBRUARY ’12

Feb. 2                     Alumni Relations Council Meeting #2

MARCH ’12

March 8                  Endowment Council Meeting #3

March 14                 Advancement Executives Meeting #3

APRIL ’12

April 30                  CUNY Philanthropy Forum

Invest In CUNY News # 2

MAY  ’12

May 3                     Endowment Council Meeting #4

May 10                    Alumni Relations Council Meeting #3

May 23                    Fundraising Academy

To be scheduled     “LIers for CUNY” Reception

JUNE ’12

June 11                   Invest In CUNY News # 3

June 13                   Advancement Executives Meeting #4

JULY ’12

July 6                      CAE Reports Due

Combined philanthropy was steady at $200 million over the past year. Congratulations for an excellent effort in an environment that saw total giving to higher education drop by 11% in our country. The Invest in CUNY Campaign has now raised over $1.8 billion since FY2000 and annual philanthropy has grown by a factor of five when compared to efforts only ten years ago!

We are pleased to share the details of exceptional gifts received by our colleges – gifts in support of entrepreneurial journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism, nursing at Hunter and CSI, the art gallery at Queensborough Community College and many more.

Mindful of the increasing challenge presented by decreasing public funding and increased enrollment, the colleges of CUNY look forward to a stronger and more successful fund raising effort in FY2011. Philanthropy will continue to provide the margin of excellence that distinguishes CUNY as a great urban, public university.

Carlos A. Flynn
University Dean for Institutional Advancement