Chancellor Proposes New Academic Initiatives

In a keynote speech to the Center for Educational Innovation—Public Education Association at the Harvard Club, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein set forth an ambitious array of proposals for enhancing both City University academic offerings and financial support, while meeting new fiscal challenges and building on past successes.

Chancellor Goldstein at the Harvard Club

“Our challenge now is to maintain momentum—and it’s a very big challenge,” said Goldstein to a large audience of educators, business, civic, and community leaders. “The City and State of New York are facing the most serious financial crisis in recent memory.” Among the proposals were:

• Strengthening CUNY’s academic environment by renewing and rebuilding full time faculty.

• Indexing tuition to economic indicators while protecting financial aid to help the University and its students plan intelligently to meet the costs of higher education.

• Integrating University-wide resources to create new schools of journalism and professional studies, a new scientific research facility and a computer simulation center on Governors Island.

• Centralizing administrative functions such as purchasing, contracting and human resources, while generating revenue through entrepreneurial activities and fund-raising.

• Leveraging capital funds by working, where appropriate, with private developers to create mixed academic-commercial facilities.

Underscoring the strides made in the last three years, when freshmen enrollment increased 10.5% as higher admissions standards were implemented, Goldstein noted that “the University now systematically reaches into high school,” notably with the College Now program and competitive high schools sited on several CUNY campuses. This, Goldstein said, “gives students a running jump to clear the University’s higher academic bar.” College Now, which permits high school seniors to take college courses, has almost quadrupled its enrollment, from 11,000 students in 1999 to 40,000 in 2002.

“Prospective CUNY students are well aware that we now expect more from them,” Goldstein said. “The also know we have more to give.” He cited the Honors College, now entering its third year, as an example: This year 2,500 applied for admission to its 340 spots, compared to 1,400 last year. He noted also that the average SAT score for successful applicants was 1340.

The Chancellor invoked both the old and the new in speaking of the Univer-sity’s relationships with the private sector. Referring to a long-standing collaboration, he pointed to CUNY’s “close relationship with the New York City Central Labor Council, which helps tailor CUNY programs for working students.” Goldstein then praised a more recently established organization chaired by New York Life’s Chair and CEO, Seymour Steinberg: “The businessmen and women of CUNY’s Business Leadership Council identify workforce trends and opportunities for the University.” (For more on the Council see story on page 4.)

CUNY is also adopting new business practices to “work smarter and use shared strategies to reduce administrative costs,” Goldstein said, adding that such measures are already “achieving millions of dollars in savings” on several campuses. Further, “CUNY should be working, where appropriate, with private developers to more effectively use our existing physical assets, and seek to build new mixed-use facilities, as we leverage up the capital budget the state provides.” This could turn the $1.3 billion allocated by the state for building in the next five years into $1.6 billion, the Chancellor said.

Noting that SUNY’s trustees recently proposed a 41% increase in undergraduate tuition, Goldstein said state leaders should strive for a rational tuition policy, perhaps by linking increases to changes in economic indicators. Michigan State University, he said, resolved some years ago to limit tuition hikes to changes in the Consumer Price Index. The state university systems in Florida, California, and North Carolina have similar indexing policies.

Goldstein also noted that CUNY is developing plans for a New York Simulation Center on Governors Island, where mathematicians and computer scientists from CUNY and other leading local universities would create a cutting-edge research facility. “Computer simulation is a powerful analytical tool,” Goldstein said. “It enables us to investigate and experiment with potential scenarios in fields ranging from changing traffic patterns to preventing bio-terrorism, from the longevity of pension plans to stresses on the city’s buildings and bridges.” Teacher training and related activities are envisioned as the uses of the facility are explored.

Finally, the Chancellor revealed that, “since New York is a media capital,” CUNY is beginning to plan a new School of Journalism “with a special focus on urban studies.” This, Goldstein believes, will “utilize the extraordinary resource of CUNY-TV and the University’s other Internet-based technologies.”

Concluding his speech, Goldstein said, “we are changing the conversation about CUNY. Today, this University is rightly perceived by stakeholders as being in the mainstream of higher education practice…Our challenge now is to maintain our momentum here in New York City through these times of extraordinary financial crisis. I pledge you…we will meet the challenge. We will stay the course.”

The Chancellor’s full speech can be accessed on the University web site, www.cuny.edu.