Chairman Schmidt speaking at the Harvard Club.

I plead guilty to the charge of enthusiasm – about CUNY and about a lot of things,” the University Board of Trustees Chairman Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. said by way of beginning his address to business, civic, and educational leaders at the Harvard Club on December 16. Schmidt noted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s observation that “No great thing was ever accomplished without enthusiasm,” adding that there are actually two schools of thought about enthusiasm.

“One view is summed up in the old saw: ‘An enthusiast is someone who doesn’t understand the problem.’ The other view has been captured very well by one of CUNY’s most eminent graduates, Colin Powell: ‘enthusiasm is a force-multiplier.’” Educators especially need enthusiasm, Schmidt said. “It tends to be contagious. It is a great offensive weapon, and it helps on defense, as well. Clark Kerr, the great architect of the University of California, summed it up well when the Regents unceremoniously dumped him as Chancellor of the University. ‘I’m leaving just the way I arrived,’ Kerr remarked, ‘fired with enthusiasm.’”

Schmidt went on to describe, with enthusiasm, a University he feels has “almost completely transformed” from the one described in the Trustees’ Task Force Report four and a half years ago that led to several major policy changes. He noted in particular the extrication of senior colleges from remediation. “Vastly more remediation now takes place, with CUNY’s intervention, in our excellent community colleges, where it belongs.” Testing and assessment have also improved: “Valid, nationally-normed tests are used both to assess whether students need remediation and to assess whether remediation efforts have been successful.”

Schmidt also praised College Now for helping to raise academic standards in public high schools and expressed pleasure that it has expanded to rapidly to serve close to 40,000 students in more than 200 high schools. He also applauded the development—with help from the Gates Foundation—of college-affiliated high schools, saying he knew of “nothing like it in any other city.” Contrary to the predictions of pessimists that enrollment would decline, Schmidt noted it in fact rose every year since reforms were instituted and stands “a robust 10 percent above four years ago.”

“The most impressive transformation at the senior colleges has been the dramatic advances in academic standards,” Schmidt noted. “All the senior colleges have seen big gains” in SAT levels, increasing between 100 and 200 points. In addition, retention and success rates are up significantly for freshmen and sophomores.

“The teacher education exam results, a bellwether of trouble before, is a bellwether of success today. Where five years ago only 62 percent of CUNY’s teacher candidates could pass the state tests, today more than 92 percent pass,” Schmidt said. “This is good news indeed for New York City’s public schools, where CUNY graduates provide roughly one-third of the teachers.” Among other indicators of improvement at the University, Schmidt pointed to the rapid increase in grants and contract income (to $300 million, a 50 percent rise over five years).

Though Schmidt feels CUNY “has not been an effective fund-raiser,” even here he sees a positive trend. “We estimate that gift income this year will reach about $80 million, more than double the level of five years ago.” He promised a new capital campaign to “put CUNY where it belongs in the front ranks of public institutions.” After emphasizing the importance of renewing the strength of the faculty—625 new teachers arrived this year and 700 are expected to arrive next year—Schmidt looked to the future. “The progress made by CUNY in the last five years has been stunning. I know of no comparable gains in such a short time in any public university system in the U.S. But there is strong reason to believe that CUNY can make even greater progress in the next five years.”

What might that mean? Schmidt predicted for the University in 2008:
• An Honors College population of 2,000 (it’s now 720).
• Recognition for CUNY as a first-class research as well as a great teaching university. Schmidt wants more than a dozen graduate programs ranked in the national top 10 in their fields, another ten in the top 20

• The community colleges renowned as “engines of educational opportunity and social mobility,” with two-thirds of their students going on to earn baccalaureate degrees.

• A full-time faculty increased by 20 percent and teaching 70 percent of the University courses.

• A local public schools system transformed, with CUNY’s help, with more than 50 percent of high school graduates having at least one college course to their credit.

“Five years ago, a nautical metaphor seemed to me to best capture CUNY’s difficult situation,” Schmidt recalled in conclusion. “I called our report ‘CUNY: An Institution Adrift.’ Whether or not that was a fair characterization in 1999, it has long since ceased to fit this extraordinary dynamic and advancing university. So mates, let’s weigh anchor, unfurl the sails and say goodbye to nautical metaphors. We are ready for a new sobriquet. How’s this?— ‘CUNY: The Pride of the City.’”