cuny.edu/news • C ITY U NIVERSITY OF N EW Y ORK FOUNDED 1847 • Winter 2004 said, “will be given the kind of experi- ences that will allow colleges outside the ATAGLANCE Gates Foundation Funds New city system to give credit for the courses.” CUNY and the Department of CUNY Faculty Education already collaborate on similar Join Alliance for “Early College” High Schools programs to help high school students Minority Students prepare to enter and 1 he City University and succeed in college. Hunter the New York City Indeed, Chancellor College com- TDepartment of Goldstein said, “The puter science Education will use a $6.5 City University right major Kamil million grant from the Bill now has a considerable Laminu is one and Melinda Gates amount of experience in of many stu- Foundation to create ten dealing with high dents enjoying “early college” high schools to schools right now.” mentoring encourage students to pre- In fact, CUNY is through a col- pare for college—and to already home to three laboration begin earning credits toward early college high schools. with the Alliance for Minority their undergraduate degrees Project EXCEL was Participation. See page 2. while attending and finishing launched at Middle high school. College High School and QCC Chemist The early college schools International High School Honored for Teaching will have several goals. They at LaGuardia Commu- 2 by Carnegie Foundation will reach out to help under- nity College in Septem- Paris Svoronos served and under-prepared ber of 2002. Hunter and has enjoyed students realize that they can Brooklyn Colleges remarkable go to and graduate from col- Deborah Wilds of the Gates Foundation with Chancellor Matthew Goldstein opened early college high success in lege. They also will cut and schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. schools this Fall. The down the time—and “College Now” program placing his lenge,” said Deborah Wilds of the Gates money—required for a high school diplo- offers college credit courses to more than community Foundation “They have to be given this ma and two years of college credit or an 40,000 students in high schools and CUNY college stu- support.” associate degree. campuses throughout the five boroughs. dents on the Eight of the schools will be new. Two In announcing the grant and program, The new Gates-funded initiative differs cutting edge will be created by transforming existing it was noted that a recent study by the in focusing on creating special, small of undergrad- schools. Each will enroll no more than Manhattan Institute found that only about schools whose students can earn college uate involvement in chemistry 500 students. The first two schools—one 70 percent of public high school students credit and thereby shorten the process— research. See page 3. a transformed existing school, one entirely graduate, and that fewer than a third leave and cost—of securing a degree. new—will open in the Fall of 2004. Four high school prepared to do college-level “Early college high schools are a key Hunter Linguist more, including one redesigned school, are work. Statistics for minority students are part of our long-term education reform Nurtures Reading to open in 2005, and the final four will bleaker: half of African-American and strategy in New York City,” said Joel I. around the World open in 2006. 3 Hispanic students graduate, and less than Klein, Chancellor of the city school sys- “We must give all students in our city Lately English 20 percent are ready for college. tem. “This represents a terrific opportuni- access to the quality education necessary professor Kate “Once we provide these students with ty….We’re excited. We obviously have a for success in today’s unforgiving econo- Parry,an the opportunities and provide them with lot of work to do to implement this pro- my,” said University Chancellor Matthew expert on the motivations, they will rise to the chal- gram, but we look forward to that as well.” applied lin- Goldstein. Students in the schools, he guistics and the fostering of literacy, has Academic Standing of Entering Students Surges worked to ecent data reveal that the City Retention rates establish a University has improved its academ- and first-year community library for the village ic standing by every measure avail- grade point aver- to which she will one day retire— R able, from the Scholastic Aptitude Test ages also rose: Kitengesa, in Uganda. See page 4. scores and high school grades of entering 84.7 percent of Queens College Archive freshmen to the number of those fresh- the freshmen who men who succeed in their college work. entered a Tier 1 Trumpets the Legacy of SAT scores for entering freshmen at college in Fall 4 a Great Jazz Musician the University’s “Tier 1” senior colleges— 2001 returned the There is plenty of evidence Louis Baruch, City, Brooklyn, Queens and following year, Armstrong was a wordsmith as well Hunter Colleges—rose from 943 in 1995 compared to 78.8 percent of the freshmen in 1999 to 35,700 in 2002. College Now as a great trumpeter in the Louis to 1,111 in 2003. The national mean SAT who entered in Fall 1995. The GPAs at offers college-level courses to high school Armstrong Archives and House in score for all institutions of higher learning Lehman and York Colleges also rose students, as well as preparatory courses Corona, Queens, in was 1026 in 2003. steadily over those years, as did the aver- and workshops for those needing addition- the good care Entering freshmen also improved their age number of credits earned. al support before entering college. of Queens College. Regents’ English and math scores: The The improvements in student achieve- Chancellor Goldstein noted that the near- For an overview mean scores for the class that entered ment and preparedness come at a time ly quadruple increase in enrollment has of this mother lode CUNY in 1995 were 75.1 in English and when remediation has moved outside the made College Now one of the largest pre- of jazz history, 79.2 in math; the latest class to enter regular curriculum. CUNY baccalaureate collegiate intervention programs in the see page 10. scored 85.3 in English and 82.9 in math. programs no longer offer remedial pro- country. “The students are coming in much bet- grams, and enrollment in remedial pro- Pass rates in the senior colleges for the ter prepared,” said University Chancellor grams by those seeking associate degrees Liberal Arts and Sciences Test (LAST) for Matthew Goldstein. He praised the facul- is declining. New York State teaching certification ty and staff for their roles in fostering At the same time, enrollment in have risen from 62 percent in 1996 to 92 high standards and added, “I especially College Now and in CUNY language and percent in 2002. The same trend appears want to praise our students, who continue basic skills immersion courses is growing. in the Assessment of Teaching Skills— to inspire all of us with their talent, per- College Now, a CUNY partnership pro- Written Test (ATS- W): In 1996, 71 per- sistence and ambition to succeed in realiz- gram with public high schools, has seen cent passed the test; in 2002, that had ing their educational goals.” enrollment more than triple, from 11,000 risen to 94 percent. FROM THE DESK CHANCELLOR’S An important feature of the Alliance has been the effort to restructure courses to accommodate multiple learning styles A Well-Forged Alliance for Minority Students and the widely disparate educational backgrounds of students. Emphasis here By Chancellor Matthew Goldstein incorporate lab and research experience in has been on collaborative learning and he pages of CUNY the core science-technology curricula at non-competitive problem solving. Alliance Matters often carry stories the community colleges. Community and learning centers offer tutoring and also T of remarkable students, senior college students take part together convene workshops for students lacking fascinating scholars, and creative in an annual Alliance-sponsored Urban experience in core areas of science, tech- thinkers. A frequent focus of University Series Conference, during nology, engineering, and medicine. attention is the diversity that is which they share their personal research Now entering a third phrase of its one of the essential cornerstones projects with their peers. development, the Alliance program’s lead- of the CUNY experience. The At the center of the Alliance’s efforts ers hope to continue to encourage and University nurtures this diversity are its faculty mentors. More than 400 enroll minority students in graduate pro- by supporting programs that have been involved over the ten years, grams of science, technology, math and extend minority involvement, and upward of 100 are active now. This engineering. It has just won a supplemen- particularly in disciplines and guidance, I am certain, played a significant tal grant from the NSF for a “Bridge to professions where minorities are role in helping close to 7,500 minority the Doctorate” initiative that will help Alliance student Kamil Laminu, a Computer Science under-represented. students earn their degrees during the students pursuing advanced degrees with major at Hunter College, giving a presentation on One such program is the Alliance’s first decade. In fact, in the expenses for books, health insurance, and molecular complexity at an AMP luncheon. Alliance for Minority Participa- 2002-2003 school year, 852 minority stu- activities in professional organizations and tion, created in 1992 and renamed dents graduated in science, technology, conferences. the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority stantially increase minority baccalaureate engineering and mathematics, an increase I cannot over-emphasize the impor- Participation in 1998 to honor the retiring graduates in science, technology, engineer- of over 100 percent from a decade ago.