Fall 2014 Issue
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he experiment is to be tried… whether the children of the people, ‘Tthe children of the whole people, can be educated; whether an institution of learning, of the highest grade, can be successfully controlled by the popular will, not by the privileged few, but by the privileged many.’ — Horace Webster CUNYMatters Founding Principal, The Free Academy cuny.edu/news • THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK • FOUNDED 1847 FALL 2014 GRANTS&HONORS Recognizing Faculty Achievement Mertens he University’s renowned faculty members Tcontinually win professional-achievement awards from prestigious organizations as well as research grants from Simmons government agencies, farsighted foundations and leading corporations. Pictured are just a few of the recent honorees. Brief summaries of many ongoing research projects start here Molina and continue inside. Bronx Community College’s automotive technology program, John Mogulescu, Senior above, will lead a $9 million University Dean for Academic dollar project. Affairs and Dean of the School of Professional 3800 JOBS 3800 JOBS Studies, announced that The Mogulescu Robin Hood Foundation has awarded $1.25 million to “At Home in College,” which $55 Million Jump-Start provides an array of instructional and support services to high school students, high school English For 2020 on 20 Campuses Brown and math teachers and college advisers; and $1 million for the expansion of Gov. Cuomo Hails CUNY’s ‘Game-Changing’ Entrepreneurship CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), which is designed to accelerate degree completion Gonzalez IGHT ENTREPRENEURIAL the New York State Legislature to support will help create 3,800 jobs over six years. within three years at programs. Twenty campuses. work across CUNY that connects aca- The projects reflect the wide range of community colleges. Michael Fifty-five million dollars. Those demic achievement with entrepreneur- innovation in many fields and across Geller of Kingsborough are the numbers for the first ship and economic development. The CUNY — emerging technologies, research Community College has grants awarded in the state’s new projects, selected by staff from CUNY and initiatives and training programs that are received $276,250 in grant NY CUNY 2020 program, the state’s Empire State Development ‰ funding from the NY City Elaunched by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and agency after a competitive bidding process, Continued on page 6 Anderson Council for the “Lighthouse: Alcohol and Substance Abuse Program.” Jeffrey Butts of INSIDE John Jay College has been Non-Profit Org PAGE awarded a $250,000 grant CUNYMatters U.S. Postage Chancellor Milliken — Office of University Relations PAID 2 ‘We Chose CUNY’ from the NY City Council for 205 East 42nd St. Permit # 153 “Implementation and New Haven, CT New York, NY 10017 Butts Outcome Assessment of the PAGE Places to Turn New York City Anti-Gun 8 For Students in Need Violence Initiative.” The U.S. Department PAGE Walking of Health & Human Services has awarded a $1,605,000 9 the City — grant to Carlos Molina of Every Foot Koffi Hostos Community College as of It a “Health Profession Opportunity Grant to Serve TANF Recipients: Allied Health Career Pipeline.” PAGE Faculty Gets a Chance Gisela Rivera of Queensborough Community Balsamini 10 To Sharpen Writing Skills Continued on page 3 ‰ THECHANCELLOR’SDESK Coming Home, Again N MAY, I completed almost a decade large-scale afford- ‘We Chose CUNY’ as president of the University of able access and aca- Nebraska, from which I graduated 35 demic quality with years ago. the support of a mix INU was founded in 1869 as a “land- of federal, state and grant” university under the Morrill Act of local funding, he busiest man on campus this summer may have 1862, signed by President Lincoln to tuition lower than expand educational opportunity to the most, and, increasingly, private been James B. Milliken, CUNY’s energetic new children of farmers and mill workers. philanthropy. Their success is inextricably Chancellor. Barely off the plane from Nebraska, he Today, in a small state, NU has a $2.48 bil- linked to the success of their states and lion budget, 50,000 students on five cam- communities. Their past is rich with took office on June 1 and hit the concrete running — puses, outreach in 93 counties and a global examples of great accomplishments of impact through distance learning and their graduates and faculties. handing out diplomas at commencements, partnerships abroad. Nothing is more But there may be no city whose recommending three new college presidents at his important to Nebraska than its public uni- fortunes are more aligned with its leading versity. university system than New York with Tfirst CUNY board meeting and spending many of his days on a The same could be said about North CUNY. Carolina’s public university, which admit- CUNY is the city’s critical intellectual whistle-stop tour of CUNY’s 24 campuses. ted its first class in 1795. UNC became the infrastructure and economic engine, edu- “people’s university” early on; today it has cating and continually renewing our com- Chancellor Milliken spent a good deal CUNY colleges. Chancellor Milliken an $8.8 billion budget, 17 campuses and munity and its workforce. Ninety percent of his second workday on the job in aca- arrives at CUNY after a decade as presi- over 220,000 students. During my time as of graduates reside in New York City or demic robes, his travels that day symboliz- dent of the University of Nebraska, the senior vice president of the UNC system, state. Eighty-three percent are employed ing the academic and cultural breadth of public university of the state where he prior to “coming home” to Nebraska, in the state within three years of gradua- the vast public university he was now lead- grew up and from which he graduated Phi North Carolina passed what may still be tion. CUNY’s capital construction program ing. He started the day in the South Bronx, Beta Kappa. But as he is fond of saying, he the largest bond issue solely dedicated to — upgrading and maintaining classrooms addressing the newest graduates of Hostos spent some of his best and most memo- public universities and community col- and labs for the 21st century — has gener- Community College, a campus with many rable years in New York. It’s where he went leges. Its pioneering public-private part- ated thousands of construction jobs for bilingual students and others who are the to law school (at NYU, graduating in 1983) nerships are models of economic the region. first in their families to attend college. And and began his career as a securities litiga- engagement. More than 48,000 students graduate he ended the day at Lincoln Center, on tor for a Wall Street firm. And it’s where he Now I have “come home” again, to the this academic year from CUNY’s 24 senior Manhattan’s Upper West Side, helping met and married Nana Smith, a North city where I went to law colleges, community col- bestow doctoral degrees at the Graduate Carolina native who worked in the same school, worked as a lawyer CUNY will continue leges, graduate and profes- Center’s 50th commencement at Avery law firm. and was married. I am con- sional schools with Fisher Hall. Chancellor Milliken returned to his tinuing my engagement with to deliver on its respected, valuable cre- And in the modern way, the Chancellor alma mater in 1988 to join the staff of the public higher education, this dentials. These new gradu- tweeted as he went: “My first CUNY com- university’s president and put his career time working for what may essential promise. ates have so much to mencement … A great day in the Bronx for on a different path. Twenty-six years later be the most extraordinary contribute. graduates and families.” And later, close to (including six as a vice president of the institution of them all: The City University In North Carolina and Nebraska, I midnight: “Tonight @GC … Congrats to an University of North Carolina system), the of New York. believed the measure of a great public uni- amazing group of graduates!” path led back to New York and Chancellor CUNY began its remarkable journey in versity was not its ranking in a magazine The new Chancellor Milliken’s summer tour 1847 as the Free Academy, expanding over but its impact on the people of the state attended two other Twenty-six years after to introduce himself to 167 years to its current 24 campuses with and through them, the world. I cannot commencements his the university and the 270,000 matriculating students in com- imagine a better way to express both the first week, at La leaving, J.B. Milliken's city, accompanied on munity and senior colleges, 240,000 con- impact and promise of CUNY. Guardia Community most occasions by his tinuing education students and a $3 billion No institution has had a greater role in College and Macaulay path led back to New wife, a formidable first budget. The country’s largest urban uni- helping new Americans, low-income stu- Honors College. lady of CUNY. versity, it has a profound impact on the dents and first-generation college-goers (“What an impressive There were meet-and- diverse and talented population of this achieve their dreams or has had a greater group—and I met every York. Touring the cam- greets at the colleges and city and state. role in the social and economic well-being one!”) At all the com- grand tours of places like These are very different states and of its city and state. This mission has never mencements, he told puses, he told students the soon-to-open institutions, but the similarities among been more critical and, with the support of the graduates that they Matthew Goldstein these great public universities are New Yorkers and their leadership, CUNY might be like ships and faculty he had an Science Complex on the pronounced.