A Newsletter for The CityM Universityatters of New York • Fall 1999 Board of Trustees Approves 2000-2001 Budget Request Highlights Exit-from-Remediation Policy he draft 2000-2001 University Budget Request of the Board of Trustees will be considered at its November 22 meeting. The draft Request, which By Louise Mirrer Twas discussed at a public hearing on October 18, totals $1.4 billion. Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Five areas critical to strengthening CUNY’s role in the City and State are emphasized. he use of tests based on national First, the Request proposes a strategy “for building national prominence by standards to determine when stu- drawing on the resources available to the system as a whole—the creation of a Tdents in remedial classes are “flagship environment.” The combined effect of a flagship environment and a ready to do college-level work was over- steady rise in admissions criteria will promote a clearer identity for CUNY’s top- whelmingly approved by the City Univer- tier colleges. Two important components of this initiative are “replenishing full- sity’s Board of Trustees on September time faculty at the colleges, a sine qua non of any first-rate institution, and a 27. The new policy reflects CUNY’s de- strategic effort to bring to the University significant clusters of new faculty in termination to establish appropriate particular areas.” criteria for student placement in credit- Related to the “flagship” strategy is current planning for a University-wide bearing courses. Honors Academy. Drawing on faculty from undergraduate, graduate, and profes- Strongly backed by Board Chairman Her- sional schools, the Academy will provide honors students special opportunities to man Badillo, Vice Chairman Benno C. benefit from expertise across the University’s campuses. This approach builds on Schmidt, Jr, and Chancellor Matthew Gold- CAPPR chair, Trustee Nilda Soto Ruiz the recommendations of the recent report of the Mayor’s Task Force on CUNY. stein, this action is the latest in a series of November. The examination will serve to second focus of the Request is support of academic achievement through fur- place students in remedial course work, as Ather investment in pre-collegiate and collegiate academic advising, counsel- well as determine readiness for exit. It ing, and tutoring—notably by expansion of the College Now program (see story will include a 45-minute essay to be grad- below). The $9 million in new funding represents a significant increase and will ed by trained faculty. The CUNY Math As- enhance counseling for approximately 36,000 students and expand tutoring for a sessment Test will continue to be used for similar number of students. The ultimate goal is to provide an environment in both placement into and exit from remedial which all students can make the necessary adjustments to college life and work. instruction in mathematics. Determining when students are ready for Continued on page 2 college-level work is an integral part of CUNY’s program to raise admissions stan- dards at its senior colleges. Refinement of THE FACES OF KINGSBOROUGH’S COLLEGE NOW this process will reinforce the University’s de- termination to begin phasing out remediation Scouting City High Schools in baccalaureate programs by January, 2000. Chancellor Matthew Goldstein For Major-League Students uring discussion of the new policy on measures designed to strengthen academic Dexit from remediation, Chancellor Goldstein submitted plans to require appli- By Robert Singer strictly–with a bow to a familiar sight on standards at the University. The policy was New York City playgrounds–as a metaphor cants to CUNY senior colleges to take stan- Associate Professor of English, recommended by the Board’s Committee on for agility, energy, and high-stepping col- dardized tests such as the Scholastic Apti- Kingsborough Community College Academic Policy, Program and Research laboration. (CAPPR). Its chair, Dr. Nilda Soto Ruiz, tude Test or the American College Test in This program, supervised by Dr. commented that it “moves the University one order to be considered for admission. The e all recently learned about the Rachelle Goldsmith, trains high school in- step closer to the ultimate goal of the Chan- SAT is already offered free of charge to po- problems Edmund Morris en- structors to teach a variety of specialized cellor’s plan: to ensure that students are ac- tential applicants at five CUNY campuses. Wcountered writing Dutch, his college-level courses to high school se- curately placed in college level or remedial Applicants who score below a prescribed long-awaited biography of Ronald Reagan. niors. Since its inception, we estimate work.” Implementation of the policy will threshold on the SAT, ACT, or Regents ex- Morris’s subject seemed so remote and un- that College Now has served 60,000 stu- begin this spring. aminations will be required to take CUNY’s engaged but at other times, affable, hu- dents–more than enough to fill Yankee own nationally-normed assessment tests. If they pass all tests, they will be admitted morous, even charismatic. Yet this biogra- Continued on page 6 s a first step toward establishing ap- pher had to discover, to some A propriate exit-from-remediation mea- to senior colleges. degree, who was this person? sures, Chancellor Goldstein convened an During discussion of exit-from-remedia- –what was the explanation for advisory committee comprised of faculty tion policy, Goldstein said that it has al- his undeniable success as a and student representatives and adminis- ways been his belief that “one indicator politician and President? trators involved in the University’s testing of college readiness is insufficient.” For Considering all his puzzle- program. This committee, which has been September 2000, he has proposed that ment, Morris perhaps should working with the Office of Academic Af- students applying to CUNY’s baccalaure- have called his book Double fairs, recommended a contractor for a new ate programs be judged in several re- Dutch, since the phrase once examination in reading and writing early in Continued on page 4 meant “unintelligible lan- guage, gibberish.” Luckily, I had none of Mor- ris’s problems with this as- IN THIS ISSUE signment, which is to profile The two famed authors at left another remarkable success differed over how to drive–a story, Kingsborough Commu- Teacher Joseph Gambuzza, pictured here with narrative, that is– at the most nity College’s flourishing College Now pro- his College Now students at Lafayette High School recent Queens College Evening gram. No crippling writer’s block, no far- in Brooklyn, is a perfect fit for the baseball allu- Reading (see page 5). The very flung legwork needed, and–best of all–in- sions in Robert Singer’s article. A baseball institu- first Evening Reader, 24 years stead of one (by many accounts mysteri- tion in the borough, he was Lafayette’s baseball ago and Queens professor ous) personality to deal with, I had multi- coach for 22 years and mentored the longtime emerita, at right, won the ple personalities to choose from, all will- Mets reliever John Franco. Featured recently in USA Today Baseball Weekly, Gambuzza had lucky National Book Critics Award for ing to tell their story: those of hard- players who enjoyed plenty of free Mets tickets: her poetry this year. Learn working College Now instructors and their the team’s owner, Fred Wilpon, also attended more about her on page 9. ambitious students. Double Dutch might Lafayette. And so, too, one hastens to add, did have made a good title for me, too, but pitcher Sandy Koufax. 1 riefly last summer, the historic APRÈS LE DELUGE—WAC the development of its writing policy New York question “Where were • Experimentation with—and subse- Byou when the lights went out?” was Afloat at a John Jay Conference: quent adoption of—promising new supplanted by “How did you make it to practices work in the deluge?” Improved Writing in the Disciplines • The development of clearly stated Metropolitan-area commuters will long goals, well described methods, provi- remember August 26th, when torrential By Dolores Straker sions for extensive faculty develop- rains flooded all forms of local transporta- CUNY Associate Dean for Academic Affairs ment and student support, and evalu- tion. Metro-North stopped running com- ation plans for all WAC programs pletely. In Manhattan, FDR Drive was riting Across the Curriculum has lum movement, which is founded on two A few words should be added about the closed, and play was halted on the West Wgrown out of the Board of Trustees’ assumptions. The first is cognitively based Writing Fellows Program, which is linked Side’s Joe DiMaggio Highway. All Central January 1999 mandate to assure that and suggests that writing is a unique mode to the WAC initiative and represents a com- Park transverses were flooded, and bus CUNY graduates bring fully-developed of learning in all disciplines. The other as- mitment to CUNY students at two levels: it schedules went on hiatus. Taxis? —don’t communication skills into the workplace sumption is rhetorically based and focuses advances the professional training of grad- ask! Those commuters who managed to and into graduate and professional on introducing students to the distinctive uate students, who in turn assist in improv- arrive at work were in time for lunch. schools. This can only be ing the writing skills of undergraduates. Meanwhile, on the John Jay College accomplished through the Advanced doctoral students will participate promotion of extensive campus, the meteorological anomaly was “Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never in a variety of teaching and administrative whipping up a minor educational disaster. writing practice within activities designed to enhance undergradu- For August 26th was the opening day of each discipline, which has Remember to have heard.