CM 2011-05 revised_CM Spring 09 4/15/11 1:00 PM Page 1 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 Founding Principal, The Free Academy CUNYcuny.edu/news • THE CITY UNIVERSITY OFMatters NEW YORK • FOUNDED 1847 AS THE FREE ACADEMY MAY 2011 Superstar GRANTS&HONORS Recognizing Faculty Scholars Achievement City University students are winning more Holford HE UNIVERSITY’S renowned competitive and prestigious awards than faculty members continual- Tly win professional- ever — from national math and science achievement awards from pres- tigious organizations as well as fellowships to Truman and Rhodes Scholarships. research grants from govern- ment agencies, farsighted foun- wo CUNY seniors have won $100,000 Math for America receive a B.A. in pure mathe- Bihn dations and leading corpora- Fellowships to pursue careers teaching math in New York matics with minors in tions. Pictured at left are just a City’s public schools, while one graduating senior and two secondary math education and few of the most recent honorees. CUNY graduates won coveted National Science physics this spring. “This is an Brief summaries of many ongo- TFoundation Graduate Research Fellowships and outstanding incredible honor,” he said. “It’s an ing research projects start here students secured other leading academic awards, making this a ban- extremely competitive program and a and continue inside. ner spring for award winners. major boost to my plans to become a math teacher.” Hostos Community The other top awards include two $30,000 Harry S. Truman A Chinese immigrant who arrived in New York six years ago Knikou College President Félix V. Scholarships for graduate study leading to careers in government or speaking only basic English, he will attend either Bard College or Matos Rodríguez has announced public service and four $7,500 undergraduate Barry M. Goldwater New York University — MfA’s two collaborating math education an award projected to total $7.4 Scholarships to encourage careers in the natural sciences, mathemat- master’s programs — starting this summer. He has been a teaching million over five years from the ics and engineering. Ten undergraduates have won Jeannette K. assistant at Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Administration for Children and Watson Fellowships. And earlier this school year, a CUNY student Change, The City College Academy of the Arts, the Mott Hall School Families division of the U.S. won the top academic honor: a Rhodes Scholarship. and A. Philip Randolph Campus High School. Matos Department of Health and “CUNY students are winning more highly competitive awards and Four CUNY students won National Science Foundation Graduate Rodríguez Human Services to initiate a pro- scholarships than at any time in our history,” said Chancellor Research Fellowships, which are geared to assuring the vitality and gram to prepare low-income Matthew Goldstein. “The University is attracting an ever-growing diversity of America’s scientific and engineering workforce: Lina individuals for employment in number of outstanding students systemwide, and that’s particularly Mercedes Gonzalez (Hunter College, 2009) is earning a Ph.D. in health-care professions. due to our Macaulay Honors College, which is home to many of this mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University; mathemati- year’s winners. These successes demonstrate the quality of CUNY cian Arthur Jacob Parzygnat (Macaulay Honors College at Queens The U.S. Department students, assisted by a world-class faculty.” College, 2010), now at the CUNY Graduate Center, explores topolog- of Education has awarded Math for America (MfA) is a privately funded nonprofit organiza- ical quantum field theory; Evangeleen Pattison (City College 2010), Roggow $3,669,272 to Michael Roggow tion whose generous stipends and continuing support separate it now in a sociology Ph.D. program at the University of Texas at of The Criminal Justice Academy from other organizations that encourage people to go into public Austin, examines student success in the sciences; and Anthony Pang at Bronx Community College for school teaching. In New York City, MfA teachers receive a $30,000 (City College 2011), will study spacecraft propulsion at an “Education Collaborative.” stipend plus full-tuition scholarship for a master’s degree in mathe- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. City College has received matics education in the first year; the remaining $70,000 is paid over The Truman scholars are Ayodele Oti of Macaulay Honors College $635,297 in grant funding from the next four years, when fellows also earn a regular teacher’s salary. at The City College of New York, and Gareth Rhodes of City College the U.S. Department of “I’m ecstatic,” said winner Ann Marie Alcocer, a Lehman College and the CUNY Baccalaureate degree. Both graduate this spring. Schrader Education for a project aimed at senior. ”I was encouraged by the fact that other Lehman students CUNY freshmen and sophomores also won 10 of the 15 Jeannette “Increasing Retention and have won it.” Indeed, she is the fourth Lehman student to earn an K. Watson Fellowships, which provide freshmen and sophomores Graduation Rates through MfA Fellowship. “Maybe by teaching students in middle school, I can with three years of paid summer internships for Enhanced Pedagogy and give them the skills they need to succeed in high school,” she said. professional and personal leadership. Improved Technology,” directed Said Lehman mathematics and computer science professor by Daniel Lemons, Senior Katherine St. John: “Ann Marie really wants to teach, and she has search.cuny.edu “scholarship recipients” Advisor to the President on earned the best scholarship in her field.” or snap the square with your smartphone. Neita Student Success, and Craig E. CUNY’s other MfA winner, Jian Liu of The City College, will Levinsky of the Division of Humanities & the Arts. Brooklyn College has received a $509,394 CUNYMatters Non-Profit Org grant from the National U.S. Postage INSIDE Office of University Relations PAID Institutes of Health for research 535 East 80th St. Permit # 153 PAGE directed by chemistry professor New Haven, CT Boosting Student Kijne Richard Magliozzo. New York, NY 10075 2 Success Rates Award-winning competitive PAGE Bringing Home swimmer, aquatics innovator, 4 Black History educator and author Jane Katz has been inducted into the PAGE National Jewish Sports Hall of Out of Egypt: Katz Fame and Museum. Professor 6 Firsthand Katz has been affiliated with Accounts CUNY more than 50 years and in 1989 began teaching at John Jay PAGE Big Fix On College. She also teaches fitness Campus: and swimming to New York City 10 police and firefighters. Critical Payamps- Repairs Rodriguez Continued on page 3 ‰ CM 2011-05 revised_CM Spring 09 4/15/11 1:00 PM Page 2 THECHANCELLOR’SDESK Marking Milestones, Leading Onward Helping Freshmen HIS YEAR marks a significant number of degree-seeking milestone in CUNY’s history. Fifty students — 260,000 in fall years ago, New York City’s higher- 2010. NSELM LALLA was discouraged ready, despite a 64 percent graduation rate, education landscape experienced a More than a decade of internal reforms when he tried to go to college some according to a Feb. 7 New York Times Tseries of significant shifts that led to the has fueled an academic and reputational 20 years after finishing high account. birth of the modern-day City University of renaissance at the University. Last year, for school in Trinidad. “When I Statewide, just 41 percent of high school New York. On April 11, 1961, state legislation the first time, it was necessary to institute a Afailed the CUNY competence tests, they told graduates notched at least a 75 on the transforming the city’s seven-college munic- wait list for admission in order to maintain me it would take at least three semesters to English Regents or an 80 on a math Regents ipal system into an interconnected universi- the academic quality of our programs. go through remedial class- in 2009 — scores that pre- ty system with new Ph.D.-granting authority Students and families know that CUNY es,” said Lalla, 36. University math staff dict at least a college-level was signed by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller. offers great value in today’s higher-education Everything changed C in the same subject. Of course, the University traces its roots marketplace. Affordable tuition, financial aid with the University’s new, developer Steve Hinds Students scoring below to 1847, with the founding of The Free for lower-income students and a rational effective and low-cost these values may need Academy, and a number of our colleges funding strategy — the CUNY Compact — immersion program, which traced the pilot’s success remediation. Two-thirds of have long and rich histories pre-dating help keep CUNY a very economical choice. prepares first-time fresh- New York City students 1961. But this year, we are proud to recog- The financial benefits to our students men for college-level work to far more time attending SUNY communi- nize the critical milestones of 1961: the cod- exceed affordable tuition. CUNY students before they matriculate. ty colleges need remedial ification of the CUNY system, by then the borrow less on average for their education “It’s the best thing that per semester than the help. nation’s largest public university, and the than do students at other colleges, private ever happened. The The pilot for CUNY Start birth of the Graduate Center. and public, and graduate with less debt. instructors were amazing,” typical 45 to 60 hours, yielded promising results.