Letter to the college community
June, 2006
The academic year is a year of hard work but also one of rewards and satisfactions. We have, once again, accomplished much, individually and collectively, and I write simply to remind us of what we have done and what it portends for the future.
Commencement 2006
Our commencement, which awarded degrees to 1,777 undergraduates and 1,238 graduate students, paid tribute to the College's longstanding commitment to the performing arts by honoring musicians, theater producers, directors and writers. Honorary Degrees were awarded to the commencement speaker, Isaiah Sheffer, '56, who founded Symphony Space, and legendary jazz pianist and composer Randy Weston. Richard Frankel, '68, producer and director of Broadway plays and musicals, Arturo O'Farrill, '96, virtuoso pianist and bandleader, and director of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at Lincoln Center, and Woodie King, Jr., '99, founder of the New Federal Theater, were honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards. Ella Friedman Weiss, '62, and Michael Weiss, '61, both indefatigable advocates for the cultural and performing arts in Brooklyn, for public education, and for community and economic revitalization, were presented with Presidential Medals.
Speaking for the class of 2006 was Michael McGee, a member of the CUNY Honors College, who will enter the graduate program in African Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, this fall. Eighty-eight members of the class of 1956, the golden anniversary class, returned to join us for the occasion.
Celebrating Students
After last year's Rhodes Scholarship, this year brought us a coveted Truman Scholarship, a national honor awarded to Ryan Merola, a junior in the CUNY Honors College and a third-generation Brooklyn College student. He is one of two Truman Scholars in New York and seventy-five nation-wide. He will use the scholarship for graduate study in a field leading to public service. Other significant national honors were a three year National Science Foundation graduate fellowship awarded to a senior majoring in Biology, who will pursue a Ph.D. at Rockefeller University; a Fulbright Fellowship to a graduate student in History; an Emmy award to a graduate student and member of the class of '05; two highly competitive Gates Millennium Scholarships and two Watson Fellowships.
Two recent graduates in Education, Gretel Johnson and Andrew Haiwen Chu, were among the ten New York City teachers designated Newton Master Teachers by Math for America. Natalia Rowe, '06, a recent immigrant from Russia and member of the Honors Academy, placed first at the Northeast Regionals Qualifier for the 2006 Dance National Championships.
Celebrating Faculty
We attracted superb new faculty, especially in the arts and the sciences and in education, and achieved greater diversity. Some two dozen new faculty members joined us last year, and we passed an important milestone. Since fall 2000, the College has hired more than 150 new teacher-scholars, about a third of the teaching faculty. Such an infusion of talent lends new impetus to programmatic development and to classroom teaching, and expands yet further our community of scholars.
Professor Tania León, on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music since 1985, was appointed distinguished professor by the CUNY Board of Trustees, a high university honor. A prolific composer of international reputation, León was a founding member and the first music director of the Dance Theater of Harlem, initiated projects with both the Brooklyn and the New York Philharmonic Orchestras, and has composed for and conducted orchestras all over the world.
Lee Quinby, who comes to us from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, joined our Honors Academy as the first incumbent of the Carol Zicklin Endowed Chair in the Honors Academy.
Three members of the faculty were named Tow Professors in recognition of their teaching and scholarship: Ray Gavin (Biology), Eleanor Miele (Education), and Craig Williams (Classics). Another three were named Broeklundian Professors to recognize exemplary scholarship and achievement: Margaret King (History), Viraht Sahni (Physics), and Robert Viscusi (English and the Wolfe Institute for the Humanities).
Academic Excellence: New Programs
The College developed several new programs and reshaped the curriculum to improve academic quality, stay abreast of changes in the disciplines, and respond to student needs.
Faculty Council adopted a fully-revised Core Curriculum twenty five years after the inauguration of what has become our signature program. The new curriculum provides greater flexibility without compromising quality or rigor. It is now divided into three groups -- Arts and Literatures, Philosophical and Social Inquiry, and Scientific Inquiry -- each having a lower tier with courses that introduce students to the disciplines and an upper tier that offers opportunities for in depth study. The new Core takes effect this fall, and equivalencies have been established for current and transfer students.
Other new programs, which respond to student demand and changing educational needs, are:
•in undergraduate studies: a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree program that links the liberal arts with the study of business and includes courses in language, writing, speech, media and ethics. "
•in graduate studies: An M.F.A. program in Performance and Interactive Media, a Master's program in Mental Health Counseling, and an Advanced Certificate in Grief Counseling.
For the third year in a row, the Princeton Review ranked Brooklyn College among "America's Best-Value Colleges," citing it for its excellent liberal arts programs and the high caliber of its