Remarks at the Stated Meeting of the Faculty

14 September 2004

Let me begin with the two questions that are paramount at the beginning of the fall semester: What does the budget that survived the Governor's well-known vetoes last month mean for us? And where do we stand with enrollment this fall?

When last we talked about the college budget, I asked you to help by writing to your legislators, because the Governor's proposed budget, while not as dire as the year before, fell short of what we needed to operate the campus. You responded magnificently, and the legislators supplemented the Governor's budget with funds both for operations and for capital projects. The legislature's additions came to some $33 million, designated to cover projected ongoing costs, additional full-time faculty, and improvements in programs, student services, and infrastructure. The legislature also restored student financial aid to its original level. All in all, it was one of the best budgets we'd seen in years.

The Governor cut much of what the legislature had added. Not just for CUNY but also for SUNY and for others. He saved financial aid but eliminated all additional capital projects. In an unusual step, he did not formally veto the additional operating funds � the $33 million. Rather, he left open the possibility that some of them may be released to the University in the course of the fiscal year.

We begin the year, therefore, about where we were back in January, when the Governor first announced his budget.

There are, however, two other significant dimensions.

First, the University has informed us that it will hold back 2% of the college budget to cover contingencies. Unless that is restored in the course of the year, we will find ourselves somewhat worse off than we are with what the State gave us.

Second, the University has enlarged the portion of the budget that the College must cover with tuition monies. This year, tuition must cover about 70% of our total operating budget, or around $56 million. The size of our full budget depends on our being able to generate that revenue.

How will we proceed? Cautiously. We intend to continue with authorized searches for faculty and support staff. We will be able to cover contractual salary increments and other mandatory costs. We will feel the pinch in having to live with department and office budgets that do not reflect inflation, with an adjunct allocation that's tighter than usual, and with fewer resources for maintaining and rehabilitating the campus, classrooms, and offices.

The good news is that the capital budget the Governor proposed in January has not been changed. We will proceed with the West Quad project, now well underway. Almost all academic and student functions once in Plaza building have been relocated. The building itself will be closed at the end of October; demolition will start in November and be finished by the spring, when actual construction of the West Quad building will begin. By the end of 2005 we hope to have a new quadrangle on the other side of Bedford and, off that quad, new entrances to Roosevelt and James.

Thanks to the generosity of City Council and the Borough President, we will be able to rehabilitate some lecture halls in Ingersoll this year, upgrade the two top floors of the Student Center, do major renovation in Whitman Theater, and double the size of the Library Café (for which we broke ground last week).

Enrollment. You've heard me say before: what matters is quality � that we have a student body that will benefit from the education we provide, take advantage of the opportunities we offer, and meet the high expectations all of you set in the classroom. But numbers matter too � we must attract and retain students, for it is their tuition, however it is paid, that covers a major part of our operating budget.

We can be pleased with the kinds of students we enroll. The Honors Academy and, within that, the CUNY Honors College, attracts top-quality students � smart, talented, ambitious, some with perfect SAT scores. And the quality of our student body in general, as measured by high school averages and SAT scores, continues to rise.

We show increases in transfer students, and the number of returning students, undergraduate and graduate, is up from last year. We are doing less well in the number of entering students, undergraduate and especially graduate, and that is a matter of concern. They, after all, will be our student population in the years ahead.

On balance, we are up in quality, down in number in some crucial areas, and have a total just slightly above last year's. As of this morning, 15,130 students were enrolled � 10,827 undergraduates and 3,525 graduate students, the rest non-degree enrollments. If we retain these students and recruit some more in the spring, we may just meet the tuition revenue target that's been set for us.

National searches have added 32 new members to the faculty this year of whom we are, with reason, very proud. Their names are posted on our Web page and we welcome them. We have authorized 22 searches for tenure-track faculty for the coming year. Over the last four years we have hired 136 new faculty, who make up about 25% of our total.

That brings us up to date.

What does the coming year have in store for us? Clearly, we will direct ourselves to recruitment and retention of students � and to careful budget management. We will continue to implement our outcomes assessment plan. We have made progress in bringing everyone into the fold, and that exactly is our goal. Faculty Council is reviewing the Core, and we expect to consider its recommendations this fall. The science faculty is discussing the shape science teaching and research will take on campus, in preparation for a major overhaul of our science facilities. We will establish a Center for Brooklyn Studies and further consolidate the Magner Center for Internships and Career Development.

We want to undertake two major initiatives. First, we want to develop a new strategic plan, since our current plan will have run its course next year. Second, we are preparing to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the College.

For the next five-year plan, we will build on what we have done these last five years, expand upon it, and seize new opportunities. We began a series of planning dinners with faculty and staff last spring. We will continue this fall with members of the support and clerical staff. These discussions produce new ideas and draw the entire College community into the planning process.

Then, later this semester, we will pull together the ideas that have emerged, discuss their implications, and draft a plan that we can consider in various fora next spring. Please join these discussions. They enable us to create a plan that will harness our energies and direct our resources � a unified effort that is the more important in a time of constraint. I look to you for thoughts and suggestions as we proceed.

The other project that will engage us is the anniversary. The College was founded in 1930 (75 years ago); it acquired the land for the campus and began construction in 1935 (70 years ago). The anniversary is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate what we have done and who we are � our faculty, our students and alumni, our campus. You will already have seen the special logo designed by our Publications Office. It appears on college stationery and college publications. You will see it at our observances and on memorabilia. You will also see it on our new website.

We've made some tentative plans. We will have a birthday party on the Quad in the spring, to which you are all invited. The Arts Council is planning an arts festival. And we will celebrate the anniversary at regular events in the college calendar. If you thought last spring's commencement was good, just wait till you see next spring's.

I encourage departments to seize the occasion and find ways to recognize not only their faculty but also the students they teach or have taught. One caution: there isn't any special funding. Perhaps observances can be integrated into events already scheduled. I count on your imagination and ingenuity. Nicole Hosten, the director of college and community relations, will oversee our planning for the occasion. She will be pleased to hear from you.

The 75th anniversary will also give fresh impetus to our capital campaign. We are approaching the goal we set nearly four years ago � $50 million � and we are about to raise that goal. These funds enable the College to offer many more presidential scholarships, the equivalent of free tuition, the presidential professorships, and other named professorships. The campaign has produced an endowment for the MFA Program in Creative Writing and an endowed chair, the first in our history, in the Honors Academy. It has given us the state-of-the-art technology that students use in the Library Café and that we all use in the Library. And it will give us a new building for the performing arts, located in the fan-shaped space between Whitman and Gershwin. For all these things, we thank private donors: generous alumni and other friends of the College.

And now the fun part: awards and honors. First those won by the College.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the professional oversight agency that accredits Brooklyn College, has just sent us its assessment of the last five years. It gives the College high marks for several things:

developing a long-range plan, setting annual goals, and pursuing those goals steadily;
devising a campus-wide outcomes assessment plan, a plan that the Commission cites as a model for other institutions;
producing a campus technology plan that directs available resources to teaching, learning, and research;
improving faculty demographics by means of targeted recruitment and retention strategies, especially for underrepresented groups.

Last spring, the Princeton Review ranked Brooklyn College third among America's best-value colleges. Princeton Review ratings are based on student polls. Now we know that our students, too, think we offer a world-class education at an affordable price.

Awards won by our students:

Among our student body we have winners of a Fulbright Award to study in Jakarta, a Jonas Salk Scholarship to medical school, and a Belle Zeller Scholarship. The College's Programming Team won the Northeast Consortium for Computer Science Education Programming contest in a field of 24 colleges, and a team of students from our business program placed first in the regional competition of Students in Free Enterprise, ahead of Columbia, Harvard, and NYU.
Steve Keslowitz, a student in the CUNY Honors College, published a book, The Simpsons and Society, which has already been adopted for course reading at various colleges.
The latest edition of the Princeton Review's Best 357 Colleges ranks Brooklyn College third for "great college newspaper."

Awards won by the faculty:

Of the 7 Guggenheim awards at the University this year, two are at Brooklyn College, both assistant professors in the Department of English. Susan Choi and Ernesto Mestre, who won awards for fiction.
Tania Leon and Amnon Wolman, members of the faculty of the Conservatory of Music, have again been selected for awards by ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Irene Sosa, from Television and Radio, is teaching at the Universidad Central de Venezuela on a Fulbright, while David Berger was at Harvard last spring as the Weinstock Visiting Professor.
Clement Mbom, in Modern Languages, was appointed Commander in the Order of Academic Palms, the highest rank, by the government of France. And Sam Leiter, chair of Theater, was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Theater, one of the highest honors bestowed on professionals in the world of theater and the stage.
Luigi Bonaffini, Modern Languages, was awarded the Translation Prize of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the second time this year that the Italian government has recognized Professor Bonaffini.
This year's Whiting Fellows are Philip Napoli (History) and Russell Sharman (Anthropology) and, for a one-semester fellowship each, Nicola Masciandaro (English) and Angelica Nuzzo (Philosophy). The Whiting Fellowships reward exceptional teaching in the humanities with a full leave to pursue scholarship.
For excellence in the classroom: Roni Natov, Professor of English, received the Claire Tow Distinguished Teacher Award, inaugurating a prize donated by Leonard Tow, '50, in honor of his wife Claire, '52. And David Leveson, Professor of Geology, won the John H. Moss Award for Excellence in Teaching from the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.

I am proud to recognize members of the faculty who have been appointed to named professorships. Please stand when I call your name and remain standing. Let us please hold our applause until all the names have been called.

Presidential Professor of Art Archie Rand

Koppelman Professor Yedidyah Langsam, (CIS)

Jacques Edward Levy Professor in Analytical Chemistry: Maggie Ciszkowska (Chemistry)

Levy-Kosminsky Professor of Physical Chemistry: Richard Magliozzo (Chemistry)

Belle Zeller Visiting Professor in Public Policy and Administration Stanley Nelson, affiliated with the Departments of Political Science and of Film

Congratulations.

I recognize the members of the staff who were chosen last year as employees of the month for their dedication, their helpfulness, and their courtesy. Please rise as your name is called and remain standing. I ask again that we hold our applause until all names have been called.

For September 2003, Roberta Adelman, Services for Students with Disabilities
For October 2003, Eleanor Ortiz, Office of the Assistant Provost
For November 2003, Jean Patterson, Health Programs
For December 2003, Vyacheslav Polishchuk, Library
For January 2004, Jose Salce, Modern Languages and Literatures
For February 2004, Guy Cocchiarella, Facilities
For March 2004, Madonna Charles-Johnson, Mailing Services
For April 2004, Lillian Pomponio, Office of Telecommunications
For May 2004, Geraldine Wichy, Learning Center
For June 2004, Michael Lovaglio, Admissions

Our congratulations and our thanks to all of you.

I take great pleasure in mentioning the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, particularly Jesus Perez, and the success they have achieved in the program we call TOCA. The On-Course Advantage functions as a contract between students and the College to enable students to complete their studies within the traditional four years. It graduated its first cohort last June and now enrolls about 1,000 students. It has boosted our graduation rate and, for the second year in a row, been cited by the State as an innovative service to students.

Are there questions or comments? If not, I adjourn the Stated Meeting of the Faculty � and invite you to join my wife, Flora, and me for a reception on the stage.