Letter to the college community
June 2002
Commencement this year, in brilliant weather, was our most colorful yet: newly designed banners billowing on the lampposts and standards carried in the procession to mark each cohort (undergraduates, graduate students, Golden Anniversary class, faculty, the podium party) made the exercises yet more festive, and the mood, as always, was exuberant.
Among the 1,530 undergraduates and 936 graduate students, notable awards went to Bobby Benjamin Hardamon, a political science major, who won a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship (one of twenty awarded nationally) to pursue graduate studies in public policy and international foreign affairs; to Marcia DeVoe, a classics major who will begin her Ph.D. studies at the University of California, Berkeley; and to Martine Jean, who will continue her work in Africana studies and history at Yale University, both of whom won Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships.
Honorary degrees were awarded to Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, our Commencement speaker, a mathematician and president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who has devoted his life to leading African American students to careers in the sciences and engineering; to Paul Mazursky, '51, one of the most original and accomplished screenwriters and directors of his generation; and to Howard Golden, whose twenty-four years of unparalleled service as the president of the borough of Brooklyn have transformed the borough and helped the College.
The College recognized David Steven Cohen, '80, a writer of award-winning children's television programs and librettist of the opera Lilith, and Benita S. Katzenellenbogen, '65, a leading researcher in the treatment and prevention of breast cancer, with our Distinguished Alumni Award.
The College awarded Myron I. Kandel, '52, a pioneer in broadcast financial reporting and a journalist of great distinction, the Presidential Medal.
In the presence of families and friends, we remembered the twelve alumni who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center last year.
Commencement exercises marked the end of a particularly productive academic year.
Early in the spring, the respected Noel-Levitz Company conducted a survey of how well students, faculty, staff, and administrators think the College is performing in such areas as curriculum, teaching, support services, and the quality of life on campus. More than two thousand students and more than a thousand members of the faculty and staff responded, telling us that a degree from Brooklyn College is seen as an asset, that the course content in the majors is strong, and that ours is a safe campus. Students also regard the faculty and their teaching as superior and appreciate an environment that attaches high value to academic excellence.
Among the less reassuring findings are that we must do more to help students negotiate the bureaucracy and find their way through our rules and regulations. We must attend to the Core Curriculum, now more than twenty years old, particularly to its fit with academic majors. We must strengthen career services, such as counseling, internships, or job placements. Discussions to this end have already begun and committees are being appointed.
Curiosity about the new Brooklyn College Library has grown intense, now that we can see stacks being installed. A grand opening, with tours of the interior and demonstrations of unrivalled computer capacity, is scheduled for October. We are proud to have added to the quad a contemporary building that responds to the rest of the campus and satisfies the eye with its high windows, hexagonal towers, and beautiful detail. The noted architectural firm of Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, in collaboration with Buttrick, White and Burtis, worked with us to arrive at a design that meets our needs and satisfies us aesthetically. The West Quad project at the other end of the campus will follow.
Applications to Brooklyn College have risen both in number and in quality this year. Mean SAT scores of undergraduate applicants hover above 1100. Applications to our honors college have risen dramatically, to some 500 for a total of 60 places.
Twenty-five new members will join the faculty when we open next fall. Among them is Amnon Wolman, an internationally recognized composer, who will head the College's Center for Computer Music, and two highly respected computer scientists, Simon Dominic Parsons, from the University of Liverpool, and Ahmet Eskicioglu, who comes to the College from private industry.
The appointment of Janet Scott as vice-president for institutional advancement late last year completes the senior administrative team. Jan Scott, who comes to us from the ACLU, presides over our fundraising activities and other external relations, such as alumni relations, community outreach, and publications.
I thank you all for responding to the Noel Levitz survey. A painstaking response from large numbers of the community gives us reliable results and thus a basis for important work that will advance the interests of the College. I look forward to doing that work with you. It has already begun and will occupy us for many semesters.
Sincerely,
Christoph M. Kimmich
