Letter to the campus - Fall update
September 2000
Dear Colleagues, Students, and Friends,
As the fall semester gets under way, I look forward to meeting you again on campus after what I hope was an enjoyable and productive summer.
At the Stated Meeting of the Faculty last February, I spoke of making Brooklyn College a model urban public liberal arts college. Let me describe our progress to date on three immediate goals in that long-term undertaking.
Brooklyn College rewards excellence. I am delighted to announce that Leonard Tow, '50, and his wife, Claire, '52, have made a $700,000 gift to the College. These funds are to be distributed over five years to students in the form of travel stipends for student projects and to members of the faculty as travel fellowships in support of research and as Tow Professorships for outstanding scholars. Details of the travel stipends will be available shortly. I anticipate announcing the Tow Professorships at the Stated Meeting on September 20.
This generous donation is one example of the support the College receives from alumni and especially from members of the Brooklyn College Foundation, which has recognized student and faculty achievement in many ways over the years.
On the Brooklyn College Web site you will find as complete a list as my office could assemble of students, faculty, and staff who won awards during the academic year 1999-2000.
Brooklyn College cultivates an inviting campus. The campus is our home, and we must treat it accordingly. I hope you've noticed that the campus is cleaner, and I thank you for cooperating in maintaining its beauty.
We used the summer to tackle a number of small construction projects:
A temporary faculty lounge, sponsored by Faculty Circle, has been opened in 1238 Boylan Hall.
The cafeteria has been painted and the floors redone. Counters and tables are being replaced, and we are about to install new lighting.
We've relocated the entrance to the Atrium Lab in Plaza Building -- a direct response to students' suggestions. The concession stand has moved to the basement.
The wood deck outside Whitehead Hall is being refurbished; windows are being replaced in James Hall.
Brooklyn College is student-centered. The On-Course Advantage (TOCA), which offers qualified students expedited registration and guaranteed access to required courses so that they may take a degree in as few as four years, will begin as a pilot project next spring. Further information is available in the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies. I thank the TOCA task force -- Joan Antonicelli, Ellen Belton, Steve Jervis, and Eric Steinberg, who convened it -- for its good work.
In April, we opened the Morton and Angela Topfer Library Café twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Heavy student use fully justifies that decision.
The long-term planning process, undertaken by the Planning Council and twelve subcommittees, has advanced to the draft of a strategic plan for the five-year period 2000-05. The draft will be distributed at the time of the Stated Meeting later this month and discussed in campuswide hearings to begin shortly thereafter. We will also arrange for a listserv to be devoted to this purpose. I urge you to participate.
Advances in technology. Professor John Blamire and the Biology Department, working with ITS, have improved the Multimedia Distance Learning Lab by converting some Mac G4 computers to wireless network access, giving them a speed comparable to that of hardwired computers. Apple Computer featured the Blamire innovations in Web-based instruction on the first page of its Web site last spring.
Building on the success of that project, ITS has designed and installed a completely wireless lab in the School of Education. It is worth a visit.
Diploma on Demand, a software installation, now enables the Registrar's Office, working with ITS, to produce our diplomas in-house at great saving of time and money.
New academic programs in various stages of development and approval include:
Master of Science in Education, with a specialization in teaching English to speakers of other languages; Bachelor of Arts in social work; Bachelor of Music in music education; Bachelor of Arts in communications; Bachelor of Arts in marketing communication arts; Bachelor of Arts in applied economics; Bachelor of Arts, teacher of early childhood special education; Bachelor of Arts in Latino media and culture, and an Advanced Certificate in integrated media arts.
New Faculty and New Staff. Please welcome to the Brooklyn College community:
Michael Cholbi, Assistant Professor of Philosophy;Prudence Cumberbatch, Instructor of Africana Studies;
Koshi Dhingra, Assistant Professor of Education;
Gerald Horne, Belle Zeller Visiting Professor of
Public Policy and Administration, in Africana Studies
Joe Kincheloe, Professor of Education
Linda Louis, Instructor of Education
Andrew Meyer, Assistant Professor of History
Theodore Muth, Assistant Professor of Biology
Lakshimi Narasimhan, Associate Professor of
Computer and Information Science
Lisa Novemsky, Assistant Professor of Education
Miroslaw Rogala, Associate Professor of Television and Radio
Jaipaul Roopnarine, Assistant Professor of Education
Brian Tanzer, Instructor of Health and Nutrition Sciences
Michael Salim Washington, Assistant Professor of Music
Mac Wellman, Associate Professor of English, in
the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing
And in the administration:
Sau Fong Au, Director of the Women's CenterPatti Bottino, Director, Speech and Hearing Center
Jian Wei Cai, Faculty Development Support Specialist in
the Library
Claudette Guinn, Coordinator of Student Affairs
Jane Herbert, Executive Assistant to the President
Jennifer Pollard, Director of Scholarships
Sylvie Richards, Multimedia Designer in the Library
Patricia Willard, Senior Writer in Publications
We also welcome new support staff in various academic departments and administrative offices.
Enrollment. Undergraduate applications and admissions are up for regular freshman, SEEK, and transfer students. The quality of our newly admitted students, as measured by traditional standards, continues to rise. Recruitment, one of my foremost priorities, is currently under review: we are doing a very good job, for which I thank our Office of Enrollment Services, and we plan to do better still.
Graduate applications and admissions are just about exactly where they were at this time last year. Graduate students now constitute about a quarter of our total enrollment.
Searches. We are conducting searches to fill 28 faculty positions in departments throughout the College. The search for a new Provost will open in October, with an appointment to be made in 2001. Searches are under way for a Vice-President for Finance and Administration and for a Vice-President for Institutional Advancement.
During Fiscal Year 2000, which closed last July, we met our revenue target and netted a modest amount beyond the target, to be carried over into the current fiscal year.
Fiscal Year 2001. The Brooklyn College allocation totals approximately $75.8 million, of which $1 million goes to mandatory cost increases. Because the budget is effectively flat, we will have to be resourceful in finding funds for higher levels of custodial services and facilities management (important in a period of major construction), for repair and replacement of technical equipment, for supplies, and for appointing more full-time faculty, with academic support.
The Brooklyn College Foundation, whose fundraising supports student scholarships and named professorships, has retained a consulting firm to examine its current effectiveness and to prepare a major capital campaign this fall. In an era of diminished public funding, such private monies are of inestimable importance to the future of the College.
Major Capital Projects. The construction of the Library extension proceeds on schedule; the opening date remains firm at September 2001.
The Library Café, officially named the Morton and Angela Topfer Library Café in recognition of the donors, is a major hit not only with our students but also with City Council, which has awarded us $900,000 for expansion, perhaps into a wireless wing.
The construction of the West Quad, slated to begin 2001, will complete the campus quadrangle as originally envisioned. The new West Quad building will be a center for student services: enrollment services, a visitor's center, and athletic and recreational facilities.
The chiller plant is up and running. Systems are being hooked into a growing number of campus buildings.
With help from Borough Hall, we've begun to renovate the interiors of Whitman Hall and Gershwin Hall, a project expected to take several years.
All in all, we have enjoyed exceptional levels of support from Albany, the City Council, and Borough President Golden lately -- support we gratefully acknowledge.
I will keep you informed of developments and changes, and, as always, look forward to your comments and suggestions.
With my best wishes for the semester,
Sincerely,
Christoph M. Kimmich
