THE THREE HUNDRED SEVENTH PLENARY SESSION

OF THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

October 26, 2004

The meeting was called to order by UFS Chair O’Malley at 6:30 p.m. in Room C204/205 at the Graduate School and University Center. Voting members were present:

Governance Leaders present: Baumrin (GSUC), Dreyer (NYCCT), Friedheim (BMCC), Kaplowitz (John Jay), Krishnamachari (Hunter), Leonhard (CCNY), Levine (CSI), Mettler (LaGuardia), Pecorino (QCC), Savage (Queens), Tobey (Brooklyn) and Tronto (Hunter). Parliamentarian Andrea McArdle, Executive Director Phipps, Administrative Assistant Pasela, and Secretary Blanchard were present. 

I. Approval of the Agenda - The agenda was adopted.

II. Approval of the Minutes of September, 2004 - The minutes were adopted as proposed. Senator Wills (Brooklyn) was added as present.

III. Reports : (Recorded in Reports & Deliberations)

A. Chair: Chair’s report included a moment of silence or Yvonne Bennett of Medgar Evers College. Yvonne Bennett of Medgar Evers was head of governance for many years and a Senator. She died I believe at the beginning of September. She was sort of quiet and wise and she would be feisty when necessary and she was quite a marvelous person

B. Chancellor Goldstein.

C. Vice Chancellor and Board Secretary Jay Hershenson.

D. Representatives to Board Committees.

IV. New Business:

A. Resolution Condemning Government Interference with Scholarship: The following resolution was adopted unanimously.

Whereas, the United States government prohibited all of the 50 eminent Cuban scholars invited to participate in the convention of the Latin American Studies Association in Las Vegas, Nevada (Oct 7-10, 2004), and

Whereas, this action again violates the most cherished traditions both of U. S. democracy and academic freedom, and

Whereas, only positive results occur when ideas are freely and fearlessly exchanged, and the United States government has nothing to fear from free speech and everything to regret from violating the spirit of the Constitution,

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the University Faculty Senate of the City University of New York condemns this decision of the United States government.

B. Lauren Fassano, Chair, University Student Senate: (recorded in Reports & Deliberations)

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

William Phipps

Executive Director

REPORTS AND DELIBERATIONS OF

THE THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH PLENARY SESSION

OF THE UNIVERSITY FACULTY SENATE

OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

October 26, 2004

III. Reports:

B. Chancellor Goldstein: This looks like a big crowd tonight. It might be just the size of the room and you’re stuffed in. Let me go through a few things very quickly, and I will restrict all of my remarks to the month of November, because November is a very busy month. First of all, everybody vote. Are you all registered? OK. So that takes care of November 2. November 4 and 5 we are taking a retreat, which we do each year with the presidents, and this year we are going to restrict our attention to three or four substantive areas. We’ve invited Chancellor Joel Klein and his full administrative team, which is large in number, and we will spend a half a day talking about the myriad of connections that these two institutions have. We produce a lot of teachers, we have a College Now program of about 55,000 students, we have an enormous amount of connections; we run 15 high schools; we will be running a set more because of money that we received from the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. We will also talk about the campaign for the colleges of the University, which I will talk about in just a minute. We’ll also talk about diversity, the Black Male Initiative, and a number of other things that are important and very prominent in our Master Plan. But this is the first time that we’ve gotten together with the top leadership in the Department of Education. Those connections are becoming more and more solid. We are well rooted in each other’s worlds and, since we depend on so many students that are educated in the New York City public schools, it is in our interest to do whatever we can to ensure that when they come to this University they are best prepared to study in your classes, and I think that’s an important thing for us to do. On November 9 in this building we will launch the first campaign for the University in its history. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail at this time because we’re still putting together the parameters that will define that particular program, but this is something that you’ve heard me talk about probably for two years. Benno Schmidt and I have talked about it at length for a good year and a half, and the question is why. And the answer is really quite simple: The State of New York has never really invested, I’ve said this over and over again, in the two public systems of this great state. It’s somewhat symptomatic of what we’ve seen in the Northeast but particularly profound in its impact in a negative way on this University and State University of New York. We must get much more in the mainstream of what is happening in public higher education. Certainly the private institutions have been aware of this for some time. When they open their books at the beginning of the fiscal year, a sizable portion of their operating budget is being driven by the money that is raised through various revenue streams that come out through various campaigns. This is going to be a very aggressive campaign. In fact when you hear about it some eyebrows are going to be raised. But I believe we could do it in working with the Presidents in a steering committee. We have a group of Presidents that is representing the full complement of Presidents across the University. I’ve been pushing it, as you know, because I believe that the University is in a position now where it can enter the marketplace and really generate the kinds of support that it needs for students, for faculty to do their best work, for instrumentation, for equipment, for all of the things that great universities need to be able to provide its faculty, its students, in order for all of us to do our best work. I think it was Manfred Philipp who’s asked me this question several times and I said, "I totally agree with you." The faculty must be a real partner in this regard. You the faculty understand better, I would submit, than a President or a Chancellor, where the money is really needed for making an investment into the academic lives of this institution. So as we launch this and as we develop feasibility studies and case statements and all of the things that you have to do to do this well, we’re going to need to depend on you and ask you for assistance, and I look forward to that relationship and I know that you will look forward to participating as I hope that you will. So that’s November 9.

Now let’s move further into the month. On November 17 and 18 we hope and expect the Legislature will reconvene. This is critically important for us for one central reason, that unless actions are taken in redressing some of the deficiencies that we have in this year’s operating budget, and those actions are taken in that very small window in mid-November, we’ve lost the battle and we’ll have to wait until the Governor addresses the joint session of the Legislature in the third week in January when he will unveil his proposals for the next operating budget for this University and for other organizations in the State of New York. So we have been working furiously and intensely behind the scenes obviously in quiet ways but forcefully to get our message across. We need desperate attention in our capital program, especially for our community colleges. We have gone now eleven years with essentially no investment in our community college capital program. This is something that just cannot continue. In the $330 million that the Legislature advanced over and beyond that which was recommended by the Governor, the Governor vetoed all $330 million. And the $108 million that the Legislature had had at our request, and this is both the Assembly and the Senate, to get them both to embrace the principle that investment must be made in our community colleges, was a major success for us. This was without precedent in certainly very many recent years. We were almost there and I don’t care how it’s done, whether it’s an override or some accommodation, and I always like accommodation rather than aggressiveness like an override because that presents other kinds of problems, we hope to get some movement in the direction of getting some of these dollars. Also on the operating side you’ve heard that the Governor, not that he vetoed the enhancements that were provided by the Legislature, he essentially put restrictions on our getting access to that money. And that’s something that we have to work directly with the Governor’s people on and this is a SUNY-CUNY initiative. We have locked hands and are approaching the problem in the same way. I don’t know how it’s going to work out. The politics here are very intense, the stakes are very large, the whole CFE [Campaign for Fiscal Equity] issue is looming large over these discussions, and the various contracts at the City level are looming high. I want to get a contract for the PSC. We’re working very hard, in many ways as advocates, to get as good a contract as we can because I think we’ve lost a lot of the momentum that was started many years ago; we’ve lost it relative to many institutions around this country and we really have to get that back. So November 17 and 18 are critical days for us and we’re going to work as hard as we can to try to get some of these dollars back into our budget.

On November 29 we have our last Board Meeting for the month and then we break in December. There will be a number of important actions at that Board Meeting. We will present our operating and capital requests to the Board. That would have followed the recommendations that the standing committees of the Board will opine on and hopefully embrace the recommendations that the administration has given. And again I want to thank the Senate. You’ve worked very well with Ernesto Malave. So I thank you. You’ve made some really good suggestions and really helped him put together a budget. We’re going to be aggressive. People don’t like when we’re aggressive. I get sort of beaten up about it, but I think there’s no alternative but being aggressive and we will. Also on that evening of the 29^th I will make a recommendation for the founding Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism. Again, a very important event in the recent history of this great University. We have had a splendid group of people that have shown interest in this important position, but getting a Dean is really the first step. A curriculum has to be developed, a faculty has to be hired, students have to be recruited, the curriculum has to be certified and registered with the State Education Department, and we have to outfit the new building that the Research Foundation purchased, which will house the Graduate School of Journalism. All of that has to be done well in time so that we can admit the first class in 2006. The recommendation given to me was 2005. I just think I’d rather go slower and do it well than rush to conclusion and take a number of missteps. I’ve never seen - and I don’t know much about journalism other than I love to read newspapers, but I don’t know much about journalism education – such excitement and interest on the part of so many people about this new school. The notion that we live in the media capital of the world and this city has never had a public graduate school of journalism, I find to be quite remarkable. We will and it will be a good one. We will raise money for it. We’ve already contacted a number of very prominent people who have agreed to serve as the founding advisory group for the new school. And again, my kudos to the faculty who worked very hard and long with us in trying to conceptualize a framework for how this school can fit in within competing institutions, Columbia University, first and foremost; NYU has a graduate school of journalism; but ours is going to be a distinguished school and one that we can all be proud of.

Lastly, I reported to you at the last meeting that I enlisted the support of an advisory group, very prominent scholar teachers, that includes Kenneth A. Shaw who is the former Chancellor of Syracuse University, William E. Kirwan, the current Chancellor of the University of Maryland system, Richard C. Atkinson, the former Chancellor of the University California system, and David Ward, the former Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin system and the President of the American Council on Education, to work with us in looking at the structure of The Graduate School and University Center. We have a unique model that has served this University well, but as we continue to invest and speak about the importance of our doctoral programs at this University, I want to make sure that we are executing this model in the most efficient way that educates our students in the best possible way and at the same time enables us to use the limited resources that we have. Unfortunately when The Graduate School was conceived and developed it, along with a number of other operating units - pardon some of these phrases, I know they make some of you crazy – they there were never given the basic foundation of support. To develop a strong doctoral program and not have the financial aid for students for tuition remission, fellowship support, is absurd. How can you expect to compete for the best students and do the best work? So when we do our budget message it’s going to highlight doctoral education. It’s something that needs attention. We did it by carving out parts of our budget in the last year, and have gone a long way for tuition remission and opportunities for doctoral students, but we have a long way to go. They have finished their work. I will be analyzing their report. We will use the best recommendations from that report as we look to identify the next leadership at The Graduate School and University Center. Jonathan Cole, the former Provost at Columbia University - some of you may know Jonathan well, he’s been a friend for a long time – has agreed to serve as a consultant to the search. Benno Schmidt is chairing the search. I will be giving the charge to the search committee on November 8, another important date in this University’s next few weeks for November.

And lastly, summing it all up, CUNY Month is November. And you’ll hear about some of the extraordinary things that are a result of the creative bursts of Jay Hershenson, who is going to talk to you in a little while about all the wonderful things that he’s been doing. So with that I will stop, I will take any questions, and then I’m going to get out of here so that you can listen to Jay.

Professor Crain (Psychology, City College) – I’m glad that you’re going to meet with Chancellor Klein. Might I ask you if you would ask him what he did this fall when the Mayor closed dozens of GED preparation sites. The New York Times recorded they just left staff and students who were most at risk for discontinuing their studies just bewilderingly confused. They are immigrant students. Some of the immigrant students have been counseled that the GED is a vital alternative route. So for these students would you join us in asking him to reopen these sites? / Chancellor Goldstein – We’re going to talk about the GED programs and it’s an issue that we’re concerned about as well. So thank you.

Professor Farrell (Behavioral Sciences and Human Services, Kingsborough Community College) – This question comes from the Community College Caucus, which has a concern about the calendar. As most of you know I think, two of the community colleges, LaGuardia and Kingsborough, have a slightly different calendar, the 12/6 12/6 calendar. We found it to be most positive for our students. They get in that six weeks make up courses that they didn’t do well in, they can add courses, and it’s really been a major benefit for them over the years. But there’s been some concern that has there been pressure to change our calendars to come into line with the larger CUNY calendar? LaGuardia has been looking into this and there was some concern that Kingsborough might be asked also to change. / Chancellor – I’m not aware of any pressure coming from my world at all. Maybe the pressure is coming from the faculty. I don’t know anything about it, and certainly I have not even had any discussion, about this at all. And certainly if I haven’t had a discussion there’s no pressure. So you like 12/6 12/6? Why don’t you find some prime numbers in there, make it a little more interesting? / Professor Farrell – This works for financial aid. / Chancellor Goldstein – I see. Even numbers are good.

Professor Philipp (Chemistry, Lehman College) – I think the faculty who signed the appeal to the Trustees to establish a fundraising campaign will be happy about your announcement. In earlier comments you said that you would announce a certain campaign when you had already succeeded in getting a significant amount of money together to establish credibility. Since you are announcing it, I would assume that this is in fact the case. / Chancellor – Absolutely. I’m not going to talk about the numbers but I want you to be there on that day and you’ll hear the numbers. Absolutely. We would not announce a campaign of that level without having the money in the camp.

Professor Rushing (LaGuardia Community College) – Last spring in answer to a question by Bill Crain you said that you would look into the case of Miguel Malo who, as you know, is being prosecuted for exercising his free speech rights at Hostos Community College, so I was wondering if you had time to look into that and the possibility of dropping the charges. / Chancellor – Rick, have I had a conversation with you about the Malo case? / VC Schaffer – The charges were brought by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, not by CUNY. The prosecution, as I understand it, is for attacking two security guards at Hostos Community College, not for exercising First Amendment rights. The faculty has made its views known to District Attorney Johnson through a letter that you wrote in response to your petition, but other than some Hostos employees being witnesses, the University is not involved in the prosecution. / Professor Rushing – I think that the prosecutor would respect your opinion very highly. / Chancellor Goldstein – I remember Bill asking the question. I’m sure that I spoke to Rick and got a similar kind of response but we’ll talk about it again. / Professor Rushing – I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Professor Lewis (English, York College) –From the beginning there’s been a core of journalism faculty from around the University who at least had an advisory situation in the curriculum in fashioning the kind of curriculum that would draw on the best of individual campuses and I’m hoping that that will continue once the School of Journalism continues and I was wondering if it’s going to be put into place fairly quickly if there’ll be some sort of interior advisory group of faculty to work on flushing out that curriculum. / Chancellor Goldstein – Let me state for the record that I cannot conceive of a curriculum being developed that is not faculty driven. And when I say faculty driven, we have extraordinary people already among us across the many campuses, and you were, as you said, one of the people that participated. I would envisage that when the Dean is appointed he or she will be working with not only the faculty that opined on the subject of curriculum but will be reaching out to as many people as he or she can in the University and look to hire other faculty as well. The way that I’ve always envisaged this is not spending a lot of money hiring a lot of faculty dedicated specifically to the Graduate School. I’ve always envisaged a small group of faculty that would be hired that would join the other members of the faculties across the University, and a lot of people who were practitioners, people who practice the craft of journalism every day I am sure would want to participate as well. The Dean is not going to do the job, it’s the faculty that really has to do the job, and that will happen.

Professor Savage (Sociology, Queens College) – I’m glad to hear that you’re continuing the effort to get adequate funding for the graduate students. My question is when might we see the external review? / Chancellor Goldstein – As soon as I have reviewed it, it will be released. I have always said to all of you, and I’m a man that backs up the rhetoric with action, that transparency is a fundamental principle. So we will certainly release the report and we would like input. I don’t know exactly all of the recommendations. I’ve spent a lot of time obviously with this group and they have a lot of interesting ideas. I will say the following for those of you who are members of the doctoral faculty. In fact when I came here I was recruited to set up a PhD program but then there was no money. Isn’t that familiar? You’ve heard that? One of the things that Atkinson and Kirwan said, both of those two gentlemen in particular, and they were deeply impressed with faculty that they met, and they met many, they were deeply impressed with the students; they were motivated, they were smart, they were interesting, they were delighted to be part of this University studying for their graduate degrees; but they lamented that the students have to work as hard as they do just to survive, and we all understand that and we must address it. If we don’t get the money from the Legislature we will find some way, somehow, to carve out little bits and pieces to constantly supplement what we’ve done. Unfortunately we’re starting from a weak position here historically and it’s very hard to build up the financial base, but we’ll get there one way or the other.

Professor O’Malley (Chair of the Faculty Senate, Kingsborough Community College) – I’m so concerned about Monica. She’s in Florence on the I Tatti Award from Harvard University with full support. She e-mails quite often and invites me to Florence, but when she comes back she has to start all over again, her tenure starts again from year one. She is distraught about this. I spent a good part of today looking how I could change that by going through the Bylaws. Finally, I went to Counsel who sent me the statutory law about our tenure. / Chancellor Goldstein – As I’ve said to you privately and I will say it publicly, I think it’s ridiculous for somebody to have to start the tenure clock from zero because they have accepted a prestigious fellowship someplace. Now I can see going someplace and you’re saying that’s not enhancing the reputation of this University and why should we reward you for that, but in this particular case and many other cases it just doesn’t make sense to me. Until we change the Statute, the way that I would advise Monica to proceed is to apply for early tenure. I’m not making the decision, not yet, eventually it will come up to me, but it just seems to me that if somebody is doing very distinguished work then that is a very compelling reason to proceed. But the bigger question is how do we redress the problem, and I think we have to redress the problem by changing the way in which we do tenure here. And I’m committed to continue to work on that and we are this year and it will be part of a comprehensive program. Much of what we learned through the fora that we had from individual discussions with faculty across this University is that we need to be sensitive to a number of different drivers here. The driver that most concerns me is that I feel that we are a diminished institution if we force people to compromise the quality of their work by forcing them to do work below what they are capable of just to meet a certain accelerated time for tenure. I think if somebody is willing to pause and do the kind of work that they’re capable of we should create the kind of environment for them to do that. On the other hand, if there are people who start at this institution who can demonstrate that they have done very good work in an accelerated period of time then we ought to have a tenure policy that allows them to come up for tenure in an accelerated time; if it’s five years that’s great. But we need to have a policy that addresses the broad spectrum of faculty, and that’s what I’m committed to do. Whether we will get it done I don’t know but that’s what I’m hoping to get done. / Professor O’Malley – Thank you.

Professor Petratos (College of Staten Island) –I read also about minority students dropping out of universities in large numbers, both private as well as public. You said before that you’re going to meet with Chancellor Klein and my question relates to all this. . My question is can you make available to the Senate that will make it then available to us the profile of the students of the University. Journalism, The Graduate School, we all agree with all that. How about the core of our students who are the residents of the City of New York? What is the profile of our students in terms of minorities and others. / Chancellor Goldstein – We have all of that information and that is always available. We have a website that is full of data and you just have to find how to get to the individual page on that but it’s pretty easy to do. You can call the Office of Institutional Research. Our director, David Crook, is responsible for putting all that data together, and it is readily available on our website and anything that’s not on there and it’s on hard copy I don’t have any problem with you saying that you want it.

Professor Baumrin (Philosophy, Graduate School and University Center) – A very discouraging event in the University in the 1970s was the establishment of the Law School when faculty from all over CUNY were used to develop it but then were never included in the life of the School, and I just want to mention that. There’s another one, that it would be discouraging for faculty initiatives if the faculty in journalism were in a position to start the school without [divert it?] to the students. / Chancellor Goldstein – I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think one of the problems with our law school is that it is so isolated from the rest of the University. If you look at the great law schools, Rick Schaffer would certainly know this much better than I, most law schools are physically located at the epicenter of the university so that it can draw from the full intellectual depth of the university. Our law school is so far removed from the intellectual life of the university. / Chancellor Goldstein – I am a good poker player. Sometimes you want to give a little. / Professor Baumrin – Absent this issue about physical location, the resources of the University, most of which are now gone, were not used … this is thirty years ago, and thirty years ago we had a distinguished secondary legal faculty not teaching in the University and all of us are gone, and the reason it’s peripheral to the interest of the University is it’s an institution with a stand-alone faculty. / Chancellor – I’m with you on that. I think that the School of Journalism really should depend and should integrate with the faculties across CUNY. First of all it’s much cheaper to do that, which I’m always thinking about on my other side of the brain.

Professor Beaky (English, LaGuardia Community College) – We’ve talked before about the role of the community colleges in the Honors College. At LaGuardia we have students who graduate with their Associate’s and then transfer to Vassar and Barnard and institutions like that. And I’m sure that that’s true of the other community colleges as well. What about students transferring into the Honors College at the third and fourth year? Is this something that’s actually happening now, and if it is or if it isn’t, have you thought about students transferring into the Honors College at a later date rather than entering … / Chancellor Goldstein – Lenore, let me tell you what the issue is. In answer to your question are people transferring now the answer is no. The problem is that the Honors College curriculum as it stands today, and it’s evolving as any curriculum should evolve over time, is highly structured. And unless those students get those experiences in the first two years they are not going to get the same kind of an experience that they would have had they started from the very beginning. That’s really what the problem is. The other problem is that the academic profile of the students starting in the Honors College is vastly different in the main from our students at our senior colleges and even more so at our community colleges. That itself is a problem. So conceptually I love the idea of having an Honors College experience for our two-year students but the way that we have the Honors College presently designed it would be very difficult to put them into that design unless over time the design changes to be more accommodating, and that’s possible. Right now it isn’t. / Professor Beaky –You’re suggesting that as the curriculum evolves and as the world changes around us, it might be found to be a good idea to allow transfers in, including community college students who by that time will have a master record of achievement? / Chancellor Goldstein – I would not say that that is impossible or highly unlikely. As things change that could happen in just the way that you’re describing it. / Professor Beaky – How could we help you or the people in the Honors College to look at this issue? / Chancellor Goldstein – The first thing that I would want to ensure is that the students really have the kind of intellectual depth, because these are rigorous programs and I think it’s unfair to give a student that kind of exposure unless they’re ready. That to me is the first order of business. If they have the intellectual curiosity and the kind of background, and there may be a number of students and I’m sure there are at our community colleges that satisfy that profile but are at the community colleges for a variety of reasons that may not be known to me, I would certainly be amenable to looking at it and see if that could change over time. / Professor Beaky – Thank you.

Professor Fergenson (Bronx Community College) – I just want to clarify a little bit about the Malo case. Miguel Malo is being charged with resisting arrest and assaulting the arresting officers. Students at the scene say that he was assaulted, not vice versa. If the question is why was he being arrested, he was being arrested basically for holding up a sign in protest. The Modern Language Association, which had input on President Fernandez, decided the arrest was a violation of the student’s free speech rights. It seems a terrible injustice that three years after this incident Mr. Malo’s freedom is still really being threatened. Do you think it would help if reviewed this case and wrote a letter on his behalf? / Chancellor – I indicated to an earlier question that I would speak to the Counsel on this and see what kind of approach we’d take. / Chair – Thank you very much.

C. Vice Chancellor and Secretary of the Board Jay Hershenson:

Chair O’Malley -- Now I get to introduce Jay Hershenson, Vice Chancellor for University Relations and Secretary of the Board of Trustees. When you want to know something, when you want to get something done and figure out how to maneuver, it’s Jay that you call. Jay’s also responsible for my being a faculty Trustee and a student Trustee with a vote. One time over lunch Jay told me the story about how he accomplished this when he was a student activist. Jay, as you know, went to Queens College and was a rabble-rouser there; he also has a Master in urban studies. He also started at Queensborough Community College. He was a Regional Director for NYPIRG which he helped to start. There are all kinds of things that he’s done, from receiving the presidential medal from Medgar Evers in 2003, United Negro Fund Scholarship Committee, Vice Chairperson of the Anti-Defamation League, all kinds of things. I’m so pleased that he agreed to come to speak to us.

Vice Chancellor Hershenson – When Susan called me this afternoon I realized that I had, counting tonight, spoken before the University Faculty Senate six times in the last thirty years. When I was Chair of the University Student Senate many years ago, I was only six years old at the time, there were fiscal problems, people were worried about wars in other parts of the world. It’s just a reminder that very little has changed. I am a proud graduate of Queens College and I list Queensborough Community College in my resume because I got my start there. I am the architect of the "twofers" Campaign that we did a few years ago, where we celebrate the graduates of the City University of New York who got their start at a community college, many of whom went all the way to earn a PhD, which is the great benefit of the City University system. There are literally tens of thousands of alumni who now hold multiple degrees. So I’m very proud of that and I am very proud of the work that I’ve done over the years at Medgar Evers College, which I’m glad you mentioned. So I’m proud in many ways. I’m also proud that, as I look out in the room, I no longer see any member of the faculty that I owe a term paper to. The statute of limitation is in my behalf. Some of you may have attended the wonderful reception we did at the New York Historical Society on October 6, in which we announced the new CUNY New York Times Knowledge Network Voting Rights and Citizenship calendar. Some of you may have looked at page 23 today in the New York Times and seen an ad, what is called a house ad, meaning the Times paid for it, and there it was; the CUNY New York Times Knowledge Network with a website about this wonderful calendar that is now available that chronicles the struggle in American history for citizenship, for voting rights, with a web site and with curricular work at the fourth grade and eight grade and collegiate level. The reason I mention that is because at the reception the Chancellor and President Mellow honored Dr. Richard Liederman who has been with the University for 32 years. The faculty, students, alumni, civic leaders, and elected officials who were present that night, heard about someone who has dedicated 32 years of his professional life to this University. I think it was very important that we sent a signal about the work that has been done by the faculty of this University. This is just the beginning, because to create this new, extraordinary resource, which we were able to get funding from TIAA CREF and JP Morgan–Chase, and which will be available in many forms in the years ahead. Children in the public school system will be taught about voting rights and citizenship, which does not exist in a unified way, thanks to the help of Richard and Dr. Steven Levine and all of his colleagues, and literally 107 faculty and staff and student leaders. Trustee Susan O’Malley was very helpful on the calendar. This puts the City University out there on public service in a way that no other university in the country is doing, so I was very proud of that. The use of a physical calendar, a website, working with faculty on curriculum, the internet talks on voting rights and citizenship, publications, brochures, DVDs, the integrated use of mediums as well as the media is something that I’m very committed to. Partially because of the way we are situated in New York City, you really have to always think in terms of the multiple levels of communication that are required. As we sit here, 100,000 DVDs are arriving in the homes of high school seniors. It is a DVD which included a beautiful brochure inside. It’s called "The Best of Study with the Best," which is the television show that I’ve had a real partnership role in creating. It showcases faculty, alumni, students, programs at the University. You can see it every Sunday 8am and 8pm and other times during the week. We’re in our fourth year. It’s been nominated for Emmys, and it is now headed to the homes of 100,000 high school students as we speak. Why is it heading to the homes now? Because as the Chancellor said we’re coming into "CUNY Month," and as you will recall three years ago we came together and decided to market and make available activities at the University during October. At that time we did a week, last year we did a month, and now November is being designated as "CUNY Month." "CUNY Month" is the opportunity for the public to visit our campuses. Last year we had over 550 events, everything ranging from financial aid workshops to cultural events. The opening of that wonderful art exhibit at Queensborough is a perfect example, along with opportunities for students to receive academic advice, resume developing sessions. Every type of activity has been planned and marketed for the month of November when frankly lots and lots of parents and their kids are making decisions about where college fits into their plans for the coming year. SUNY does nothing like this; the private colleges do nothing like this. We really have the entire playing field. It’s a lot of work and it involves "CUNY Month" coordinators on each campus. It’s very exciting and we try to add new components. Con Edison, believe it or not, is sending out 3.1 million messages to their customers, another 500,000 in Spanish. Why? Because we have alumnus working at the right place in Con Edison who’s coming through. We’re doing the same thing with the phone company. Municipal employees will be receiving messages in two paychecks. The same thing is happening on the State side. It is a level of communication that is very strong. The Central Labor Council is stepping up to the plate and utilizing their website information. What I would urge you to do is to simply visit the CUNY website, www.CUNY.edu, where we are maintaining a calendar of events. The whole point of this is to showcase the colleges of the University in a way that displays their prominence and their luster. Now obviously, as the Chancellor has indicated, in New York City you can’t pin everything on one event, one day, you really have to think in terms of a much more systematic approach, and that’s very exciting. So we have the colleges, in addition to emphasizing opportunities for prospective students, playing up the role of alumni donors who are giving money to individual colleges. We are showcasing both their generosity and also the students and faculty that are benefiting. One obvious example is novelist Susan Isaacs, whose current book is number fourteen on the bestseller list. She’s an alumnus at Queens College, and she has donated funds that are being used for a writing program at Queens, so she is matched with a student from that program. We’re showcasing that. There are many such examples. A wonderful example that we put on the front page of CUNY Matters and we’re going to use in many ways are the two professors from Medgar Evers and from Queensborough Community College, Professors Nagarkatte. They have generously set the standard by donating $100,000 to Medgar Evers College. It is such a wonderful signal to send to the public. Whatever instruments they’re utilizing to provide that assistance over time, we all know this can be done. I mention that because we give prominence and luster to the $55 million thankfully that was donated by alumni to Baruch College, but we should not forget about contributions made by our own faculty. I think we have to bring the two together. We are working with Bill Freeland and others at LaGuardia Community College to showcase these efforts. This morning I was at the Daily News, and the reason I was there is because the University is planning Citizenship Now for the week of November 15. This is an idea that I proposed to Martin Dunn knowing that Professor Allan Wernick from Hostos Community College, now at Baruch College, has been one of the leading experts at the University on immigrant related matters. I proposed to the Daily News last January that CUNY work with the Daily News and sponsor a call-in for New Yorkers who are interested in getting help on immigration, citizenship and naturalization issues. The Daily News said "yes," and some veterans in the room know that there’s always been an interesting relationship over the years with the Daily News. Martin Dunn, who is the new Editorial Director and Deputy Publisher, said "yes." So in April we did a weeklong call-in, with the help of international student advisers, faculty, people from the Bar Associations, Legal Aid Society. It was the largest call in in the history of the Daily News; it beat every single call in, taxes, dieting, you name it. 6,000 people were helped in cases and there were over 100,000 telephone contacts. Thankfully for the Internet we were able to use a website to have frequently asked questions. The bottom line is we’re doing it again and the Daily News will be printing during the week of November 15 and 19 the bios and photographs of every single volunteer that is being assembled with the help of Professor Wernick. There’ll be a special supplement in the Sunday News on frequently asked questions. I cannot describe to you how grateful we are for the dedication of the volunteers who are involved in this enormous effort. What a signal it sends to literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of families that the University is the place to turn to for expertise on helping to get access to assistance! I know many people around the room, Bill is shaking his head, have been very involved in helping immigrant students and many others. With Allan’s help, starting in January there will be some courses leading to a certificate in immigration studies that will be available for the first time in this University to non-lawyers who work with immigrants and with the public. They can get access to courses about immigration law, immigration policy, that can lead to a certificate and perhaps be utilized as people pursue their graduate work. I mentioned those two projects in detail and if I make any recommendation to you it would be at some point to give people like Professor Allan Wernick, who is as dedicated and they come, and Professor Richard Lieberman, who is in the same class, the opportunity to themselves share their work with you because they are so dedicated and they’re a great inspiration to me. If you pick up "Crains" this week you’ll see that CUNY is in the lead and there is a special insert relating to research matters. We feature faculty at the University who are involved in cutting edge research; there are so many examples: Dr. Ruth Stark from the College of Staten Island is featured in two pages. Dr. Marie Filbin from Hunter College is deeply involved in research very similar to what the late Christopher Reeve went through in terms of the damage that was done to his brain and other parts of his body. We feature faculty in the University who are at the cutting edge and only asked for one thing from "Crains," and that is that when they look at CUNY and look at SUNY, they treat us in alphabetical order. So as a result we have the first third of the supplement and then comes SUNY. Sometimes you have to come up with a principle.

The Chancellor mentioned the importance of the work that’s being done with Albany. I want to commend Trustee O’Malley for working in between meetings and constantly being represented in terms of trying to assert the importance of resources in the University. I was in Albany on Friday making the rounds of key staff in the Governor’s Office, the Assembly and the Senate. There were no three-way discussions going on, three way meaning arms of government. There were no two-way discussions going on. Everyone is completely focused on elections. The moment the election is over, whatever else may happen, there will definitely be a negotiation between the Governor’s Office, the Assembly and the Senate, first and foremost on capital. Capital will definitely come up and those faculty who are from the colleges that are represented in the legislative adds that we were able to obtain above and beyond the approximately $1.4 billion (when you add the City piece), University’s capital budget plan. The Legislature, as you know, added $330 million. There are a number of colleges in the room that are represented in trying to obtain much of that $330 million, particularly from the community colleges but not limited to them; City College is involved, New York City College of Technology, you know who you are. We must, the moment the election ends (of course we want to keep contact up know but in practical terms nothing will start up again), outreach particularly to the Senate, to the Senate Majority for New York City without question. Frankly their stepping up to the plate was very helpful. To the Assembly, the same thing has to occur. We have to do the same with the Governor’s Office because there will be the window the Chancellor mentioned. Both the Senate and the Assembly have their members on notice to come back in mid-November. / Chair – We’re asking for overrrides, yes or no? Can you clarify that? / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – When I make the rounds in Albany, and we have Eileen Goldmann and her staff there every day, I don’t use the word override. I say you have to revisit the funds that were added by the Legislature and vote to put them back. We’re saying the same thing, but you’re not going to have a discussion if you walk in saying those fire words. You do what you think is the right way of approaching it. We want to revisit it and this is why we need the funds that were added by the Legislature. It’s that simple. So we need to do that, and that means, in very specific terms, getting individual legislators to ask the Speaker and the Majority Leader in both Houses to support the needs of the campus. On the Assembly side Dean Fuleihan, who is the Chief Fiscal Aide as Secretary of the Ways and Means Committee, and on the Senate side Mary Louise Mallick, the Finance Secretary to the Senate, because if the Chief Fiscal Aides don’t get the information it will get lost. This is the reality, so we know exactly who to talk to and that’s who we talked to last week even though no one else was there, everybody was concentrating on the election, but we’ll make rounds until the election is over. /

We have a lot of major events coming up and I just want to mention them very quickly. We do a model City Council, which is done with College Now students. We do it in December; it’s the third year; it’s a fabulous event. Legislators come, you may have seen the piece in the Times last year where it was featured. We’re doing it again and we’re going to have a number of Council people there, some of whom may be future candidates for speaker and they’ll be receiving appropriate recognition. Students and parents attend. It’s with the help of the College Now program. It’s a wonderful experience for the students and the teachers and faculty and we’re very grateful for it. We do a special event for the Black, Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caucus. As everyone knows during that conference we created last year for the first time a special internship program in the districts, and we’re going to continue to build on that effort, which is very important. We’ve done a model Senate in Albany in the spring time with Somos El Futuro, this is the ninth year, which is also a splendid event. Because you can never rest on your laurels for the first time this year in the springs we’re going to do a women’s leadership conference. In this University, as everyone here knows, 62% of our student body are women; that’s one fact. The second fact is that the Women Legislators Caucus, particularly the one in Albany, can stand some strengthening. There has been an effort on the way with the leadership of President Gail Mellow at LaGuardia and a number of women Presidents and educators to pull together a Women’s Leadership Conference with various possible components, including the development of a public policy enterprise of some kind that can focus on women related issues, and also to develop an internship program in which we would work with women elected officials. We’re going to get that under way even before the conference, to see if we can play a role in working with women officials who, from everything that we can tell, don’t have available that mechanism with any university. Why shouldn’t the City University be the place to try to fill the void. And lastly, the women student leaders that are coming out of this University, I think we all can give many examples of spectacular successes. We have to find a way to harness their energy and bring them into contact with people who vote on our resources. That’s very important, and I would love to be in touch with Chair O’Malley if there’s interest in working together on that. We’ve got to start a Friends of CUNY in the suburbs. It’s a hard thing to do. We’ve concentrated principally on working in New York City but there are tens of thousands and alumni and faculty and staff who live in the suburbs, have residence in the suburbs. We have to do it. It’s not easy to do for a variety of organizing reasons, but there are people like Susan Isaacs, just as one example, who have offered to help. We have to make this happen and we’re going to work on that because we have to expand the base beyond New York City, especially with a fundraising campaign launched on behalf of the CUNY Colleges, there are ways to involve alumni and faculty and staff and we need to do that. We have to look ahead and make sure that new candidates for office begin to at least focus on the importance of a higher education investment strategy, especially with CFE taking up a lot of people’s attention, which the Chancellor mentioned. There’s got to be more attention given to the need for a higher education investment strategy in New York State. I guess I would close on that comment by stressing the importance of greater alliances with our colleagues at SUNY, because the reality is, as one of the things I learned over and over again over the last 30 years, is that you have to look at CUNY as though you’re sitting in Albany. If you want to develop successful strategies to improve how the University is funded, the State University is right down the street, and if you live there you see the people who work there in the drugstores and supermarkets. It’s 160 miles away and we have to have that relationship strengthened. It started I think for the first time on the legislative adds, but we have to build on that coalition. Thank you very much. /

Chair – Any questions? I would love a few tough questions. We have one resolution too, so I hope not too many people will leave, but ask some questions.

Professor Philipp (Chemistry, Lehman College) – In terms of the fundraising campaign, one of the problems in CUNY obviously is lack of sufficient political influence to drive our agenda in Albany. At the same time we have hundreds of thousand of alumni in the state and you’ve actually pointed that out earlier in the presentation. Do you think that the campaign is going to be structured in a way that makes it possible for us to take advantage of the potential political influence of alumni in not only getting donations but also getting votes in Albany that will help this University. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – The answer is yes. I think you can see my comment about the suburbs as really being the place to focus our efforts. So the answer is yes. / Professor Philipp – Great.

Professor Hastick (Social and Behavioral Sciences, Medgar Evers College) – Vice Chancellor, I want to commend you first and then I have a quick question. I’ve been at Medgar Evers College a little over 20 years and you’ve been there good times, bad times, and you’ve created a lot of good times for us, made a lot of wonderful things possible. You’ve also been extremely supportive in the Caribbean American Community. I don’t know where you find the time. Every time I turn around there’s Jay. Thank you, on behalf on all of those people who, if they were here, they would say it. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Thank you very much. / Professor Hastick – Having said that, here’s a quick question, and it probably needs a sit down either in your office or at Medgar or the Brooklyn ABR, you know we’re building a movie studio over there. Hurricane disaster relief in the Caribbean. I want to thank my colleagues, I made a pitch last week, and several of them, Professor Pollard and others, thank you for your financial contribution. I don’t want to take too much time but we do need to sit down and look at short term, long-term strategies, rebuilding efforts. Social workers for disaster relief, 25 social workers, some within CUNY, some external, heads of organizations and so on are working with me to do the trauma counseling and focusing on children, children’s needs, the toys and so on, but we need your help; we need your guidance, your marketing ideas to get CUNY presence so that they won’t be forgotten. Thanksgiving is coming, Christmas will be in to family, we’ll forget, but we can’t. People are still suffering. Thank you for all you’ve done and if you were closer I’d give you a hug. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Come over here. And we will help without question.

Professor Matthews (Hunter College) – When the Chancellor was here he mentioned something about the Black Male Initiative. Is there anything that you could tell us about it or give us some idea when we will hear more about that? / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – The Black Male Initiative, which is outlined in the Master Plan, that is available on the CUNY website so people could get access to the actual wording, comes about through a combination of the Chancellor’s very passionate, deep feelings about issues related to the Black Male, particularly with respect to issues of under representation at all levels of education, and the inspiration that came about from the work of President Edison Jackson at Medgar Evers College who launched the initiative. You’ll be hearing, and you want to hear directly from the Chancellor, an announcement of a process that he will forward, because this is not a six-month project. The reason it’s in the Master Plan is so that it will be throughout the life of the Master Plan, so it will be multi-years, and he’ll be creating opportunities for people to participate in the shaping of initiatives relating to that. / Professor Mathews – We have outstanding scientists. They’re role models.

Professor Lewis (English, York College) – I’ve helped put together a shoot at York College for the CUNY ad campaign for Steve Weitzner and one of our students. I’m hoping that’s going to be included. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – I just gave one or two examples but we’re involving lots of colleges. Steve is the COO of CMP Media LLC, which is one of the largest media companies in actually the country. He is also an alumnus from York College who’s giving money back to the college to help students. / Professor Lewis – This is sort of leading into a whole other area. Certain colleges and universities don’t worry about name recognition. If you’re City College, if you’re Hunter, if you’re Baruch, the name recognition is not a major issue. If you’re a school like York, or Medgar Evers, or a whole host of other schools in the University, John Jay etc., you really do have that name recognition issue. Professor Lewis - One of the things as the head of the Journalism Program at York, we’re starting a whole campaign to increase name recognition at York in Queens first and then hopefully in the rest of the city. I’m wondering what kind of resources and what kind of help can we get through you and Mike Arena and the University in helping to push this forward and what can we do for other colleges in turn? / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – As Trustee and Chair O’Malley knows, there was a presentation at the September Board Meeting about how the University is seeking to both market its identity but also to develop a program that would work very closely with the colleges. That will be part of the presentation on November 9^th, but we’ll be making available a website where all the colleges will be able to access. The basic theme is a sort of a double entendre, "Invest in CUNY, Invest in New York." Obviously each college easily plays into that -- Invest in York College, Invest in Hostos Community College. Bill Freeland has already begun to play around with the way to market for us the donors, the alumni donors, and students and faculty, is saying "Investing in Futures," which is also a double entendre that is very important, and it really does involve investing in human capital. I met with the public information officers last week. I invited Karen Arenson and she gave a terrific presentation. We went over how the colleges would be working with us on exactly what you’re talking about. It’s going to be a process, and that’s why I tried to in my presentation, and I’ll be very brief, to point out that it’s not just November 9; that we really have a year-round campaign that has to grow and expand with high quality outreach and with public service components, such as the two that I mentioned, so that the public sees the larger value of the University, including showcasing research. It’s not only showcasing the financial side, we have to showcase the people and the programs that they started. So we’ll be very sensitive to that and we’ll be continuing to work closely with President Hampton and everybody at York College. / Professor Lewis – Thank you very much.

Professor Barnhart (History, Philosophy and Political Science, Kingsborough Community College) – I have a purely factual verification kind of question. You had mentioned in your presentation that Allan Wernick was giving a course on integration issues, certificate even. I was wondering, is that through the School of Professional Studies? / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Yes. / Professor Barnhart – Thank you very much.

Professor Baumrin (Philosophy, The Graduate School and University Center) – You are the most persistently upbeat member of CUNY…Vice Chancellor Hershenson – That’s the only way to be. / Professor Baumrin – Great work. I don’t actually know in all of this of any plans to create a happy faculty. Are the students happy, buildings happy… I suggested some time ago, very long time, a decrease in teaching load. Subsequently I was willing to settle for travel funding. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Does this mean Brenda Malone gets invited back? / Chair – Now we settle for cheese and cookies. / Professor Baumrin – In nothing that I’ve heard has there been any talk of an initiative on the part of the administration to improve the life of the faculty. In my experience and my own colleagues, they don’t know what it’s like to have smaller teaching load, plenty travel funds etc., so I thought I would ask you that question. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Let me answer it with respect to how recently I was involved with what you’re driving at, and that is when I was in Albany on Friday. I go up there with an agenda. Obviously I sat with the Chancellor, and he made it absolutely clear that he wanted me to communicate the importance of making sure that the outcome of the collective bargaining negotiations involving the University and the Union was such that there would be very significant improvements for faculty. There are some specific ways that he is interested in doing that. Some of you may be familiar with the fact that he’s pointing to other settlements that we’re looking at and ways of improving the situation. He wanted me to deliver that message on the State side to all three, to the Governor’s Office, the Assembly, and the Senate. We have some work to do on the City side, as everybody knows, but that’s first and foremost where his emphasis is. He obviously will speak to that himself, but you just happened to ask that. He said to me unequivocally, "I want to absolutely make clear that I see improvements in the faculty and particularly in terms of compensation, and there are ways that it can be accomplished if we can emulate certain models that have been approved by the State, and if they can be developed here that would be very much to the benefit of the faculty." So beyond the receptions and events and marketing and all of the important activities that do go on, that was his clear message to me and I delivered that. / Professor Baumrin – Persistently? / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – That’s the only way to be.

Professor Philipp (Chemistry, Lehman College) – It was good to hear that, because as you know the salaries at some of the public schools in the suburbs compare very favorably now to a professorial salary. I have a different question though, and I would normally wait until the next time you are here but I don’t know when you’re next time is… / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – No good deed goes unpunished. / Professor Philipp – In your function as secretary of the board of trustees--the Board recently changed a particular procedure. At the committee meetings of the Board it used to be that the representatives of the University Faculty Senate and the faculty alternates would sit at the table and ask questions. Only one could vote.. Recently that procedure has changed, and that has restricted significantly the discussion that takes place. In one instance I was not able to discuss things that were happening on my own campus because I was an alternate. Do you think that there’s any way of changing that to the way it was a year ago? It’s clearly not a question of space because there are many unused spaces. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – When that procedure was changed, the first question I had was whether or not it would apply equally to the presidential representative, faculty representative, and the student representative. That was the question that the Chair and Trustee O’Malley asked, and the answer to that was yes, and I think you will agree that it’s been applied equally. You and I should sit down and look at Robert’s Rules of Order (Revised). At a committee meeting, it is the delegate who is the member of the committee; it’s not the alternate. We are deeply grateful when an alternate shows, and when an alternate shows they can sit in the front row, very close to the action. But when a delegate is at a meeting, and you know this from your own campuses, the delegate is the member. The alternate is not the member, and committee members sit at the table. That’s all the procedure is. If the delegate is not there, the alternate is the member of the committee and sits at the table and receives all the rights and privileges as a member. That is the procedure. People in this room know a lot about procedure. That’s what it is. I can’t tell you how grateful we are for the turnout and I certainly made it clear to my staff that everyone is treated with courtesy and civility. In fact when an alternate asks for the committee agenda or wants back up materials, 100% of the time we provide them. If we have to provide extra copies, why not? They’ve taken the time to show up and they should receive those materials. That is no question; that’s courtesy that we should extend, we have to extend, we’re professionals. But the members of the committee are the ones who sit at the table and it’s no different than how that’s applied in other situations. / Professor Philipp – In particular in this situation in this room alternates certainly can attend but do not vote, but they can participate in the discussion. I think the core issue is you’re building the alternates to participate in the discussion, certainly not to vote. I think the reference to Robert’s rules is very pertinent because of course every assembly has the opportunity to change those rules to fit it’s own particular situation. I think the situation we had a year a go was a very beneficial one to the University because open discussion is the foundation of the University and it promoted that. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – I will certainly share your views with… / Chair – All Trustees sit at the table, right? / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Trustees sit at the table because they are Trustees and the Board has a procedure where a Trustee may attend committee meetings. Having said what I said, I will certainly take your views and I’ll share them with both the Chairman and the Chancellor.

Syd Lefkoe (Queens College) – I just wanted to say CUNY made what I think was a great choice as far as putting Chris Rosa from Queens in a brand new spot as CUNY Director of Disability Services, I think that’s one of the hats he wears in his new position, and I think that’s great. And I think that appointment makes a statement, CUNY makes a great statement that way, and it ties in with marketing both to potential students as well as to potential faculty, and it says, "not only do we care but we want you and we want to make this place accessible to people with disabilities so they can do what they’re here to do." At the same time as we’re tying that in hopefully with marketing more and more, and I’ve seen this as Co-Chair of the Faculty Senate Committee for Disabilities Issues, CUNY is I think trying to make additional efforts and you were part of that last year in supporting a program that in addition to making it a marketing effort also says, "we’re trying to solve the problem," and I think that’s very important and I just wanted to encourage you to keep doing that in whatever way you can. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – I was very proud to be a part of what really was the effort of the University Faculty Senate to showcase the research side of the various disabilities issues and projects. Let me just say to you the one creative idea that I had. I don’t think I was the only one, so I’m a partner. I advocated, with John Mogulescu’s support (Chair O’Malley talked to me as well) that in the Master Plan there be a proposal that the College Now program be expanded to have an educational component for disabled students. I think that’s very important because the students coming to us from the public school system need an early message of welcome and they need information. There are wrenching decisions that they have to make, and that needs to be provided by us. We are in 220 high schools now, so what better time to make a component of that program that serves the needs of disabled students who are coming towards us and who should come to us. I’m very interested in that and I would really welcome the opportunity. Now it’s in the Master Plan, so it is official University policy. The Chancellor was obviously very supportive through your committee and it’s really Dean Mogulescu’s office that can provide the leadership. We can really make that happen, we can be very creative and do wonderful things to send that message in constructive ways.

Professor Crain (Psychology, City College) – Would you help us advocate the Regents to hold a hearing in New York on the Master Plan? The Regents don’t seem to want to hold a hearing on the Master Plan. I don’t know where you stand. I’m sure CUNY Central would rather all these critics didn’t get a chance to get the Regents’ ears, but in terms of advocating participation among the whole City and getting involved in the City University it would be a good idea to have a hearing on the Master Plan in New York City. They don’t want to hear what we think, but if we’re all one big family we should hold a hearing before the Regents so they can hear our voices, they can hear my voice as well as the Chancellor’s. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Why don’t we get together and talk about that?

Chair O’Malley – Actually I wrote a letter to all of the Regents requesting that a hearing be held and they are going to vote on it. The Commissioner doesn’t like hearings. But I have a quick question. This is a question, which I probably shouldn’t ask, but let’s see if we get an upbeat answer. I am an avid reader of the CUNY press clips. For two and three quarters years I’ve been reading the press clips. That’s every time CUNY is mentioned in the press I get to read about it. The press is very different from what it was six years, eight years ago. Today I don’t open up the paper to see CUNY torn apart, and that’s nice. However, sometimes the press does border, it seems to me, on public relations. In some ways we need that because we’re so underfunded. The last thing we want is to be slashed and attacked. CUNY has lots of problems. It would be nice to be able to talk about them and talk about our successes too. And I think our students, the ones who graduate, I do think they’re extremely strong and wonderful; I think we do good work. But sometimes the press just seems mindless. / Vice Chancellor Hershenson – Let me just say something very quickly. The press is a broad term. The press is no longer the newspaper that my father brought home. The press is a much more complicated set of enterprises, just as the world of Fox News is very different than it was when I was in college. That’s one point; we would have to have a discussion on the press. I think on some level you’ll have to forgive us for wanting to showcase the University. Maybe we go further than you would perhaps like, although you’re always supportive of showing the accomplishments of our students and faculty, but it’s a very tough climate out there, and we’re in a real competitive market. There are proprietary institutions in this city that would like nothing better than to sign up those immigrant students that people care about into various programs, let them exhaust their TAP and not worry about it. It’s a very competitive environment we have out there. I for one take that into account, that we’re not the only enterprise in town. I think that having a Chancellor of the standing of Dr. Matthew Goldstein has made an enormous difference in terms of our credibility with the press. There’s actually no question when you compare him with other institutions. So I can’t apologize for it. We’ve had some successes. It’s a tough town. I don’t have to tell you working with tabloids is always an interesting experience, and I think that we have to showcase the University. And finally, a last comment, I made this comment to you privately, I know you won’t mind me saying it publicly, we’re launching a fundraising campaign. I mean, think about it. We’ve got to get the word out to alumni that the time is now to turn around and help the colleges of the City University. This is the time to talk up the great faculty, the great staff, the great students of CUNY, so that’s going to be our emphasis. We have a star who was just elected from City College who will do great things this year, Lauren Fasano, and then we’ll go on to even greater things. We have to showcase our stars because we want to inspire more support. So yes, you’re right, I’m as upbeat as possible and I make no apology for it. / Chair – Thank you so much.

IV. New Business:

B. Lauren Fasano, Chair, University Student Senate: Chair O’Malley -- She’s the new Chair of the Student Senate and she wants to say hello. She’s from City College and is an English major. She’s been in office one day? / Lauren Fasano – A long day.

Lauren Fasano – Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I am from City College and I am majoring in English, but a few words personally about me. I started at NYU my first semester before coming to City College and one thing I can tell you is what sets CUNY apart from other universities is their dedicated faculty. I know you can be a lot of other places but you chose to stay at CUNY and invest your time in making sure that we obtain a higher education. On behalf of those 217,000 students I would really like to thank you, because without some of the faculty at CCNY I don’t know where I would have been. On another note also, there are a lot of things up and coming especially when it comes to Albany, and I would like to say that we look forward to continuing our relationship with the University Faculty Senate and working together so that we can accomplish goals and make sure that CUNY is better for the years to come and that we make City University the best that we possibly can. That’s all I have to say. / Chair – You have an office up in Albany now. / Lauren Fasano – Yes we do, on 100 State Street on the first floor. / Chair – We’ll be coming by. / Lauren Fasano – Yes, come on by. But if you have any questions I’d be glad to answer them and, like I said, we just look forward to working with you for this upcoming year. You have a very enthusiastic group of people. So we’re very happy to work with you. / Chair – Lauren was sworn in at the Trustee’s meeting, so it’s been one day and a few hours that she has held this position and she wanted to see us. I made a terrible mistake because it was Esther who wanted to make an announcement and not Barbara.

Esther – I put up a little flyer about the CUNY campaign for charitable giving, which is already underway, and I know we’ve all been talking a lot about raising money for CUNY. But this is CUNY’s charitable fundraising drive and I’m the representative at Lehman College and I just wanted to ask the support of the Senators here to possibly donating, and if you’ve thought of that already you have my announcements, so you can read that, and it basically says just a little bit about the campaign. And if you want to give a donation I’ll be around after the campaign and I have a brochure that lists all the organizations that are participating in the campaign and probably a lot of you have received the brochures already in your mailbox. If not you should be getting them soon, but I have something here. Thank you.