The City College

of New York

The City Experience

2014 Report from the President
2014 Report from the President
Among the many distinguished visitors we welcomed to City College
this year was The Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice of the United
States Supreme Court and Bronx native. In her conversation with the
college community, Justice Sotomayor reiterated her assertion that
she is “an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary
opportunities and experiences.” In doing so, she spoke directly to our
students, telling them, “If I can do it, so can you.”

Extraordinary opportunities and experiences abound at City College.

The resources, knowledge, and support we provide allow our students
to achieve at the highest levels. Each individual’s story is unique, with
different challenges and aspirations. What binds us together is the City
experience. Our distinctive mix of cultures, backgrounds, and interests
gives rise to new ideas and possibilities.

Visit City College today and you will discover what happens
when you bring together talented, hardworking individuals in
an environment that promotes excellence and inquiry. From
advanced research to community advocacy to artistic creation,
our students and faculty are leaders and innovators.
This year’s City highlights are a testament to the caliber of our
students, faculty, and staff. Their accomplishments are significant
reminders of the power of education to open minds, solve problems,
and transform lives. This work would not be possible without the
support of our benefactors, whose generosity ensures that the City
experience is available to future generations.

Lisa S. Coico, Ph.D.

The City College of New York
 City College Highlights

The Campaign for The City College of New York has raised more than half a billion dollars.
This milestone came a year earlier than anticipated, thanks to the generous support of our
donors. The campaign provides funding for individual schools;
recruitment and retention
of faculty and visiting scholars;
student scholarships, internships, study abroad programs
and 
research projects;
and enhancement of campus facilities.

National publications are taking note of City’s academic excellence

and leadership. We moved up 18 places in the U.S. News & World
Report Best Colleges 2014 rankings to place 43rd in the Regional
Universities (North) category. The Princeton Review named City
College one of the 332 most environmentally responsible colleges
in the U.S. and Canada and one of the nation’s “Best Value” colleges
and universities. Forbes deems City College one of America’s Top
Colleges in the Northeast for 2014. City is one of only four New York
State supported public institutions to make the Forbes top 100 list.

The Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, the

first Hispanic to serve on the U.S.
Supreme Court, participated in a
conversation about her memoir, “My
Beloved World,” as part of the Samuel
Rudin Distinguished Visiting Scholar
Lecture series. The book recounts her
journey from a South Bronx housing
project to the federal bench.

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 Veteran journalist Ray Suarez
presented the President’s Lecture
and signed copies of his newest
book, “Latino Americans: The
500-Year Legacy That Shaped a
Nation.”

Mr. Suarez hosts Al Jazeera

America’s daily program
“Inside Story” and previously
worked on “NewsHour” at
PBS and National Public
Radio’s “Talk of the Nation.”

City College hosted the first Cátedra Vargas Llosa in the U.S. The Cátedra is an international
academic project honoring Peruvian writer and Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa. It serves as
an interdisciplinary resource for the study of the author’s work and promotes emerging Spanish-
language writers. The Cátedra began in November with a lecture by Efraín Kristal, professor
and chair of comparative literature at UCLA.
 Commencement 2014

Friends, family, and supporters applauded the

achievements of our newest graduates at the City
College 168th Commencement Exercises in May.

Actress Lillias White, a 1978 alumna and award-winning performer, received

the honorary degree doctor of fine arts. Ms. White performed a rousing
rendition of the gospel hymn, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”

An honorary degree doctor of humane letters was conferred on retail

executive Millard Drexler, chairman and CEO of J.Crew Group, Inc. Mr.
Drexler previously headed Gap, Inc., and created Old Navy and Gap Kids.
Henry Perahia, (’71BME), (’73MME), former deputy commissioner of the
New York City Department of Transportation, was awarded the honorary
degree doctor of science. 5
 Class of 2014
Biomedical science major and Class of 2014 Valedictorian Arielle Elmaleh-Sachs has a
special interest in health policy and health disparities. Her many honors include the Mack
Lipkin Broader Horizons Fellowship, which allowed her to travel to Paris and work on a
national study on the care of HIV-HCV co-infected patients. Arielle will enter NYU School
of Medicine this December and also hopes to earn a Master of Public Health. Reflecting on
her “amazing experience” at City, Arielle said, 
“CCNY is a university that offers so many
opportunities for academic and personal growth within a very rich and diverse community.
I feel so fortunate to have been a part of it.”

Delvin Cruz first entered college more than

10 years ago, but faced difficulties due to a
visual impairment that left him blind in one
eye. He received an associate degree from
Clinton Community College and spent the
next decade working at computer repair.
In 2011, he enrolled at Bronx Community
College and transferred to City College. Aided
by new technologies, Delvin graduated with
a B.A. in English and a 3.74 GPA. He worked
part-time helping other blind students in
City’s assistive technology lab. “I want to be a
positive influence to show that they, too, can
do something with their lives,” he said. Delvin
will pursue a master’s in secondary English
education at City’s School of Education.

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 Amazing
Experiences

After attending college in Atlanta for a period,

Jamaal Jones returned home to New York and
began working with marginalized youth at the
South Bronx Overall Economic Development
Corporation and Good Shepard Services. He
enrolled at the Center for Worker Education
to serve as an example to the kids he helps,
and soon hit his stride. “I felt encouraged and
ready to strive for excellence,” Jamaal said.
“After a couple of semesters of getting all A’s,
I challenged myself to earn my degree with a
4.0.” He achieved his goal, graduating as CWE
valedictorian while working seven days a week.
He plans to attend law school and aspires to
earn an MFA in creative writing.
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 The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School
of Architecture
The Atrium Gallery hosted “Building the Modern Gothic: George Post at City
College,” an exhibit of digital reproductions of 45 original drawings by George
Post. In 1897, Mr. Post won a competition to design City College’s new uptown
campus, located at West 138th Street and Convent. His design consisted of five
neo-Gothic structures with terra cotta trim plus the surrounding landscape,
which included four arches, a central quad, retaining walls and lighting.

Theaster Gates, an artist and innovator in the field of social practice, presented the 10th
Annual Lewis Mumford Lecture on “Place Over Time: New Symbols for Durational
Encounters with the City.” Mr. Gates is internationally known for his work on the South
Side of Chicago. The Mumford Lecture series invites the world’s most distinguished
urbanists to speak freely and publicly about the future of cities.

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Grove School of Engineering
The Grove School welcomed a new dean, Gilda Barabino, formerly associate
chair for graduate studies and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department
of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. She was
Georgia Tech’s first vice provost for academic diversity. Dr. Barabino also taught
at Northeastern University, where she served as the vice provost for undergraduate
education. Her areas of research include sickle cell disease, cellular and tissue
engineering, and diversity in science and engineering.

Debra Auguste, associate professor of biomedical engineering, was one of 102

researchers chosen as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for
Scientists and Engineers. This is the U.S. government’s highest honor for science
and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers. The 9
award, totaling $1.5 million over five years, supports her investigation into
personalized therapies to inhibit breast cancer metastasis.
 Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education
The Sophie Davis School celebrated its 40th anniversary in October with a benefit dinner cruise and a daylong
research symposium featuring New York State Commissioner of Health Nirav R. Shah as keynote speaker.
To date, more than 1,700 physicians have trained at the school, and more than 700 physician assistants have
graduated. Forty percent of its alumni practice in primary care specialties, many in high-need areas.

Medical Professor John Martin, postdoctoral fellow Najet Serradi, and other
colleagues demonstrated that voluntary movements depend on the corticospinal
tract while walking depends on circuits in other parts of the brain and spinal cord
unaffected by gene manipulation. The team hopes to further dissect the connections
and functions of the corticospinal tract movement circuits in ways to restore
movements after brain or spinal cord injury. The findings were published in the
“Journal of Neuroscience.” The National Institute of Neurological Diseases and
Stroke funds the group’s research.

School of Education
Gay Wilgus, assistant professor in the Graduate Program in Early Childhood Education, edited
“Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Postmulticulturalism: Shifting the Locus of Learning in Urban Teacher
Education.” The volume includes contributions by City faculty members Megan Blumenreich, Catherine
Franklin, Vicki Garavuso and Amita Gupta. In a panel presentation, the authors discussed how the
experimental pedagogies they designed and implemented can bring to the forefront the distinctive,
complex perspectives of students from historically marginalized groups.

The 5th Annual Doyle & Alba Bortner Distinguished

Speaker Series in Urban Education featured William Tate
speaking on “Education and Health Disparities: Taking
Seriously the Geospatial Nature of Regional Conditions.”
Professor Tate is dean of the Graduate School of Arts
10 & Sciences and vice provost for graduate education at
Washington University in St. Louis.
 Colin Powell School for Civic
and Global Leadership
The Powell School announced the appointment of
Vincent Boudreau as its first permanent dean. Dr.
Boudreau has spent his entire professional career
at City College. Over the course of 23 years, he
has directed the MA Program in International
Relations and the undergraduate International
Studies Program, and has served as deputy dean
of social sciences and chair of the political science
department. His scholarship focuses on Southeast
Asian politics, the politics of protest, state repression
and collective violence.

“ Human Rights: A Yearlong Forum at the City

College” presented a series of lectures, conversations,
screenings, exhibitions, and courses examining
human rights through multiple lenses. The intent was
to provide a critical perspective on human rights and
to question how to work toward justice for victims
and bear witness to human rights violations. The
Powell School sponsored the series with the Division
of Humanities and the Arts and the Division of
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Interdisciplinary Studies.
 Division of Humanities and the Arts
Ten City students spent eight weeks on the Stanford University campus this summer as part of the
CCNY-Stanford Summer Research Program, designed for students considering graduate studies in
the humanities. They conducted research with a faculty mentor and participated in weekly seminars
on the graduate school application process and research in the humanities.

Three recent graduates and a current student of the MFA program

in creative writing had their first books published:
• Brendan Kiely (’11), author of “The Gospel of Winter” (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
• Chris Ross (’04), author of “Born and Raised” (Tell Me Press)
• Jessica Stilling (’11), author of “Betwixt & Between” (Ig Publishing)
• Joseph Tirella, “Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World’s Fair and the Transformation
of America” (Lyons Press)
Theatre majors Alessandro Barbarotto, Ruby Hurlock, and Bilal Walker participated in an intensive
12 eight-week summer program at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA),
supported by the City College Fund, the Division of Humanities and the Arts, and the Office of
Government and Community Affairs.
 Division of Science
Tony Liss was named the first Martin and Michele
Cohen Dean of Science. Dr. Liss came to City from
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where
he was professor of physics and a Provost Fellow. His research in
high-energy physics has taken place at the world’s highest energy
accelerators, including the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and
the Tevatron Collider at Fermilab. His work resulted in the
discovery of new fundamental particles, among them the top quark.

“The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to

Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind” is the
latest book by Michio Kaku, Henry Semat Professor
of Theoretical Physics. Published by Doubleday, it
reached number one for hardcover nonfiction on The
New York Times Best Seller list in March. In the book,
Professor Kaku reveals how current research in the
fields of neuroscience and physics is paving the way for
revolutionary changes in the way we live.

Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center

for Worker Education (CWE)
Nearly 600 people attended The Americas Film Festival of New York, a new showcase for
cinematic works representing the cultures, languages and stories of the Americas. Over three
days, attendees enjoyed feature-length and short films from 10 countries in the Western
Hemisphere, along with panels and other events. CWE organized the event in collaboration
with the Division of Humanities and the Arts, the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global
Leadership, and the National Museum of the American Indian.

The fifth annual “Is Hip-Hop

History?” Conference paid homage
to the iconic 1984 hip-hop film “Beat
Street,” which celebrated its 30th
anniversary this year. The conference
was also part of City’s Black History
Month festivities. Themed the
“Return to Beat Street,” this year’s
event used the film for thoughtful 13
reflection, in particular on the
historical place of the female emcee.
 National Recognition
for City Students
Oluwadamisi “Kay” Atanda, the Colin Powell School for Civic
and Global Leadership 2014 valedictorian, received a Thomas
R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship. Kay is one of
40 college graduates nationwide selected for the program, which
prepares candidates to become members of the U.S. Foreign
Service. He is pursuing graduate studies in human rights and
U.S. foreign policy at Columbia University.

Widline Cadet, a 2013 studio art graduate, received a Mortimer

Hays-Brandeis Traveling Fellowship to support her work
documenting the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake
in Haiti. The Haitian-born photographer is capturing life in her
homeland as it returns to normalcy.

Khaled Hassan, Frederick Garcia and Amber Jackson, all

students in the Media and Communication Arts Department,
were selected as LAGRANT Foundation Scholars. The program
supports students from ethnically diverse backgrounds pursuing
careers in advertising, marketing and public relations.

Fariha Hussain and Kachael

Stocks received Jeannette K.
Watson Fellowships for 2014.
The program provides summer
internships, professional
development opportunities
and mentoring for outstanding
undergraduate students from
select New York City colleges
and universities.

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 The City College
of New York

The City Experience

2014 Report from the President
 Fulbright Grants Fund Global Research
and Teaching
Three colleagues in the Colin Powell School received Fulbright grants for 2014-2015.
Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith, associate professor of psychology, is exploring issues of
women and wellness in post-conflict Sierra Leone, her native country. Assistant Professor of
Sociology Jack Levinson will work with researchers at the University of Sheffield, England,
on innovative approaches to social inclusion for persons with intellectual and developmental
disabilities. Daniel DiSalvo, assistant professor of political science, taught a short course
on U.S. history and politics at Universidad de San Andres in Buenos Aires and lectured in
different cities throughout Argentina.

Recent MFA graduate Jessie Chaffee (’11) received a Fulbright award to Florence, Italy,
to research and complete her debut novel, which she began as a student at City College.

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School of Education graduate and Class of 2014 Salutatorian Simone Gordon was selected
for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to India. After the Fulbright, she plans to
pursue graduate studies focusing on K–12 education policy or curriculum and instruction
before becoming a general education teacher.
Associate Professor of Education Tatyana Kleyn received a Fulbright grant to Mexico
for fall 2014. Professor Kleyn will teach a course to EFL teachers and conduct a study
about children and youth who have been deported or whose parents were deported
from the U.S. back to Mexico.

Andrea Weiss, professor of film and video, received a Fulbright Scholar Award to Spain for
research and production of a documentary, “Bones of Contention.” The film will explore
the theme of historical memory in post-Franco Spain with a focus on the erasure and denial
of LGBT history. Professor Weiss will be affiliated with the Department of Audio-Visual
Communications at Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona.

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 Honoring Alumni Achievements
The 133rd Annual Alumni Dinner in November recognized
the remarkable accomplishments of City College alumni.
Legendary Broadway star and two-time Tony Award-winning actress, dancer, and
singer Chita Rivera received the 66th John H. Finley Award, given in recognition of
exemplary service to the City of New York. Ms. Rivera starred in a number of original
Broadway productions, including “West Side Story,” “Chicago,” and “Bye Bye Birdie.”
She is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a lifetime achievement
award from The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

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The Townsend Harris Medal, named for the
founder of City College, honors outstanding
postgraduate achievements. This year’s
recipients were:
• Anita Altman (’67)
• Maurice Bluestein (’62ME)
• Sid Davidoff (’60)
• Gerald Eskenazi (’59)
• Albert Macovski (’50EE)
• Fred Schwartz (’53)
• Jonathan Woodson (’77)
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 New Facilities Support Growth and Creativity
The City College Center for Discovery and Innovation opens in fall 2014
with approximately 200,000 square feet of space for advanced research in key
interdisciplinary fields. The facility will be a magnet for regional, national and
international researchers and a locus of learning for students and faculty.

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Launched this year, The City College Center for the Arts (CCCA) is an international cultural hub for the
college community and surrounding neighborhoods. It will serve as a premier venue for local and national
performers and for art patrons in the tri-state area. Aaron Davis Hall, now part of the CCCA, is currently
undergoing a $2.5 million renovation. The New York City Council and CUNY have committed more than
$10 million over the next five years for additional capital improvements.

The Moxie Foundation’s gift of $750,000 funds the expansion of the Zahn Innovation Center to incorporate
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social entrepreneurship. Located on the City campus in the Grove School of Engineering, the Zahn Center is a
startup incubator for technology-enabled companies, with a focus on hardware startups. Established in 2012,
it currently supports nearly 20 City College and community-based teams. With the gift, the Zahn Center will
establish a new competition, the Zahn Social Innovation Prize. Irwin Zahn (’48) chairs the Moxie Foundation.
 Engaging with the Community
I established the President’s Community Scholars program in
2010 to strengthen links with the surrounding community.
The first four Community Scholars graduated as
members of the Class of 2014. They are Laura Arias,
Daoud Nsangou, Mohammed Sabha and Jatnna
Taveras. Laura and Jatnna are graduates of the City
College Academy of the Arts (CCAA), an Early
College High School. Through its affiliation with
City College, CCAA offers dual enrollment classes
and activities for its students.

The annual Presidential Awards Dinner is an opportunity to recognize some of our

most steadfast supporters. In June, we were pleased to honor leading engineering
design firm AECOM; E. James Stergiou, (’71), co-founder, chairman and CEO of SG
Risk, an
 actuarial consulting firm; and Rick Gustave, (’06), MD, MPH, recipient of
the Young Leadership Award. The dinner raised more than a million dollars for The
Campaign for The City College of New York.

City faculty, staff, and students took part in the Percy Sutton
Harlem 5K Run and NYC Family Health Walk for Peace in August.
Sponsored by the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce and City
College, the annual event brings together participants for a run or walk
through historic Harlem.

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 Presidential
Awards Dinner

Award-winning poets Aracelis Girmay and Elana Bell were featured

guests for the 42nd annual City College Poetry Festival, presented by the
City College Poetry Outreach Center. The all-day, all-verse event is New
York’s longest-running poetry celebration. The event included readings
by elementary and junior high school students, as well as winners of the
festival’s citywide high school poetry contest. The top three winners 23
received the Knopf Publishers Prize.
24
The City College
of New York

160 Convent Avenue New York, NY 10031 phone 212.650.7000 www.ccny.cuny.edu