Community Meeting 10-5-09
President’s Community Meeting
Monday, October 5, 2009
Residential Facility Announced at Community Meeting
The president’s community meeting on October 5 in the Skylight Room was a lively event, as Dr. William P. Kelly presented good news and spoke about upcoming challenges.
“Until now, we had achieved or exceeded the benchmarks we set for ourselves ten years ago, with the exception of building a residential facility for students and faculty,” stated President Kelly. “However, I’m pleased to announce today that we will soon achieve that goal as well.” Despite the impact of the national economic crisis, the Graduate Center Foundation is close to raising the funds needed for construction of the facility. The residence will be part of CUNY’s East Harlem campus, where the new CUNY School of Public Health and the Hunter College School of Social Work will be housed. Located at 118th Street and Lexington Avenue, this housing unit will have eighty apartments for doctoral students and thirteen for faculty.
President Kelly informed the assembled community that Chancellor Matthew Goldstein has committed to eighteen new faculty lines over the next three years. In addition, a new Mellon Foundation grant of $2.4 million will fund three new transdisciplinary centers committed to research, teaching, and public programming in the areas of religion, science and society in the twenty-first century, and social change in the era of globalization.
President Kelly also noted two recent appointments: Robert D. Campbell as vice president of information technology and Louise Lennihan as associate provost and dean for humanities and social sciences. The Graduate Center’s space is being reviewed to determine its most efficient use by academic departments, centers, and institutes. While GC funding is sufficient for 2009–10, the New York State budget will likely show a deficit in the next fiscal year, and all necessary steps are being taken to plan for that eventuality.
Responding to concerns expressed by doctoral students regarding payroll administrative issues and subsequent trouble regarding enrolling in the New York State Health Insurance Program (NYSHIP), President Kelly apologized for past difficulties, committed to doing everything in his power to prevent any repetition of such vexing problems, and announced that the GC will hire a new staff member to assist in coordinating NYSHIP for GC doctoral students.
Submitted on: OCT 5, 2009