Committee for CUNY Future Asks Task Force to Focus on Standards

WASHINGTON, DC—The Committee for the CUNY Future, a group of distinguished faculty, alumni and citizens, today called on the Mayor’s Advisory Task Force on the City University of New York to focus on academic standards. The statement was submitted as part of the record at a public forum being conducted at the New York City Technical College:

“As faculty, alumni, and citizens, we have one message to the CUNY task force: Raise academic standards! Raise standards in admissions. Raise standards in curriculum. Raise standards in graduation requirements, in teaching, and in assessment. Restore the value of the CUNY degree. Make CUNY what a great urban public university should be: an opportunity for excellence.”

The Committee for the CUNY Future was formed earlier this year to support CUNY reform. Its members include faculty, alumni, parents and citizens concerned about the future of the CUNY system. Members endorsing the statement include Jerry L. Martin, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and distinguished scholars Jules L. Coleman, Paula S. Fichtner, Eugene D. Genovese, Oscar Handlin, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Donald Kagan, Margaret King, Jay Newman, and Sheldon Stern.

All those supporting the statement are listed below:

Martin Berman, retired, auditor – Hunter College

Jane P. Coleman (Hunter ‘57; graduate courses, Hunter, CCNY), Vice President, Merrill Lynch; former junior high school math teacher

Jules L. Coleman (Brooklyn College ‘68, Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1987), Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale University

Richard R. Davis, New York City, trustee, Meharry Medical College

Paula S. Fichtner, professor of history, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center

Mary Campbell Gallagher, J.D., PhD., former professor, City University Graduate Center and Queens College

Eugene D. Genovese (Brooklyn College ‘53), Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, University Center in Georgia

Robert Glick (Brooklyn College ‘65 and former Brooklyn College Distinguished Alumnus of the Year), Vice President for College Advancement, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Stanley Goldstein (Brooklyn College ‘59), trustee, Brooklyn College Foundation

Oscar Handlin (Brooklyn College ‘34), Charles Warren Professor of American History, Emeritus, Harvard University

Gertrude Himmelfarb (Brooklyn College ‘42), Professor Emeritus of History, Graduate Center, City University of New York

Donald Kagan (Brooklyn College ‘54), Hillhouse Professor of History and Classics, Yale University

Elizabeth C. Kaming, Esq., Kaming & Kaming, New York City

Margaret L. King, professor of history, Brooklyn College

Charles E. M. Kolb, President, Committee for Economic Development, Washington, D.C.

Michael Lattman, Vice President – Investment, Noyes Partners, New York City

Jerry L. Martin, President, American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Washington, DC

Kathleen McCreary, Tax Counsel, METLIFE, New York City

Lynne A. Munson, research associate, American Enterprise Institute, Brooklyn

Anne D. Neal, Vice President and General Counsel, American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Washington, DC

Jay Newman (Brooklyn College ‘68), professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph; Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Arthur Stephen Penn, private investor, New York City

Sheldon M. Stern (CUNY ‘61), historian and director of the American History Project for High School Students, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts.