Convocation at the College of Staten Island has traditionally been a time to underscore this institution’s achievements over the past year, while looking to the further advancement that the future will bring. This year was no different, but, as CSI President Dr. Tomás Morales noted yesterday to a near-capacity crowd in the Center for the Arts Williamson Theatre, this year’s Convocation would also be a celebration, as the College recognized its faculty and staff who has reached milestones in their service to CSI.
Click Here to view CSI’s 2009 Convocation list of accomplishments.
Dr. Morales began his remarks by spotlighting the importance of the faculty and staff. “It is you and your colleagues who have made this Convocation possible, because it is you and your colleagues who have compiled an extraordinary record of accomplishment. That accomplishment is taking CSI to new heights. I am immensely proud of what you have achieved and what it means to the thousands of students who have entrusted their education to us.
“Thanks to you,” Dr. Morales continued, “CSI is not merely holding its own during a difficult time in our national economy, we are setting records, turning heads, transforming lives.” In fact, CSI boasts an all-time high enrollment for 2009-2010, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and world-class academic programs that are constantly expanding.
CSI’s accomplishments, according to Dr. Morales, include alumni who are not only moving on to some of “the finest medical schools and law schools, graduate schools and jobs,” but graduates [who] not only comprise the heart and soul of education and health care on Staten Island, they are now making their mark and setting a standard across the country and around the world.”
Dr. Morales also spotlighted the exceptional quality of CSI’s faculty, including the 43 new faculty members who just came on board this fall, as well as new administrative hires for Vice President for Students Affairs, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness, Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, and Director of Diversity and Compliance.
Throughout his speech, the President pointed to a number of other extraodinary factors that have made CSI the college of choice for so many students, from its participation in the prestigious Macaulay Honors College and The Verrazano School to its successful efforts to expand scholarship availability to new inroads for student and faculty exchanges that the College is making with top institutions of higher education around the world, to name only a few.
Now, as the College embarks on a new Strategic Plan to map its future, Dr. Morales said that the process would operate under “a culture of inclusiveness and a culture of shared governance,” adding that “the key to our planning and our implementation has been, is, and will continue to be, shared governance. The heart of shared governance is openness and communication. Openness ensures that all that is done can be seen by all who care about this institution. Communication ensures that all who care about this institution can be heard.”
In concluding his comments, Dr. Morales stated, “In all aspects CSI is advancing, not with small steps born of indecision and uncertainty, but with bold strides of confidence and confirmation that what we are doing, we are doing right. CSI truly is world class. And most assuredly, it is right here.”
Following Dr. Morales’s speech, CSI Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. William Fritz recognized the vast contributions of faculty and staff members who have reached milestone anniversaries of service by calling them to the stage to receive gifts of appreciation.
