“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
-Sylvia Plath
To the College Community:
I am very pleased to welcome back all of our returning students, faculty, and staff. For those who are new to the College of Staten Island, I extend you a warm welcome to the CSI family.
While the end of summer may indeed be “the odd uneven time,” for us, it is also the time of incredible excitement in anticipation of the new academic year, and a time to reflect upon a summer of accomplishments at the College.
In the midst of these challenging fiscal times, within the last month we received unprecedented support from our Staten Island state legislative delegation. We received commitments of $1 million to renovate our track and field facility and an additional $550,000 for new maintenance equipment and other capital projects to support academic and faculty resources.
Although our operating budget comes almost entirely from the State, we have made recent, unprecedented gains with City funding. Following the receipt of City funding this past spring for our new Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, otherwise known as ASAP, the City recently committed to providing the College with $500,000 in operational monies to support the College’s proposal for an Entrepreneurial Incubator and High-Tech Educational Center. Our Borough President and City Council delegation also allocated to the College an additional $1.3 million in Reso-A capital project funding.
Over the summer, we submitted a comprehensive business plan to CUNY for a new satellite campus in St. George, which has significantly increased our momentum to return to our roots in the North Shore, expand our New York City and borough footprint, better serve the St. George community, and strengthen our enrollments.
Just this week, the Staten Island Advance featured a front-page article and a follow-up editorial lauding our “30,000 Degrees by 2025” initiative, which is a collaborative effort with Wagner College and St. John’s University to encourage more Staten Island residents to improve their lives through higher education.
All of our accomplishments are increasingly being recognized locally, regionally, and nationally, with more accolades coming over the summer. Money magazine ranked CSI third in New York state, eighth among public institutions in the Middle-Atlantic region, and 123rd nationally for institutions that provide the best value for students’ tuition dollars. Forbes magazine followed by ranking CSI one of “America’s Top Colleges” offering a high return-on-investment education.
Bolstered by our increased national recognition and our uniqueness as a suburban campus in New York City, our goal is to define CSI as the destination campus for some of the best students throughout the nation and across the globe to achieve academic success.
Clearly, CSI and CUNY continue to face significant challenges with the State budget, including the priority need to provide funding for the collective bargaining agreements of our dedicated employees. The allocation of funding this summer from external State and City resources demonstrates the College’s ongoing commitment to find all available revenue streams to support the resource needs of faculty, staff, and students, and to advance the academic excellence of the College. As President, I am dedicated to continuing these efforts.
