I trust that this email finds you well. It has been some time since I last communicated and there is much to relay: I hope you find the below informative and useful.
The past two weeks have been extremely busy, with meetings on campus and off. As lobbying season kicks into high gear, members of the administration and I have been engaging with local elected officials, and with representatives from both Albany and Washington, DC. In recent days, I had meetings with Congressmember Nicole Malliotakis, Borough President Vito Fossella, City Councilmember (and Minority Leader) Joseph Borelli, as well as with State Assemblymembers Sam Pirozzolo, Michael Reilly, and Michael Tannousis, and State Senator Andrew Lanza. We thanked them for their past support and urged their continued advocacy for campus and system needs. I will be travelling to the state capitol tomorrow to continue my campaign, and next week brings another slate of meetings with city and state officials, both on campus and off. Of course, such work cannot be accomplished by me alone and I appreciate the outreach our alumni and employees are making to our elected representatives asking for their support as we seek full and fair funding for CUNY. It is hoped that these actions will result in increased support for CUNY and for CSI, as they did last year when the campus received more than $8 million in funding for capital projects.
Support comes from many sectors, so I also met with private philanthropists and funders this week. The meetings included the CSI Foundation Board of Directors—where we discussed new member applications, recent scholarship bequests, and our upcoming gala (Thursday, April 18; get your tickets here). With their leadership and your help, this promises to be our signature fundraising campaign of the season. I also met with the directors of the Heckscher Foundation and with executives from Northfield Bank and JP Morgan Chase to discuss ways in which those bodies can assist our operations, and I am hopeful that these conversations will bear fruit. Clearly, we are leaving no stones unturned in our efforts to support our campus operations: outreach to potential and real funders should be coordinated through our Office of Institutional Advancement, which has increased giving in the recent months and which is best positioned to capitalize on such prospects.
I also met with both the Institutional Planning Committee of the College Council and with that body’s Executive Committee. We discussed, inter alia, plans related to Commencement activities, CSI St. George, strategic planning, and transportation challenges (the latter a topic for a late-week meeting with representatives from the Transportation Taskforce). Many of these discussions revolved around budgetary imperatives, and while we are definitely moving—and rapidly so—in the right direction, there is still work to do in the remaining four months of the fiscal year and we will need to make realistic, but difficult, decisions.
With no offense to my colleagues from among the governance leaders, my favorite meetings of the week were held over “Tea with Tim,” where I engaged with the hardworking staff from the Center for Advising and Academic Success (CAAS) and, especially, over “Pizza with the President,” where I met with student representatives from the Teacher Education Honors Academy (TEHA). It is always great to hear what we are doing well to support our students and ways in which we can best meet their needs. The week also included opportunities to recognize Women’s History Month, as I visited with Donna Gerstle in the Staten Island Breast Cancer Research Institute, and as the Bertha Harris Women’s Center and the Title IX Office kicked off their drive in support of the Safe Horizons Shelter, which you may want to support online.
As the week comes to an end, I remind you to set your clocks one hour ahead this Sunday (and change your fire alarms batteries while you’re at it!) as we begin Daylight Savings Time….and I wish all who celebrate a blessed Ramadan, which begins on Monday.
Until next time,
Timothy G. Lynch, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
