Happy New Academic Year!
It seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for the celebration of our 2024 graduates, and now here we are days away from the beginning of a new academic year, getting ready to welcome new faculty and new students into the fold and welcome back our continuing and readmitted students. Welcome back to all of you too! Our 58th year as York College would not be would be possible without each one of you, York’s incredible staff and faculty. Because whether you work directly or indirectly with new or current students, there is not a single department or person that is not involved in helping students to achieve their educational and professional goals. And that begins with them taking a seat at table of opportunity that we have built for them.
I trust that you are as excited about the new academic year as I am, but indulge me for a few while I provide a brief recap of how York spent its summer vacation.
Throughout the summer, Lori Hoeffner sent weekly updates regarding enrollment to the college community as well as enrollment reports by academic program/major to department chairpersons. The reports reflected steady and increasing enrollment of freshmen, transfers and re-admit students; and unfortunately, declining continuing student enrollment. It is important to note that comparatively speaking, our first-year and transfer enrollments are higher than in 2023, 2022, and 2021, and our transfers are higher than in 2020. However, while York has the highest percentage increase of first-year student enrollment in the entire university, we also have the distinction of the lowest enrollment of continuing students. You can find the latest Registration Report via our intranet at: https://www.york.cuny.edu/institutional-effectiveness/facts/intranet/fall2024_weeklyregistrationdashboardasof20240823_new.pdf
Over the past three months, Nicholas Jones, our Executive Director of Enrollment Management also sent regular and weekly updates to the Enrollment Management Team on enrollment stats which helped to informed the teams focused actions, efforts and special programs and activities throughout the summer. From Advisement Days, to call campaigns, to text messages, to social media, to marketing, to tabling events around the borough, to a bustling Welcome Center, to Welcome Wagon visits, York Opportunity Network meeting, new student orientation and more, the EM Team had a very busy summer. Thank you to the Enrollment Management team Academic Affairs, Marketing and a host of other units across the college for your tireless efforts and special thank you to all faculty advisors for the time they spent on campus this summer advising students.
Even as we prepare to embark on a new semester, we continue to be plagued by the fiscal challenges. The College budget continues to be an area of concern. In the face of mandated saving targets and City reductions, ensuring a healthy student enrollment, minding our expenditures and focusing on priority hirings continues to guide our efforts. Fiscal Year 2025 (July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025) will be a challenging budget year.
We did not meet the Universities FY24 savings target and subsequently, are not on track to meet the FY25 deficit target. We are diligently tracking enrollment and collections with the goal of achieving our FY25 projections, which include a 2% increase in enrollment and a 1% improvement in collections.
To address these challenges, we will continue to implement strategic measures and carefully manage our resources. Our goal is to align our financial activities with the university’s objectives while ensuring that we remain responsive to the College needs. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we navigate through this period.
We have prepared and submitted, as required by the University, a draft FY25 Financial Plan will be meeting with required college bodies to discuss and provide input on the plan in the next few weeks.
I could refer to the past few weeks as the summer of discontent when Vivian Febus-Cabrera, Special Assistant to the President, Dana Trimboli, Chief of Staff to the President who also provided executive oversight to the Division of Institutional Advancement and Communication, Claudio Lindow, AVP and CIO informed me of their impending departure from York College. But how could I be unhappy when I reflect on the time (albeit short) that I had the opportunity to work with them, and most importantly how the college has benefitted from their leadership and commitment to our mission and our students.
I don’t need to tell you that Claudio took IT to another level by his leadership of the area including but not limited to the management of hardware, software and cloud-based technologies, IT disaster recovery and business continuity operations, mobile technologies, setting up and maintaining a secure digital infrastructure, maintenance, and operations of York College’s data centers, support building management system interfaces, and security, computer labs as all academic technology. He also supported teaching, learning and research and lead many process improvement initiatives on campus, and worked collaboratively with every division and with the central office.
Vivian did a remarkable job supporting and evaluating business functions positively impacting procedures. She also led efforts during the pandemic around the distribution of emergency funds. At the core of her work, was her passion for student success.
As chief of staff, Dana has truly been a right and a left hand, working across all divisions at the college, with faculty and staff, the York Foundation Board and community members to bring so many projects to fruition. She also actively led advancement efforts, raised more than $50K for students impacted by the pandemic as well over a $1 million for our day of giving and gala. Her contributions were immeasurable. Fortunately for us, Dana not only remains in the CUNY family, but she leaves us an incredible legacy of love by establishing a scholarship for students pursuing a career/studies in law enforcement. I wish them all the best of luck in this next phase of their professional lives.
While HR will continue to send regular staffing updates, I am pleased to share that Nyisha Howell has been appointed as the Interim Chief of Staff. She will assume executive oversight of the Division of Institutional Advancement and Communications as well. We anticipate a decision in the coming days from the Central Office regarding our request to appoint Greg Vega as our Interim CIO. Once the appointment has been finalized, formal notification will be sent to the college community. Prior to her departure, and in response to the need for a Scholarship Coordinator, Vivian’s responsibilities were shifted as was the administration of Scholarships from Advancement to Enrollment Management. Currently, we are working on a plan to address this critical need. In the interim, please refer any scholarship inquiries to VP Karen Williams. You should also refer any questions about Continuing Education to Earl Simons. In addition, I am pleased to share that Lori Hoeffner has been promoted to VP a recognition of the enormous work around assessment, accreditation, and strategic planning required of her area. Please join me in congratulating Nyisha, Greg and Lori.
I am also excited to share that starting this fall, York will launch an Employee of The Month recognition program to recognize outstanding staff in our college community. More information will be forthcoming.
As many of you know, this summer I was running relays in the Olympics. Ok, this only half true. But I was honored to run the last leg of two relays started by my predecessors, by grabbing the torch of the $7.5 million dollar gift from the NYC Football Club and bringing it to fruition by accepting a $2 million dollar check, the first part of our gift; and cutting the ribbon on our brand new $8.1 million dollar Track and Field made possible by our past and current and incredible elected officials and advocates Queensborough President Donovan Richards, NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and NYC Councilmember Nantasha Williams. This summer we also welcomed two new board members to the York Foundation board: Patricia Robinson and Khaair Morrison and congratulated Eric Deutsch on assuming the seat as the chair of the foundation. You can read more here: https://www.york.cuny.edu/news/foundations-new-chair-and-2-new-board-members
As you know, NYCFC funds will be allocated for a number of projects including:
- Supporting the cafeteria renovations
- Providing van transportation for our Athletics program and the campus
- Creating a new, state of the art fitness Center in the HPE multipurpose room. A new fitness center represents a naming opportunity, as well as the potential for revenue generation (beyond being self-sufficient).
- Establishing a Wellness and Resources hub dedicated to fostering the holistic well-being of every student.
- Securing new equipment for the School of Health and Professional Programs for the purpose of bringing didactic knowledge into practice, thereby making our students better prepared for their clinical internships and/or student teaching experiences.
And a few days we will be issuing a college-wide Call or Proposals for the use of $150,000 from the NYCFC. Any full-time faculty and staff member will be eligible to apply and must receive the approval of their direct supervisor. The Call along with guidelines for applying and use of funds will be issued in the coming weeks.
You can expect a comprehensive update about the campus refresh projects that occurred over the summer from VP Rios, but I want to take this opportunity to thank our Building and Grounds team, laborers and contract painters for their efforts beautifying areas of the campus. From cardinal red accents in the atrium, to new coats of paint throughout many hallways, to power-washed steps at the Guy R. Brewer Blvd entrance, to flower pots with flowers, it makes a difference. The work of refreshing the campus will be ongoing with classrooms and common areas being the initial focus, and then departments and offices. Colleagues, we want York to be in the front of the line for a new building like many of our sister colleges around the university, but in the interim we will continue to upgrade and provide TLC to the spaces we do have.
There is a lot in store for the coming year and I look forward to sharing more at the State of the College in October. See you all at Convocation on September 5. Jeff Lindor, York College Class of 2010, and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Gentlemen’s Factory will be our Keynote Speaker.
Here’s is to an awesome academic year and a sensational fall semester.
Claudia V. Schrader, Ed.D.
Interim President