President’s
(2024) October Report/ November Update
Dear Campus Community,
I apologize for the delay in my monthly report, but with each passing day, there was more and more (and time bound) information that I wanted to share with you now instead of a month from now. So please accept the following as my 2024 October Report/ November Update.
I am not one for holidays, but as I walk into stores, I can’t help but be reminded that ‘tis the season. Thanksgiving is in a few days, but for me every day is an opportunity to give thanks. I would also add that in the face of the many financial challenges our students encounter, it any time is also a good time to make a monetary contribution to the cause of student success. Giving Tuesday might be a few weeks away, but we can give now. Let’s unlock all the opportunities and possibilities that exist for our college community: https://www.cunytuesday.org/organizations/york-college-cuny
Today and every day, I thank you all for the work you do each day to deliver on our mission of student success and optimal graduate outcomes. This week I especially, thank our Veterans! Although my schedule did not allow it, I hope the lunch my office sponsored was the college’s small token of our big appreciation for your service to our country! Thank you to Larry Eaton for your support of our student veterans and their families.
In October, we held our State of the College meeting. Vice Presidents provided broad overview of accomplishments over the past year and key priorities for the coming year. The slide deck can be accessed here: If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact any member of the cabinet. The following day, members of the senior staff and I held a fall briefing with elected officials to provide them with a status report of the college, which included presentations of our fiscal health, facilities, enrollment and academic programs. Thank you, Professor Xin Bai for presenting briefly on your work in Ed Tech.
Last week I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Faculty Forum, where I along with other members of the college community, got to hear about the scholarship activities of six of our faculty members. Thanks to Jacob Apkarian, Lindamichelle Baron, David Hornung, Vincent Jones, Louis Levinger and Tom Marion, I know more about Collective Bargaining, Adelaide Sandford, Militarization of Social Work, Health Education and Efficacy, Fermentative Microbiomes, and Voice and Speech Pedagogy than I did before. A special thank you to Linda Grasso for her leadership. I sent both Provost Brazill and her an email after the Forum, with two simple words: “More Please”. I look forward to not only hearing more faculty present on their scholarship, but to supporting spaces such as this that provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue, faculty support, and community building.
Speaking about building, as I have shared before that we have an opportunity to secure space in a planned mixed-use affordable housing building. The space that will be dedicated to us will be about 40,000 square feet. We need to decide how we will use this space. I have asked department chairs to discuss in their departments and have Faculty Caucus liaisons bring their suggestions forward through governance. Similarly, we will be soliciting input from the Student Caucus. Recommendations will ultimately be shared with the Central Office.
Thanks to the Academic Council, I also did more investigation regarding the status of the lobbying efforts regarding the shovel-ready Academic Village and Conference Center, which would be a stand-alone building. Please know that is very much on the Central Office’s radar and is a priority for me, as well as for our elected officials. We will more than likely have to revisit this conversation so we can determine if our initial plans for a stand-alone building is still in line with our strategic vision and plans for the college.
I cannot emphasize how important each of your voices and roles at the college are to our mission. Last month, I was fortunate to participate in the SGA sponsored Student Townhall which provided an excellent forum for students to voice concerns, ask questions and offer recommendations.
The Campus Pulse survey which is currently being administered, provides us with an opportunity to hear student voices. The surveys, which are to be completed by students is our effort to collect information about students’ experiences with Registrar’s Office, Bursar’s Office, Financial Aid, Academic Advisement Center, and the Welcome Center. We plan to review, analyze and use data to both validate success and inform improvements. Please encourage students to complete the surveys. Each office has QR codes located outside the office. The survey closes in January.
Although we demonstrated a slight increase in Fall enrollment, we have to continue to remain vigilant in our recruitment and retention efforts. Currently, we are -8.3% below where we were last year at this time. We typically have less freshmen coming directly out of high school in the spring, so our focus has to be on reconnect and readmit students, community college August and January graduates and other kinds of transfer students, and our continuing students. We all can play a part, by reminding students to connect with their advisors and lock in their classes for the Winter and Spring 2025 by for registering classes.
As you know our retention rates are of concern, as such we continue to take a critical look at all our practices in an effort to assess, refine and improve student persistence, performance and retention. To this end, in October we commenced more focused discussion about advisement at York. Thank you to VP Williams and Faculty Caucus chair for facilitating this important work and all the members of the assessment committee, faculty and staff for their participation.
Under the leadership of VP Rios, VP Williams and Janine Scott, we are also taking a critical look at our Scholarship processes, both from a financial operations point of view as well as our student-facing services operations.
I am in the process of convening a small but mighty committee to peel the onion back on events at York. I am aware of the myriad of concerns about campus events—such as multiple events happening at the same time, elected officials being invited to events without notification to the president’s office, lack of custodial presence, and last-minute notice of events. In addition to identifying what is working well, it is important that we develop a comprehensive understanding of the challenges, issues regarding existing event protocols, scheduling, policies, communication/marketing, space and any other dimensions the committee might identify. We will also collect additional information via a survey, which will be sent to members of the Leadership Council as well as other offices that typically host events. Ultimately, I am looking for the committee to share with me at the end of their work a synopsis of findings and recommendations for improvement.
They say that it is good luck to a ship and her crew to break a bottle of champagne over the bow of a new vessel, this week I didn’t break a bottle of champagne but I did charge the York College MSCHE Steering Committee. And who needs luck, when you have a team of faculty, staff, administrators, and students from a variety of units across the college who are on board. Thank you to our Steering Committee for their leadership in guiding the college through this very important process that is intended to be reflective, comprehensive, inclusive, transparent, and rigorous. I can’t emphasize enough how critical successful engagement in and completion of this accreditation review is to the future of the College. All aboard! We need more members to serve as part of the York MSCHE crew. Please sign up to serve on a Working Group. To do so, email VP Hoeffner by December 11th. Check out the Self-Study site for regular updates: https://www.york.cuny.edu/institutional-effectiveness/accreditation/self-study
Many York students are fortunate the opportunity to participate in variety of rich experiential learning opportunities (internships, clinical placements) in a number of settings. In addition to providing a platform for the development real world experience, their participation provides us with an ideal opportunity highlight our students and faculty as well as market the college and it’s programs. This past week the Division Institutional Advancement, Marketing and Communications launched its internship highlights series. The aim is to highlight one student each week. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/york-college-the-city-university-of-new-york-_pricewaterhousecooper-cardinalinternship-activity-7262468927446736896-tlhj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop. While we know that departments/programs maintain records, in preparing for the launch of the social media series, it was revealed that the college does not have a single repository information about interns and placement maintained. As such, we are currently researching our options regarding the purchase of a suitable database. In the interim our plan is to develop something in house to collect information. The goal is to have it in place for the coming semester.
Thanks to Provost Brazill and Faculty Caucus Chair Chirico, we finally have a process in place for nominating Honorary Degree recipients. A call for nominations was issued earlier this month. Nominations will be accepted until November 18. Please refer to the college-wide mail of 11.4.24 for nomination guidelines.
I don’t know about you, but I have never been so excited to see heavy duty plastic, as I was this past week because *drumroll* construction started on the cafeteria! In anticipation of our opening in January 2025, the Division of Institutional Advancement, Marketing and Communications launched a contest to name the cafeteria. The contest is open to all members of the college community. Polls close on November 25th. (https://www.york.cuny.edu/cafeteria-naming-contest
I was also equally excited to see and meet all of our York College Alumni who joined us last Friday for our Red, Black and White Alumni Night. https://youtu.be/OEmOs7OpxGA?si=zf64NSJ-Oneriok6. Many of your ears should have been burning Friday night, because so many of our alumni members spoke to me about the incredible faculty and staff that helped to make their educational and professional dreams a reality. Special thank you to Joery Francois and Rachael Walton for their vision, leadership and expert execution and all those in Institutional Advancement, Marketing and Communications, IT, Buildings & Grounds for making it an enchanting evening.
The holidays are fast approaching. May your thanks giving (and receiving) days be perennial.
-Schrader
Claudia Schrader, EdD
Interim President
York College of The City University of New York
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd
Jamaica, NY 11451
(718) 262 2350
cschrader@PROTECTED
IG: Yorkcunyprez