Dear College Community,
As you know, increase fundraising revenue to provide adequate funding for student scholarships, academic programs operations are part of our Financial Recovery Plan.
FUNDRAISING
I want to thank everyone who donated to York College for Giving Tuesday and if you have family and friends who you encouraged to donate, please extend my gratitude and our students’ gratitude to them as well. Donations are love in action. Because you don’t just say how much you love York, you showed it. In fact, a total of 247 individuals who are friends of the college, Foundation board members, family members, and alumni, we raised $114,320 as of midnight on CUNYTuesday.
Unfortunately, it was enough for us to prevail in our challenge to CSI. They raised over $200k. But true confession: this was never about out-raising them. I saw their donation record from last year, they raised more than we did. I am also aware that we have a large portion of the college community inclusive of York alum, as well as a large external alumni base, who do not donate on CUNYTuesday. Creating a culture of giving among college community is important because foundations often look at giving by the campus community to decide if they want to invest as well. So, we sought to create a new culture this year.
This year CUNYTuesday was about attracting support from alumni and friends of the college who believe in the mission of York College as much as it was about building and strengthening community with the walls of our college. It was about developing current students into donors and future philanthropists. It was also about raising our profile within a CUNYTuesday landscape where all colleges were approaching the day in the same way. But CSI and York stood out! It is said that a rising tide lifts all boats, so by challenging CSI we not only raised our profile, and visibility, CSI raised theirs as well. But look what we built!! We raised $17,450 more than we did last year; and our number of gifts last year was 128 compared to 247 this year.
We launched Game Day! A fun way to raise funds and build community (and boy did we ever!). FYI: I’m on the hunt for someone who I can beat in Checkers, (Nicholas Jones and Joseph Wilson can serve as references); I am also in search for a Spades tutor (Pittershawn Palmer and Tawasi Clarke can attest to this). In addition to the Checkers and Spades, there were Chess, Uno, Dominos, Jeopardy, Jenga, and Basketball competition (with Beautiful and Yanni our Cardinal Women’s Basketball stars). But in the end, only one team could walk away with the trophy after a knock-down, drag-out game of Family Feud: Congratulations to Team Take Flight (Sardson Jeanbaptiste, Denecia Marshall, Johana Rivera, Michele Hardy, Nicole Utley, Yasmina Moore, Denae Guy, Veronica Mariani and I) for the prevailing as the inaugural winner!
Colleagues when we give, when we donate our students are the ones who win.
It's still not over, the site is open until December 31st. If you haven’t donated, please consider doing so.
https://www.cunytuesday.org/organizations/york-college-cuny. Thank you to all the students, faculty and staff who participated in videos, and made social media posts promoting CUNYTuesday and the impact of donations on students. Let’s keep it going.
The following are additional updates to our Financial Recovery Plan Activities:
HIRING PAUSE
We remain on a pause except for positions related to health and safety or revenue generating positions and as per the Board of Trustees, ECP positions currently in interim status.
GRANTS
We have commenced the process of assembling the search committee for the Director of Grants and Sponsored programs. Thank you to the Faculty Caucus for submitting recommendations for potential committee members.
ELECTED OFFICIALS
In early November, Stephannia Cleaton and I attended the SOMOS Conference in Puerto Rico where we had the opportunity to further connect with several members of the Queens delegation. In addition, I made several connections with individuals/organizations who shared opportunities for partnerships and internships for York students. I look forward to the outcomes of these connections. We are in the process of preparing for our annual Elected Officials breakfast in early 2026. In addition, we will also have a Queens delegation meeting in Albany as well has a strong presence in Albany for Caucus Weekend in February.
INCREASING ENROLLMENT/RETENTION
We are making strides, but we have a long way to go. I know that we are approaching Final Exams season, therefore we it was important to start registration as early as possible as well as enhanced our online advisement and registration system (now called V-READY to make this process easier for Freshmen, Sophomores, and undeclared majors. I am asking academic departments during January to please make every effort to register students. We don’t want to cancel classes for low enrollment, as such it is important that continuing students/ majors—our juniors and our seniors who are approaching graduation are locked into the classes they need.
- Since our last Senate meeting on November 25, we our enrollment increased from of 2154 to 2500; our target is 3461.
- We are slightly ahead of where we were last year for all cohorts
- We have 18 freshmen registered; our target is 81
- We have 104 transfer students registered; our goal is 284
- We have 67 readmits registered; our target is 193 and
- We have exceeded our non-degree student registration with 98 students registered, our target was 65
Colleagues, VP Rivera sends the Enrollment Report out every Monday during Registration season. Please take the time to review it. In it she includes all the critical dates and enrollment activities.
CONTINUING EDUCATION/WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
As I shared at the last Senate meeting, Dina Zagari LiMandri, our Director of Workforce and Continuing Education sent an interest survey to the college community to solicit ideas for continuing education. Although there were only 41 responses, the responses were rich.
Most wanted areas:
- Creative Arts & Literature (e.g., art/photography, music, creative writing, literature)
- Healthcare & Allied Health (e.g., CNA, EMT, diabetes education, phlebotomy, billing & coding, CPR/BLS)
- Technology & Digital Skills (e.g., Excel/Word/Outlook, data analytics, AI, cybersecurity, web/UX, LinkedIn)
- Financial Literacy & Life Skills (taxes, investing, retirement, credit scores, first car/home)
- Notary / Civil Service / Legal (notary prep, civil service exam guidance) (tied with Languages & Aquatics)
53% of respondents are interest in teaching through York N.O.W.:
Notable Findings
- Aquatics credential pathway opportunity
- Ready talent for health programming
We can look forward to the launch of Continuing Education courses in the late Spring.
York continues to make an IMPACT with our assessment activities. Our MSCHE Self Study and Academic Master Plan committees are hard at work and the Senate Committee on Governance Senate has begun efforts to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the York College Charter. Specifically, the Committee has been charged to: Assess the Senate Charter’s ability to effectively support and respond to the changing needs of the Senate and its Committees; solicit and review recommendations from all College constituencies; identify recommended amendments and submit recommendations to the Senate for consideration.
To advance this work, the Committee requests that all current faculty, staff, and students submit their comments, observations, and recommendations regarding the Charter, how it has served to advance the interests of the community, and how it could be improved to better advance those interests. The current Charter may be reviewed at
Senate - York College and the college community is invited to
provide comments
here for consideration by the Committee. Comments will be received until January 31, 2026.
A critical part of assessment is using information to inform (or validate) improvement. Such was the case with feedback the Division of Administration and Finance received from faculty and our PSC chapter membership regarding the need to improve communication regarding capital projects and reduce disruptions. As such, in the new year, the college community can expect to see signage around campus regarding providing information about the ADA restroom upgrades. Also, in addition to regular email updates, VP Rios will be updating his divisional web page with the list of capital/ college facility projects and tentative completion dates.
Speaking about assessment, as I shared previously, Final Exam season is upon us. As we know, this can be a particular stressful time for students. Thank you to AVP Salnave to his note to the campus regarding the support for students who may experience unique challenges at this time. As a reminder our Counseling Center offers a wide range of resources and Student Affairs has developed a Quick Reference Guide for Assisting Students in Distress.
One day they are sitting in class taking exams, and the next thing you know they are making their mark as proud and engaged York alumni in their respective fields. This past month we were excited to see two York alum on the City University of New York's 50 Under 50 Alumni Trailblazers, Innovators, Changemakers List! Congratulations to our stellar alums Rachelle Antoine, MSW '17 and Jeffrey Ampratwum '09. Rachelle currently serves as the Manager of External Affairs and Community Outreach as part of the JFK Redevelopment Program; and Jeffrey is a celebrity stylist, fashion director and editor and menswear expert. Although I have only had the opportunity to meet and get to know both Jeffrey and Rachelle, over the past two years, I am over the moon, so I can only imagine how the faculty and staff who have had the opportunity to work with them feel.
In addition, another of our outstanding alum, Erica Ford ’97 was appointed to serve on mayor elect Zorhan Mamdani’s Transition Committee on Community Safety. Ms. Ford is renowned for her extensive work in peacemaking and reducing youth and community violence.
On a final note, Prof. Chirico shared with me that James Como, Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric and Public Communication and York has passed away. From what she shared, and what I have been able to research for myself, he was quite an academic force to be reckoned with. He joined York in 1968, was a founding member of C.S. Lewis Society, and co-founded the Department of Performing and Fine arts which he chaired for 15 years. His indelible and global contributions to rhetorical theory and as a journalist. And the was also a quite the Met’s fan. Prof. Chirico offered this memory: “When the Mets and Yankees faced each other in the 2000 World Series, several of us placed bets, where the losers had to take the winners to lunch and face the ignominy of defeat (Mets were defeated in a 4 games). Toward the end of lunch, Jim suggested we take a photograph, at which point he pulled out multiple Yankees hats for all of us to wear”. It sounds like he was my kind a guy and joy to be around. I extend my deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.
Colleagues, November may be over and we are almost halfway into December, but because the season of giving is perennial, I wish to extend a special thank you to:
- All those who donated to the Women’s Center’s Non-perishable food drive in November.
- Our student band who provided us with mood music for our Thanksgiving Luncheon.
- Our Student Government Association for Town Hall and the opportunity it creates to talk to students
- Our Student Government Association, Student Activities and all the Luncheon volunteers.
- The sensational six faculty members: Professors Allen-McCombs, Bovino, Dahiya, Dean, Quaye, Simpson and the equally sensational Linda Grasso for what has been described as a wonderful Faculty Forum.
- Our Department Chairpersons for identifying a singular date (2nd Thursdays) for all academic department meetings. This decision will serve as a foundation for us to be more strategic in developing a general calendar with categories of activities and when they can be held. More to come in the new year.
- Hector for standing in for me at Senate meeting; and
- All of you for continuing to advance the mission of York College!
Sending students all my wishes for successful performance on all final exams.
Claudia Schrader, EdD
President
York College of the City University of New York
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd.
Queens, NY 11451