Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
Nelson King, Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, JULY 2-8, 2021
By Félix V. Matos
Rodríguez
It’s no secret that the City
University of New York’s seven
community colleges plays an
invaluable role in making
the American Dream a reality
for many New Yorkers,
including immigrants who
are the first in their family to
go to college. Our students
never cease to impress.
Just recently, three CUNY
community college students
received prestigious
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
Undergraduate Transfer
Scholarships, given annually
to top community college
students in the U.S., which
provide up to $40,000 per
year so students can complete
their bachelor’s degree.
What’s more, 13 CUNY
community college students
recently accounted for the
entire cohort of this year’s
Kaplan Leadership Program,
which helps high-performing,
low-income students
from the New York metropolitan
area complete their
associate degree, transfer
to a four-year degree program,
and provide them
with much-needed financial
support.
These are just a few examples
of what our community
college students can accomplish.
As the former President
of Hostos Community
College, I know from personal
experience the vital
role such colleges play in the
lives of students.
Thankfully, so does the
Biden Administration. Our
First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden,
is a lifelong educator, who
has spent nearly three decades
teaching at community
colleges. President Biden
himself is the recipient of
a public college education,
while Vice President Kamala
Harris is a proud alumna of a
historically Black university.
This administration understands
the value of a college
education.
That’s why President
Biden’s American Families
Plan is so important. Under
the president’s plan, community
colleges would be
free for anyone who wants to
attend — including Dreamers
— giving students a
financial lifeline to make
their educational goals possible.
His plan would also
expand the maximum Pell
Grant award and aid many
more students enrolled in
Historically Black Colleges
and Universities, Tribal Colleges
and Universities and
Minority Serving Institutions
— including many in
the CUNY system, signaling
his commitment to making
higher education more
accessible for Americans of
every background, regardless
of their family’s financial circumstances
or immigration
status.
That’s good news for
CUNY, particularly for students
like Lina Cruz, who
I met when I was president
of Hostos. Years ago, Lina
left Colombia to attend Hostos
in the Bronx to study
English. Although she never
intended to stay in New York,
she quickly found a home
at CUNY. “After enrolling in
classes I realized my future
was here,” she says. “CUNY
became mi familia.” She
recently recorded a video
sharing her story.
Lina went on to graduate
from Hostos with her associate’s
before earning a bachelor’s
at Baruch, where she
is now finishing her Master’s
Degree. She’s earned three
CUNY degrees — yes, three
— in 12 years.
While at Hostos she
interned with the New York
Yankees in a program I
helped create. Lina turned
that internship into a career.
She now works as a team
manager, leading their multicultural
and Spanish-language
outreach efforts, and
supporting a variety of initiatives,
such as a new mentoring
program between the
Yankees and CUNY students.
For Lina, attending a
CUNY community college
was a game changer. And
she’s not alone: Tens of thousands
of our students begin
their educational journey at
a community college, later
continuing on to one of
CUNY’s 11 four-year colleges.
At community colleges,
CUNY has pioneered initiatives
like ASAP, a nationally
recognized student success
program that has more than
doubled timely associate
degree graduation rates for
participating students.
President Biden’s American
Families Plan would be a
boost to our community colleges,
ensuring that CUNY
can help more students like
Lina, preparing them with
the necessary skills to thrive
in a dynamic, post-pandemic
economy. It would also
help make higher education
accessible to all Americans,
no matter their financial situation,
immigration status
or zip code.
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
is the chancellor of The
City University of New York
(CUNY), the largest urban
public university system in
the United States.
By Staff
The New York City Board of
Elections (BOE) on Tuesday
released preliminary results
from 11 rounds of rankedchoice
voting (RCV) in the
mayoral race. The problem
is, those results only include
ballots from early voting and
Election Day and there are still
more than 100,000 absentee
ballots left to be
counted.
The BOE said
it would conduct
the count again,
in its entirety,
after all absentee
ballots are
counted. So,
why go through
the initial round
of ranked-choice
counting, if the
early results
are going to be
ignored for the
final results,
which aren’t
expected before July 12?
Making matters worse,
after releasing the preliminary
report, the BOE said late Tuesday
that there is a “discrepancy”
in the unofficial RCV
round-by-round elimination
numbers. The BOE said it is
working to address the issue
and is asking the public, elected
officials and candidates to
“have patience.”
The BOE then pulled the
results from its website and
released a statement indicating
that it accidently added
about 135,000 votes to its preliminary
RCV calculations and
promised an accurate preliminary
recount soon.
How can the BOE ask the
public to “have patience” when
the agency completely lacked
patience of its own regarding
the primary election results.
The department should have
simply waited to count all
ballots — every single vote
— before starting the rankedchoice
counts. Instead, we have
chaos, in what is perhaps the
city’s biggest election cycle in
years.
The results
of this election
will determine
our next mayor,
c omp t r o l l e r,
public advocate
and dozens
of City Council
members. And
now, because of
the BOE’s failure
to successfully
implement
RCV on a citywide
level, how
can we, the people,
fully trust
the results of
this election — never mind the
candidates?
The BOE should have practiced
what it preached and
patiently waited for all votes to
be counted before releasing the
unofficial RCV round-by-round
elimination numbers. There is
no value to creating the kind of
chaos that is now surrounding
this election.
After the troubling events of
the 2020 presidential election,
which saw a sitting president
challenge the democratic process
due to fear of losing, it is
more important than ever to
uphold the integrity of elections
in our city.
The BOE must fix the mistakes
it made, and must do it
now.
OP-EDS
After the troubling
events of the 2020
presidential election,
which saw a sitting
president challenge
the democratic
process due to fear
of losing, it is more
important than
ever to uphold the
integrity of elections
in our city.
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American dreams begin
in community colleges
What’s the rush?