HIGHER ED TODAY
����������������������������������������������������������������������������
������������������������������������������������������
Back in early April, as the coronavirus was
tightening its grip on New York, Gov. Cuomo
issued an executive order allowing the state’s
fourth-year medical students to graduate
early so they could help in the battle against
COVID-19. One week later, members of the inaugural
class of the CUNY School of Medicine
received their degrees and began joining the
front lines as volunteers in city hospitals.
To me, it was a moment that symbolized
so much about CUNY. Most of those first-ever
CUNY MD’s are from racial and ethnic groups
that have been both traditionally underrepresented
in medicine and disproportionately affected
by COVID-19. In the kind of virtual commencement
that would later become the norm,
I told them how proud I was of their willingness
to put themselves on the line.
What a year 2020 has been: It was a year
that constantly tested us, and frequently broke
our hearts. All of it demanded — and inspired
— great fortitude and resourcefulness from
the more than 300,000 students, faculty, staff
and leaders who make up the University, and
a great deal of sacrifice for the common good.
It’s important to recall the challenges and triumphs,
and to celebrate the fact that CUNY’s
year is ending on a high note. Let’s take a look
back.
The coronavirus was largely a remote concern
when the year began, but it soon gained a
foothold in New York that forced CUNY to all
but shut down its 25 campuses and quickly pivot
to distance education. When classes resumed
after a week-long academic recess, 95 percent
of the University’s 50,000 course sections had
transitioned to online instruction. We quickly
realized that thousands of students lacked the
tools to participate in distance learning. With
support from Gov. Cuomo, we purchased 33,000
laptops and tablets and made sure they were
safely loaned to students in need. It was just one
part of our broad efforts during the year to help
our students weather the academic, economic
and emotional challenges they faced.
Early in the crisis, we established the
Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund with $1
million each from the Carroll and Milton Petrie
Foundation and the James and Judith K. Dimon
Foundation. By the fall, support from additional
donors grew the fund to more than $8
million and allowed us to distribute emergency
grants to more than 10,000 students. CUNY colleges
and schools raised another $8.6 million
on their own.
Meanwhile, CUNY joined the city’s battle
against the coronavirus on many fronts. Campuses
Caribbean Life, D 14 ECEMBER 25-31, 2020
used 3D printers to produce personal
protective equipment. Experts at the School
of Public Health and Health Policy produced
a weekly tracking survey of New Yorkers’ attitudes
and behaviors around the pandemic.
CUNY scientists repurposed their work to take
on coronavirus-related research. And so many
students rallied to help their fellow New Yorkers
even as they faced unthinkable pressures
and loss.
The perseverance and accomplishment
came amid a backdrop of widespread grief. Every
CUNY campus has mourned faculty, staff,
students, alumni and retirees lost to COVID-19.
Among them were Allen Lew, CUNY’s senior
vice chancellor of the Office for Facilities,
Planning and Construction Management. The
University’s website now includes an In Memoriam
page to pay tribute to those we’ve lost.
Through it all, we hunkered down and
pressed on. This year CUNY conferred 56,527
degrees — the second highest total in our history
and just shy of the record high awarded
last year.
Looking ahead to life after COVID, we redoubled
our efforts to help students find sustainable
career paths and play an active part in
the city’s economic recovery. Among the most
important developments were a plan to expand
mental health services and a new partnership,
the New York Jobs CEO Council, which will
create a pipeline to job opportunities for 25,000
CUNY students. We also focused our professional
development training to help 3,400 faculty
become better online teachers, part of a
larger, longer-range initiative to improve pedagogy
at CUNY.
CUNY has many reasons to be optimistic
about the future. The long-awaited coronavirus
vaccine became available for public distribution
earlier this month, and it was a CUNY
nursing alumna, Sandra Lindsay, who was the
first person in the U.S. to receive it. The same
week, we received word of $60 million in gifts
to two CUNY colleges, Lehman and Borough of
Manhattan Community College, by author and
philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. A gift of this
size as we turn the page on such a challenging
year brings us renewed hope for the opportunities
it will create in the coming year and beyond
.O
n that hopeful note, we look forward to a
productive and fulfilling 2021 that helps us heal
the wounds of 2020, and allows us to fully reopen
the campuses of CUNY and of all universities
across the country.
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
�������� ������������ �������������� ������������������������ ���������������� ����������������
������������������ ������ �������� ���������� ������ ������������ �������������������� ��������
������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
City to offer new mental health
screening at public schools
A student returns to school for in-person learning in Brooklyn on Dec. 7.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
By ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL
DOMENECH
The New York City Department of
Education will launch a new mental
health “check-up” for students in the
27 neighborhoods hardest hit by the
coronavirus pandemic starting next fall,
officials announced on Dec. 21.
“Our kids are going through so much
in every sense,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio,
who announced the new screen
along with First Lady Chirlane McCray.
“They are going through trauma, they
are going through a lot of pain and they
need our help.”
The new screen is part of the mayor’s
recently announced effort to close
a “2021 Student Achievement plan”
meant to bring New York City students
up to speed after a school year plagued
with multiple disruptions.
“Checkups” will be short questionnaires
administered by school staff to
gauge how students feel in general and
how they are getting along with friends
and family, according to Schools Chancellor
Richard Carranza, who was also
present during the announcement.
The form should take students “less
than five minutes” to fill out Carranza
added.
Based on students’ answers, school
staff will work to connect struggling
students and their families with mental
health services provided by social workers,
community-based organizations, or
through McCray’s ThriveNYC program.
“If you are a parent that sends your
child to a pediatrician every year for
a physical, you know the preventative
measures that are taken and peace of
mind that comes with a regular checkup,”
said McCray. “But our nation has
never put the same emphasis on engaging
the whole child when it comes to
education or prevention when it comes
to mental health.
McCray used students in PS 89 in
Elmhurst, Queens — the former epicenter
of the pandemic — as an example
of how necessary the city’s new “temperature
checks” will be for students’
future success in school. Dozens of students
at the elementary school reported
that a loved one had become sick or
died because of the virus or a member
of their family had lost work due to the
pandemic, McCray said.
All of these students will carry the
experience of the past year in a different
way, McCray said.
“Some will be processing grief and
have trouble focusing, some will rejoice
at being back in the classroom while
others will feel uncomfortable,” she
added. “These screens will help school
staff create individual plans to move forward
and help educators make sure that
no child falls through the cracks.”
In addition, officials announced that
next September the city plans on opening
27 new community schools and
hiring 150 social workers to support
students at those schools–a major commitment
given that the mayor cut $707
million from the DOE in the 2020-2021
fiscal year budget, according to Chalkbeat.
De Blasio pledged to do “whatever it
takes” to make supporting residents in
the 27 neighborhoods hardest hit by the
virus a priority during budget negotiations
next spring adding that if the city
receives a “true” federal stimulus that
new screen will be expanded to every
public school in the city.
EDUCATION