Editorial Op-ed
Saluting CUNY’s ‘guardian angels’
BY FELIX MATOS RODRIGUEZ
Elvira Mata was born with a physical
disability that causes swelling and
pain in the joints of her fi ngers. The
second-year student at Hostos Community
College works as a senior nurse attendant,
and for months cared
for patients with COVID
19 in a Bronx
hospital. Despite her
condition, she was
able to lift and bathe
her patients.
“Before I go to work,
I have pain,” says Elvira,
who was diagnosed
as a young child with
boutonnière deformity.
“But when I see that
the patients need me, I
can move more freely. I
love seeing their smiles
when I help them and
they feel better.”
Elvira is also dealing with tremendous
personal heartache after her father, a taxi
driver, died of COVID-19 in April. Her
mother was also infected and endured a
lengthy period of recovery.
I am proud to say that Elvira exemplifi es
a standard of public service not uncommon
among students at the City University of
New York, an intense drive to help New
Yorkers persevere despite their own challenges
CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos
Rodríguez
and personal losses. They are nurses
and medics, National Guard members and
good Samaritans who helped shoulder
the pain of the pandemic while they balanced
demanding course loads and caring
for their own families.
They are why New York’s recovery
goes hand in hand with CUNY. With
campuses throughout the city that was
the pandemic’s one-time global epicenter,
the nation’s largest urban public
university has the intellect and applied expertise
to help chart a course forward; the
capacity to retrain workers, and equip
them with the skills to participate in a
re-invented job market; and the wellspring
of creative capital to help our city
and state move forward in the months and
years ahead.
When it comes to our students, Elvira
is not alone. Many others stepped up and
did what they could to help New Yorkers
weather the crisis. Here are just a few
examples.
Anthony Almojera, a Brooklyn College
senior who is also an Emergency Medical
Services lieutenant paramedic in the
FDNY and vice president of the EMS
offi cers’ union, has always leaned on family
and faith to get him through diffi cult times.
Almojera took off the spring semester to
have surgery on a torn biceps tendon, an
injury he sustained during a call. When the
pandemic surged in March, he put off the
surgery to pitch in, working 16-hour shifts
nearly seven days a week
and fi elding some of the
more than 7,000 calls that
came in each day requesting
emergency medical
service in the city.
Shawna Townsend is
pursuing her Ph.D. in
nursing at The Graduate
Center while also serving
as a clinical nurse leader
at the Hospital for Special
Surgery in Manhattan.
When the pandemic
deepened, she helped
convert a hospital that
specializes in orthopedic
surgery to one that could
treat patients with COVID-19.
In the darkest days when up to four of
the hospital’s fl oors were fi lled with coronavirus
patients, she would fi nd inspiration
from the patients who recovered and were
showered with applause from the staffers
as they left the facility.
Borough of Manhattan Community College
student Fenellah Kargbo is a member
of the New York Army National Guard. She
managed to keep up with her coursework
in four classes even after she was activated
in March, midway through the semester,
to load personal protective equipment at a
distribution center in Albany.
For encouragement while separated
from her family, Kargbo, who plans to apply
to the BMCC nursing program, relied
on frequent video chats with her husband
and 14-month-old son.
As their Chancellor, I am humbled by the
bravery and sacrifi ce of Elvira, Anthony,
Shawna, and Fenellah, all CUNY heroes.
They are exemplary ambassadors of the
University, embodying the University’s mission
to help one another so we all can move
forward together. They, and many more like
them, are the University’s guardian angels,
and on behalf of the whole CUNY system,
I extend the gratitude of the University
community and all New Yorkers.
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is the chancellor
of the City University of New York, the
nation’s largest urban public university,
serving over 500,000 students of all ages
in seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges
and seven graduate or professional
institutions. Visit cuny.edu.
Blame game makes the city less safe
Bail reform.
Closed courts.
Early releases from Rikers Island.
Economic suffering during the COVID
19 pandemic.
A lack of public support for the cops.
These were just some of the excuses that
Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD leaders offered
in responding to the outburst of gun
violence over the Fourth of July weekend that
killed nine and injured dozens of people. They
also used these same excuses to explain a disturbing
spike in crime across the city in June.
There are grains of truth in many of the
excuses.
Bail reform, court closures and early
releases during the pandemic certainly
resulted in some (not all) offenders being
inadvertently sprung from jail, only to
commit more crime. There’s always going
to be that handful of individuals who take
advantage of any system, designed to right
a wrong, to then commit a wrong.
The pandemic rocked the city’s economy
harder than it’s been since the Great
Depression. Joblessness, homelessness
and hunger have affl icted our entire city.
Naturally, there are going to be some (not
all) who become desperate to the point of
committing crime.
And yes, there have been too many instances
of protesters berating and taunting
cops, and treating them with disrespect.
Such displays are unfair and hurtful, and
get in the way of progress. Police offi cials
have said that behavior has lowered morale
in the department.
Morale, however, cannot get in the way
of the mission to protect and serve all
people of New York — an obligation that
each offi cer swore to fulfi ll on their fi rst
day.
The blame game for the surge in violence
can go on forever — but in the long run,
what will it do? Nothing, except embolden
the fear-mongers looking to stop progress
at every turn.
We repeat: City Hall, the NYPD and activists
seeking criminal justice reform must start
talking to each other. They must work with
each other to reduce crime, improve society
and reform how the NYPD does its job.
No one side can declare moral superiority
over the other in this objective.
All of us should want a city of peace
where crime and poverty are low, with
liberty, prosperity and justice for all. But
the only way we get to that is by working
together rather than pointing fi ngers and
scaring each other.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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