LaGuardia Community College leader
Gail Mellow announces
her departure
BY BILL PARRY
After two decades at LaGuardia
Community College, Dr. Gail O.
Mellow announced on Feb. 27 she
plans to step down as president
in August. Under her leadership, the Long
Island City, the school has become a model
for community colleges nationwide.
“I love LaGuardia. We are an astonishing
institution and it starts with our formidable
students, with their extraordinary passion
for learning and determination to overcome
obstacles and thrive,” Mellow told QNS in a
Feb. 28 interview. “It’s a bittersweet moment
for me. I’ll be sad to leave but I’m so proud of
all of our accomplishments here.”
LaGuardia serves more than 57,000 credit
and non-credit students each year with 60
percent of them born outside the U.S. rep-resenting
148 nations and speaking 90 lan-guages
making its student body the most
diverse in the nation. A majority come from
families making less than $30,000 annually.
“What we do at LaGuardia is essential in
today’s America, giving students the knowl-edge
and skills they need to build careers,
thereby moving them out of poverty and making
communities stronger,” Mellow said. “I closely relate
to the struggles our students face. During my first-year
of college at a well-known public university,
I had to drop out due to unexpected financial
circumstances. I returned home and enrolled in out
town’s community college, where I was thrilled to
meet students as eager for a chance at a better
life, as I was.”
Mellow was the first person in her family to go to
college and she had to work full time taking courses
at night and weekend. The experience allowed her
to identify with LaGuardia students and how their
academic performance can suffer when they’re
worried about how to pay for their next meal or
subway ride home from class.
“One would be hard-pressed to find another educa-tor
who has done more than President Gail Mellow
to champion the value of community colleges within
the overall landscape of American higher education,”
CUNY Interim Chancellor Via C. Rabinowitz said. “From
her tireless efforts to increase funding, to her develop-ment
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of cutting-edge practices in the classroom, to
her groundbreaking partnerships with employers and
communities. Gail has spearheaded innovations at
LaGuardia that suffuse her writings and presentations
that have inspired community colleges everywhere.”
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, who stepped down as
president at Queens College last month to become
the new chancellor of CUNY, called Mellow a trail-blazer
of community colleges across the country.
“She has developed so many means to harness
the power of education to transform lives,” he said.
“LaGuardia has grown many times over, in
quality as well as size, during her decades
of leadership there. Dr. Mellow has advanced
CUNY’s mission of embracing students of
modest and diverse backgrounds, extending a
hand and guiding them onto an upward track.”
Mellow credits the schools faculty and
staff with establishing a culture of success.
“I remain floored by the endless dedication
and talent of our faculty and staff to educate
and support our students,” Mellow said. “Our
leadership team has never been stronger and
I know that LaGuardia will continue to improve
the lives of students, their families and our
community for decades to come.”
In fact, she is so proud of the LaGuar-dia
leadership team, she’s hoping the next
president of the school comes from within
that group.
“The CUNY Board of Trustees will ulti-mately
decide but I could give no stronger
endorsement to Paul Arcario,” Mellow said.
“He was raised here in Queens, speaks sev-eral
languages including Mandarin and he’s
a world traveler.”
Mellow and her family are looking forward
to her next chapter.
“I have no fixed plans and I’m leaving the door
open to new opportunities,” mellow said. “One thing
is certain: I will continues advocating for the needs of
community colleges and the students they educate.”
Mellow was serving as a co-chair of the Work-force
Development Subcommittee on the Amazon
Community Advisory Committee until Feb. 14
when the e-commerce giant pulled out of the
deal to build it HQ2 campus in Long Island City.
Mellow had been establishing a pipeline for the
3,500 students who are enrolled in various tech
programs at LaGuardia.
“Amazon’s decision had nothing to do with my
decision,” Mellow said. “That pipeline would have
happened and our work with tech companies with
or without me and with or without Amazon.”
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
Feature
Courtesy of LaGuardia Community College
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