Budget cuts.
Additional degrees.
Campus violence.
Sustainable energy.

Convocation Address Spells Out C-H-A-N-G-E
by Alejandro Peña

Kingsborough president Regina Peruggi has a tough job steering Brooklyn’s “College by the Sea” through ever changing waters.

Through a rocky economy, transformations in the job market, campus tragedies and the uncertainty of tomorrow’s energy resources, Kingsborough is set on a course that will reflect the adaptation necessary to keep afloat. In the Spring 2008 convocation address, the president updated the progress Kingsborough has made in the education is has to offer students, reducing our impact on the environment and keeping CUNY technologically relevant as a whole.

Though the good news will always be held in higher esteem, the sobering reality of an economy in turmoil and its backlash remained. The fallout of a wavering housing market and the psychotic mood swings of Wall Street and its share of stockbrokers has had an immediate effect on New York City itself, a major contributor to Kingsborough.

CUNY is now bracing for a $9 million budget “reduction,” which means Kingsborough could be cut out of $1.8 million in the next fiscal year.

In CUNY chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s 2008 City Preliminary Budget Testimony a budgeting shortfall of $28.3 million lead him to lament that “cuts of this magnitude would have a deep, harmful, and direct impact on our students.” His testimony goes on to list the repercussions these cuts would have on several community colleges if submitted reduction proposals are approved.

Here at Kingsborough, along with the curtailing of ‘facility maintenance expenditures,’ counseling and tutorial services would also be considered for trimming. Choosing not to linger on the matter of Kingsborough having to tighten its belt in the coming year, the president went on to report that “projections indicate that our overall enrollment for the spring semester will be up by about five-percent and our FTEs (full-time equivalent student) up about 3% above last year.”

In other words, you are not unlucky in that you caught the B1 bus packed tighter than a tin of anchovies; Kingsborough is simply growing in its student population.

Kingsborough’s accreditation is approved through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an entity that evaluates colleges and universities to determine if their school is worth allowing to give away degrees that are universally recognized. Since being reaffirmed for accreditation in March 2006, Kingsborough must submit a progress report of steps made in the previous two years that shows “how we were using student learning assessment as part of institutional assessment.” That very week a “very positive” progress report was filed with Middle States.

Citing a realistic approach to preparing KCC students to become contributing members of society, the Business Department has a new degree program in Fashion Design and the Tourism and Hospitality Department now has Marine Mechanic certification through the Maritime Technology curriculum.

Regarding the kind of time these many changes take to come to fruition, President Peruggi said that change, “because of our natural inclination in the academic world towards analysis and deliberation,” takes a long time. “You might say it evolves,” said the president. Whether she was joking or not, it is true that any lasting changes on campus take place gradually, like the six letters of intent to add new programs to Kingsborough’s health care degrees.

Letters of intent, “the first important step in proposing a new program,” have been submitted for Radiology Technician, Respiratory Therapist, Occupational Therapy Assistant, EMT-Paramedic, Pharmacy Technician and Veterinary Technician.

Along with the new additions, steps are being taken to further strengthen the quality of education Kingsborough students earn as “CUNY is making it more difficult for students to enter or transfer into its senior colleges.” With a hike in the necessary passing score for the ACT Math test, part of the Freshman Skills testing, and an increasing demand for graduate degrees in the workforce, the importance of having well rounded students moving on to senior colleges has been augmented. This could be trouble for KCC students, considering we are the only CUNY community college without a specific math requirement.

This month changes recommended by the Faculty Committee on General Education were submitted to the College Council Curriculum Committee that “identify areas in need of improvement such as enhancing transferability and the preparation needed for baccalaureate-level study.” President Peruggi stressed, “We as professionals have the awesome responsibility of ensuring that we are providing students with an education that will serve them well into the future.”

Looking towards the future of coping with post-Industrial Revolution behavior, society as a whole has been learning to pay closer attention to the environment and its telling signs of something going horribly wrong.

All of the noise being made in the name of the being eco-friendly has been making its presence known on campus. Among Kingsborough’s touted achievements are the three years that we have been using environmentally-friendly cleaning products and the purchasing of recycled paper towels.

Though the brown paper towels are rougher on the hands and are commonly slighted for not being very absorbent, they are a symbol of Kingsborough’s commitment to reducing our carbon footprint. There is also the new agreement with the Sanitation Department to pick up and recycle our plastic, glass and metal, a welcome addition the more than ten years Kingsborough’s of recycling paper.

In April the Panda House cafeteria and the Mac Café in the M-building will be impacted by an effort to eliminate Styrofoam cups from campus eateries by next fall.

Proving that Kingsborough is looking at every angle of reducing its impact on the environment faculty and staff have been encouraged to use digital files for student assignments, so if your professor starts talking about looking at the ‘blackboard’ when they are standing in front of a whiteboard, they are likely to be referring to https://blackboard-doorway.cuny.edu where after you login with a CUNY Portal username and password you can access the digital “Blackboard” where professors can post class assignments and students can submit paperless assignments.

And the search goes on for adequate funds to support the installation.

Like the millions upon millions of years it might take an organism to evolve, little by little Kingsborough is growing in its effort to shine on the shore without blemish.

Arguably the most significant of changes to Kingsborough and the CUNY system as a whole has to be CUNY FIRST. At her convocation address, the president explained that, “CUNY FIRST stands for ‘fully integrated resources and services tool’ and is the largest and most costly technology project ever undertaken by the University. “It is needed to replace antiquated, disjointed, and deteriorating technology systems that currently service our finances, human resources and student records.”

In so many words, the president revealed that Kingsborough will be joining more than 600 colleges that use Oracle/PeopleSoft in helping to process job and student applications for CUNY, allow professors to record attendance and submit grades more efficiently, and allow for easier navigation students through countless forms all to seek out on piece of information.

Streamlining how a process like this is usually referred to as, and for we the students it means we will not have to walk out of the Financial Aid or Admissions office with enough paper to drown a household pet.

Four months into 2008 Kingsborough now has an idea of what kind of changes the winds will bring in the year ahead, and if the presidents address is any indication of what stands to improve for the better, our campus will continue to stand at the edge of a limitless frontier, just as it stands at the edge of the ocean.