President's Monthly Report

President’s Report October 2019

Dear KCC Community,

I am pleased to share with you my report for the month of October. The past month was dedicated to bringing awareness to a number of causes, and it was great to join you and our students in advancing these important causes. As a campus of care, we raised awareness about breast cancer with our video produced by Tonya Collins in the Office of Communications & Marketing, and starring our staff. I was pleased to bring greetings at and introduce Dr. Vivian Bea, Surgical Oncologist at New York Presbyterian, who was the guest speaker at Public Safety’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month event; and we also turned the College pink by wearing something pink on Fridays throughout the month of October #KCCPinkFridays. I am grateful to Public Safety for also sponsoring a forum on domestic violence, and for Damani Dublin for spearheading our involvement and participation in the Enough is Enough and Red Flag campaigns, bringing awareness to the issue of dating violence on campus. This month, I was also happy to join in the activities sponsored by Student Life for National Coming Out Day and Spirit Day.

My meet and greets with faculty, staff and students continued this month. I was excited to receive feedback on areas of concern and areas of strength for the College. I also had the opportunity to talk about other matters during our book club meeting where we discussed the book Picking Cotton. I am actively seeking recommendations for the next book club selection.

This past month we also had the pleasure of having NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Assemblywoman Catalina Salazar speak to students. I also met with Senator Roxanne Persaud from the 19 Senatorial District, Assembly members Mathylde Frontus from the 46th Assembly District, and Steven Cymbrowitz from the 45th Assembly District. I was happy to see our efforts to expand our footprint throughout Brooklyn through our Kingsborough in Our Community Initiative (KOCI). With KOCI, we take our Admissions team, and a few of our programs (KCC FLEX, ASAP and Continuing Ed) on the road, and into communities where we will share information about KCC with communitybased organizations, parents and students. This past month, in collaboration with Councilwoman Inez Barron, we held our first KOCI at the Prince Joshua Avito Community Center in East New York.

In October, we were excited to receive a donation of $7,500 for the Men’s Resource Center (BMI) from Customers Bank. These resources will be key in supporting student programs in the Center.

We are counting down the days to #GivingTuesday, December 3. This year, our Go for the Gold in your Giving campaign aims to foster a bit of friendly competition as we raise funds to provide scholarships to our students. I want us all to go for the ‘Gold,’ that is, and join a team, purchase t-shirts, donate goods for the raffle, purchase raffle tickets, compete in events, cheer on your teammates, and encourage as many family and friends as possible to donate to KCC. The more we raise, the more scholarships we have to give to our students.

Finally, in October, I provided testimony before the NY State Senate Committee on Higher Education on College Affordability. I shared with the Committee a snapshot of the great work we do here at Kingsborough and a very real description of how the hidden costs (meals, transportation, textbooks and other school supplies) of education impact our students’ ability to fulfill their educational goals. At Kingsborough we understand that by not addressing these needs, it will cost our students their opportunity to earn a degree. Here’s our chance to make a difference; please Go for the Gold in your Giving on December 3rd.

President Schrader