by Gloria Dulan-Wilson
This is both an article and a quasi transcript from the recently held rally at Medgar Evers College. The importance of this information cannot be ignored. For anyone who thinks that our Black youth do not care or are not involved in what's going on, please disabuse yourself of that illusion right now. For those who want to know about the petition's 31 questions, see my blog dated May 5, 2011 for details. Additionally, for those who think they can get away with abusing their own people because of the seeming backing of outside puppet masters, you are sadly mistaken; and your days are numbered in that role. There is a new (or is it old?) breed rising, and they are demanding that the sun shine on the deeds of those who think that under the cover of darkness they can get way with the backstabbing, undermining and othewise counter productive actions against their own for pay, for comfort - their ain't that much immunity in the world. When the people find out, then you are out. GDW
After weeks of being ignored by President Pollard, the Medgar Evers Coalition students staged a “Sunshine Rally” on one of the rainiest days in May on the sidewalk in front of Medgar Evers College. Undaunted by the rain, the students gathered as planned at 11:00AM brandishing signs and loudspeakers, demanding respect, and encouraging other students to join them an sign their petitions.
Joining the students were members of the surrounding community who braved the weather to stand in solidarity with them. The rally was called a sunshine rally to shed some light on serious questions that had been raised by the students in reference to budgetary concerns, as well as egregious acts on the part of the current president, William Pollard, against faculty, staff, students and programs, since his coming to Medgar Evers in 2009.
Their initial request for sunshine meeting has been consistently ignored by Pollard. The fact that the students demonstrated in rain sent a clear message about their displeasure and disappointment at the lack of respect accorded them on the part of the college’s administration.
Gracia Clinton, one of the organizers of the event spoke eloquently before a combined group of faculty and students. “The petition was submitted and we asked him to give us a weeks’ notice so we could let the students know and they could be present for a town meeting. Instead he had some one call who only wanted to meet with the two of us.”
Members of the Medgar Evers Coalition, who coordinated the rally, had petitions on hand to be signed by the students, many of whom joined them on the sidewalk in front of MEC’s main building at 1650 Bedford Avenue, shouting: “We demand respect! We demand respect!”
One student, who was not part of the rally, observed that they (Pollard) had purchased a huge and very ornate sign for the new science building that had to cost more $10,000, while the student study centers have been cut back, and while there are not enough computers for MEC students.
Another student, who joined the rally, and carried a sign demanding respect, stated, “He is not respecting the students. I’ve personally spoken with him one time before, and when he asked me my name, and I told him my name, he asked “What good is Nefetari going to do? Yes he did. When he asked me my name and I told him it was Nefetari, he asked me my name, and I said Nefetari, he said what good is a name like Nefetari going to do for me in society.” An indication that there is a disconnect when it comes to cultural awareness on Pollard’s part.
Gracia Branch, one of the coordinators, co-originator of the petition, and a demure, soft spoken a public administration major, attends MEC with her daughter. She stated: “The president wanted to meet with just me and one other student. An I told him I could not do that since the 500 students who signed the petition also wanted answers from him as well. We need truth - that’s what I’m saying - know the truth and the truth will set you free. We as students need to be free from the gossip and rumors.” An unidentified male student stated: “If he had given us a respectful response, we wouldn’t be out here demonstrating today. It’s about president Pollard not dealing with the wishes of the students, that is why we are out here in the rain. All of the controversial questions going on around here and he blatantly disrespected us. Did you know about that open meeting that he had with the Chancellor? It was not an open meeting - it was by invitation only! If your name was not on the list, you did not get in.”
The meeting with the chancellor was definitely not open; and most certainly was not a town hall meeting by any stretch of the imagination. There must have been a very short list of invitees, because the small auditorium in the new Science and Technology Building was only half full 70 people at the most were in attendance. Goldstein, who addressed the handpicked faculty and staff, could not escape some serious questions about budget, policies and the future of Medgar Evers - but that's for another blog entry - sorry!
Ms. Branch further stated, “These are the questions that the students have. There are more questions, we just couldn’t fit them on one sheet of paper. So we took the most critical questions and put them on the back of the petition. He is saying that they are rumors and some of them are not true. Instead of trying to pick a select few students, why not meet with the entire student body and get everything out in the open? Meet with the entire student body. Explain to them exactly what is going on. And that is what we are asking for. And we demand respect because we did not get respect from his office.”
She continues: "What about the academic standing of the students - he said he is concerned about that. The faculty goes out of their way to get books and materials for the students. They get no support from the president. They explain things to us and try to make sure we have what we need to succeed. Pollard just keeps cutting back."
According to another demonstrator, Medgar Evers High School Prep does not have priority at Medgar Evers anymore, even though it is affiliated with the school and has been for at least two decades. The students are no longer given access to the college.
As the rain intensified, the students were informed by retired congressman Major Owens that they have a right to assemble on the sidewalk, but they also have a right to go inside the building, since they are registered students at MEC.
After standing in the rain for nearly an hour, the students went inside the 1650 Bedford Avenue main building and proceeded to the auditorium, where faculty and seniors were gathered for a meeting being presided over by Howard Johnson, current provost. It was learned that Pollard was to have chaired the event, but had informed the students and other sources that he would be out of town, and not available for either the meeting, or the students requested audience with him.
There were extra police on hand, observing the rally. Prior to Pollard, Medgar Evers did not have - nor did it need - a police presence. When asked why there was heightened security, they had to admit that nothing negative had occurred to warrant it - “just a precaution,” one policeman stated.
While the provost was going over some of the mundane issues of the meeting, one of the MEC Coalition members shouted from the back of the auditorium, "We demand respect; what is going on with our budget?"
The students were invited to come in and have a seat, but were told they had to leave their signs outside in the Auditorium lobby. After a few more routine speeches, Ms. Branch was invited up to speak.
She started off slowly, and very respectfully, "It is a shame that students have to resort to storming in on a faculty meeting - we do much better than that - " and was interrupted by the provost, who stated that she did not introduce herself.
"I’m sorry, my name is Gracia Branch, and you, sir?" The entire room roared with laughter.
Gracia Branch continued, "My major is public administration, and as a future public administrator, I am charged in my class to stand up for what we believe in, setting the pace for the next generation of Public Administrators, staff members in the society we have to show integrity and true morals. We cannot stare away from the things that we are passionate about, and we are not distracted by things that are not of importance. With that said, as I was saying before, we students do not want to resort to any kind of immoral things by storming in on a private meeting - that is not what we students at Medgar Evers stand for, but when we call for a meeting; and we are not given that meeting - only that we need answers, the answers that we need have to do with our education. We don’t care about the politics or the undermining stuff that goes on behind closed doors with faculty and administration staff. Our main goal here today is to get answers. How does President Pollard and his administrator plan to do what is right for Medgar Evers students. What are his plans for this college. There has been a lot of rumors. A lot of money has been spent in different areas that we the students know could benefit us as students. And all we wanted was a simple meeting - meet with us. And as I stated to v.p. Vanray (?) I don’t know you, sir. I don’t know if you are in this room today…"
A voice from the back of the room intoned "Right here!"
Ma. Branch bowed slightly and responded: "Hello! Finally, we meet. We got together as students because we want answers. We want to make sure that when we leave Medgar Evers, we the students are able to compete with the other colleges out there. We know that quote/unquote we’re in a “recession” and we want to be able to get the jobs and the proper equipment to equip us to compete with these --- because students are afraid. They are afraid that if they start coming out that something will start happening with their financial aid."
OFFSIDE COMMENTS DENYING THIS EVENTUALITY)
Branch continues: "So these are the questions the students have; they really don’t know what their rights are. As a public administrator, we are fortunate - some of us at least - are fortunate to know what our rights are as students; and not just as students, but as individuals living in this society. And that is why we stand up for the students of Medgar Evers today - to get answers, this is not it."
As she continues to address the audience, she begins walking across the room, and starts speaking to a person who is scrunched down in his seat - that person turns out to be none other than Medgar Evers current president William Pollard - who was allegedly out of town on business. So, go figure! How is it that he is both out of town and at the faculty meeting at the same time? Could this have been an effort to duck the students, once again. As long as the rally was outside on the sidewalk, the students had no way of knowing that Pollard was really at the school. The unexpeted turn of events that brought them into the auditorium revealed that the President had not been away, just ducking them.
Branch: "Yes, after the fact we found out that you had called for a town hall meeting (ADDRESSING POLLARD , WHO SAT SLUNK DOWN IN HIS SEAT IN THE VERY FRONT ROW, TRYING TO BE INCONSPICUOUS) "- with all due respect, sir, we asked you to inform us so that we could get the students together to meet with you. We asked you to give us time so we could inform the students of Medgar Evers. What we did with our own resources was get flyers, get this information out. Now if you had given us the opportunity to inform the students, then the town hall meeting would have been a success. I didn’t even know about the town hall meeting; and I felt very disrespected, me and my colleague, Ms. Bonita Grant, who reached out to you; and you know, that doesn’t show integrity as far as I’m concerned."
This statement got no response from Pollard, who was being spoken to by one of the police officers - yet another display of disregard for the students.
Branch: "We had 31 questions, and our first question was can you begin the meeting with a full disclosure for the college budget. The reason we want to know that is because we as students have a right to know what is done with the budget; how has the budget been spent. Teachers talk all the time about students not getting involved in their education. This is the stand that we’re making now - we’re getting involved. We are asking you to present that budget."
Ms. Branch then turns to one of the fellow demonstrators, "Akil, you had a question, also. Would you stand up and ask your question."
As she takes her seat, another student approaches the front of the auditorium, Akil Townsley: "To whom it may concern, we do apologize for disrupting your meeting, as we know faculty and administration is very important to the school. But this is also a very important situation as well."
Provost Johnson, "Please identify yourself."
Townsley responds, "I’m sorry, my name is Akil Townsley. My major is public administration, and I am a freshman in my second semester. Would you like to know more about me sir? I have concerns when I came to the college, I saw that there was a controversy going on at Medgar Evers College. And as an advocate in the elementary schools for my children, and in the community at large, as block association president in my community, I wanted to know more about what was going on. So as I seen the president at different meetings, and heard him present stories about his childhood, people wanted to raise pertinent questions about the college. These were just questions, but things like this raise red flags for me."
He looks directly at Pollard, and continues: "One of the questions I would like to ask is will more money be made available for student scholarships, computers, the writing lab and the learning center? More library assistance, etc. Me knowing that the president of the college - President Pollard, sir, me knowing that you have been the president of a college before here, you are more likely to have more experience being a president - I just didn’t understand some of the history that was going on when you took the administrative - leadership role here. Leadership role at the college. For instance - you started tampering with the library, which really hadn’t bothered anybody. I really didn’t understand that. I had my high school diploma, and I didn’t think I needed - I really didn’t understand that, sir. I know there were supposed to be some upgrades done on the library, but, to suspend the services in the midstream of the semester, I thought that was - I didn’t see the importance of that. The writing center, I know that in the public school system, the department of education 50% of our students are graduating; and maybe if you give or take a little bit, less than 50% of them are guided from high school coming to college; and when a high percentage of them get to college are taking remedial courses, our writing center has been expunged; although there has been some type of writing lab, or whatever have you now, that’s been replaced, it is not the core of what was there - input from the beginning."
At this point, he pauses for a response; but receiving none, continues: "The original - the learning center. The Learning center from my understanding has been shrunk from that and that’s why we want full disclosure of budgets so that we can start our own think tank; so that we understand more of what’s going on; so that we can demand analysis, as students seeking to be scholars. We just need some information, because knowledge is power. We just need some information from the president because you don’t mind having the meeting with us. Because there are more than 31 questions that the students have. When they came out to sign the petitions, they came up with their own questions - hey, what about this, that and the other? Hey, we don’t know the answers to these questions. We are students seeking answers. We are students seeking answers. We didn’t say x,y,z, all we know is that there are some facts - but there are rumors and we wanted you to eliminate the rumors. And a lot of students don’t know you. The only reason that I know you is because I have been out to the meetings; I’m in the community. But a lot of students who come to the school don’t know you. And they would like to know you. They say, hey, we don’t know who this guy is. They’ve seen a lot of other adults come around - and have asked them “are you the president of the college?” And you’ve been here almost two years - and I don’t know what that says. Like I said I’m a freshman; only my second semester; but I don’t think it takes a scholar to figure that one out. Thanks for your time."
He pauses for yet another minute to see whether or not there will be a response on Pollard's part. Johnson steps up and asks: "Does any one from the faculty that they would like to raise at this time; if not I’m asking for a motion to adjourn" A pre-planned motion from the side adjourns the meeting, even though there several faculty members who had raised their hands.
Neither Pollard nor Johnson answered or responded in any way to the students’ questions. Faculty who raised their hands were ignored. And the students left with no more respect than when they entered.
However, this rally was a success on so many more levels. Students demands made the front covers of several locally based Black communications, as well as News 12. Students are not going to allow these questions or concerns to continue, and now plan to take it to the next level. What does that mean? Stay tuned. More to come.
For those of you who are interested in participating in the Medgar Evers Coalition, log on to www.MEfortheCommunity.org, or email MECCoalition@gmail.com, or call (718) 710-4528; or go on www.Facebook.com/MEfortheCommunity.
Just a Personal Note: I cannot think of a more fitting day to be writing this article than on the 86th Birth Anniversary of Brother Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. His spirit, and that of Sister Betty Shabazz walks with those students and faculty and those who stand for right to respect, justice, freedom, parity at Medgar Evers and wherever else we happen to be.
This is about Communiversity and keeping a covenant with your community - Now that you know; what will you do?
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Gloria Dulan-Wilson Blog/ ECLECTICALLY BLACK NEWS
For Eclectic Black People
VIP: Views . Interests . Perspectives
Showing posts with label Congressman Major Owens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Congressman Major Owens. Show all posts
5.19.2011
3.09.2011
Does Culture Have Relevance to Higher Education? Of course it does - Statement to the New York City Council Committee on Education
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Does Culture Have Relevance to Higher Education? Of course it does
Statement to the New York City Council Committee on Education
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Paraphrasing educational psychologist, in "The Concept of Guided Participation"
the concept of guided participation highlights that cognitive development occurs in a social context while extending sociocultural theory beyond language-based dialogue. College student’s cognitive development is an apprenticeship of sorts that occurs via guided participation in social activities with companions, mentors and organizations who support and stretch their understanding of and skill in using the tools of the culture.
Academic or extracurricular centers provide a vehicle for guided participation that focuses more centrally on the interrelatedness of students and the broader society.
While “guided” does not necessarily mean face to face interaction, it does provide exposure and experiential opportunities. For example, a student working on a research report in isolation is still “guided” by the faculty, staff, librarians, classmates, the publishing industry, parents, the broader community who help shape the writing of the research report as a cultural activity. Tying culture to the relevancy of what the student has chosen for a major or for his or her life’s work is also an important function of the MEC college, as it is with any of the other CUNY campuses.
Ironically, Italian students are provided with more than ample opportunity to tie in their cultural heritage from Italy to those who early on came to the US for a better life. It shows a great deal of pride in the maintaining of newsletters that are clearly Italian oriented; programs and activities that reach out to the Italian community; programs that are based on traditional Italian rituals. Italians don’t have any problem with having Italian-American programs.
But when it comes to AFRICAN-AMERICAN, or AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN, or AFRICAN oriented programs that are designed to enhance the lives and educational experiences of AFRICAN-AMERICANS - PROBLEM.
Why? What is the issue with our having the same enlightened programs and activities - even a newsletter - that speaks to the cultural uniqueness of people of AFRICAN HERITAGE? Would it not be the same as those of Italian heritage?
Didactically speaking, the instructional implications are these: “Informed by a sociocultural perspective, learning is thought to occur through interaction, negotiation, and collaboration. While these features are characteristic of “cooperative learning,” what sets instruction that is informed by sociocultural theory apart is that there is also attention to the discourse, norms, and practices associated with particular discourse and practice communities. The goal of instruction is to support students to engage in the activities, talk, and use of tools in a manner that is consistent with the practices of the community in which students will interact, as our future scientists, mathematicians, historians, politicians, etc.
Now, somehow the foregoing concept appears to be perfectly clear and acceptable when it comes to the non-Black society, but appears to be problematical when it comes to those of us who are Black. Why is that. What is the problem with CUNY, from whom the foregoing was paraphrased, can’t make the extrapolation?
When I interviewed the late Percy Ellis Sutton, former Boro President of Manhattan, founder of the Inner City Broadcast Company, entrepreneur, intellect, political figure, hero, I asked him what stood out most in his mind as the motivating factor for so many things he accomplished: he responded that his father had made it a policy to keep them (his brothers and sisters) with so many great Black people of accomplishment and intellect. He thought that having met Carter G. Woodson when he was a kid, and learning of so many things that Black people had accomplished - even back in the day - also inspired him to go beyond the mediocre.
Henry Louis Gates is a distinguished professor of African American History at Harvard University. Director of the WEB DuBois Institute for African and African American Research. What do you think would happen if suddenly Harvard University declared Dr. Gates not relevant to Harvard? There would be a hue and cry that would be heard around the world. Why does Pollard, Goldstein, Johnson and Herschenson think that we would sit quietly by and state that the members of the Bunche DuBois Center, that the Center for NU Leadership, are no longer relevant to the Brooklyn Community and that they can just destroy and dismantle it with impunity? They are only hired by the CUNY System - they don’t own it. And they do owe a responsibility to the Brooklyn Community, and the broader general community of greater New York City to abide by and provide for the same sociocultural programs as Harvard does.
Roger L. Green represented District 57 in the New York State Assembly, which comprises Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was first elected in 1980, and provided stellar service to his constituents until he stepped down in 2006. · In 1983, Coretta Scott King and labor leader, Cleveland Robinson asked Green to serve as the New York State Political Coordinator for the Memorial March on Washington. It was during this period that Green authored the bill that established the New York State Martin Luther King Holiday Commission and the New York State Martin Luther King Institute. In 1985 and 1986 in conjunction with the founding of the National Holiday, Governor Cuomo signed these bills into law.
· From 1986–1991, the New York State Martin Luther King Institute trained more than 1000 high school and college students through its Ella Baker Academy. Students participating in this program learned the theory and practice of non-violent conflict resolution. Students were also provided with an opportunity to study civil rights and human rights social history.
In 2006, Green retired from the New York State Legislature . Shortly after, the Chancellor of the City University of New York and the President of Medgar Evers College, appointed him as a Distinguished Lecturer. Green currently teaches a course that explores the historical significance of the freedom amendments, 13th , 14th , 15th and 19th Amendments, and their influence on state and local government.
Roger Green was/is also the Director of the Dubois-Bunche Center on Public Policy, a think tank dedicated to advancing best practices in law, policy, and community covenants that advance social and economic justice for urban communities within the U.S. and throughout the African Diaspora.
ROGER GREEN’S presence at Medgar Evers College is as relevant to Brooklyn, and Henry Louis Gates presence is to Harvard University. Dr. Gates W.E.B. DuBois Center for Africana Studies is relevant as is the Bunche DuBois Center. The BUNCHE-DUBOIS Center at Medgar Evers College must be reinstated under its original leadership immediately and without prejudice. They must be made whole.
Congressman Major Owens, now a faculty member in the Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evers College, retired from Congress at the end of his term in January 2007, and was succeeded by Yvette Clarke. The Congressman received his BA from Morehouse College and a master of science degree from Atlanta University; and was a librarian before entering politics. He was elected to the New York state Senate in 1974.
He authored the treatise on Communiversity, which is the contract that Medgar Evers College and CUNY has with the Community.
In 1982, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing the retiring Shirley Chisholm. One of his achievements in the House was the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Owens district included low income areas of Brownsville, a large Hasidic area of Crown Heights, the heavily Caribbean areas of Flatbush and East Flatbush, and the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope.
Major Owens received an "A" on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues. For those who don’t remember, the character Mark Richardson in The West Wing, a show no longer on the air, is believed to be based on Owens. Richardson plays an African-American Congressman from Brooklyn who looks a lot like Owens.
Owens is nicknamed the "Rappin' Rep" since he writes raps. His rap songs are often political and liberal in nature.
Owens is also the father of actor Geoffrey Owens, best known for playing the role of Elvin on The Cosby Show. (wikipedia)
An intellectual and pragmatist of the highest order, Congressman Owens called himself the Education Congressman, and firmly believes that an education is not just didactic, but the sum total of what can be brought to bear culturally as well as intellectually. He believes that Pollard and CUNY have violated the concept of COMMUNIVERSITY, the tenets upon which Medgar Evers was established.
Carter Godwin Woodson, a Black historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, was one of the first scholars to value and study Black History. He recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity, and left behind an impressive legacy. A founder of Journal of Negro History, Dr. Woodson is known as the Father of Black History (wikipedia)
Convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was either being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson realized the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson and three associates, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History September 9, 1915, in Chicago. (wikipedia) Now I cite Dr Woodson because it is apparent that neither the CUNY administration, nor Dr. Pollard are familiar with these issues or concerns.
Our Dominican and Puerto Rican Brothers and sisters are embarking on doing for themselves what we as Black people were doing for our selves at Medgar Evers. By the way, in case you did not notice, in case no one told you, our you were not able to observe by empirical observation: MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE IS A BLACK SCHOOL - IT IS BLACK, AFRICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, AFRICAN CARIBBEAN, AFRICAN LATINO - it is Black. It is the only Black College in New York.
Dr. Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861; A Century of Negro Migration (1918) and The History of the Negro Church (1927); The Negro in Our History.
In January 1916, Woodson began publication of the Journal of Negro History (I grew up on these publications - they were in my home as well as those of my relatives). It has never missed an issue, despite the Great Depression, loss of support from foundations and two World Wars. In 2002, it was renamed the Journal of African American History and continues to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
Dr. Woodson worked to preserve the history of African Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African American contributions "were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them. “Race prejudice is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind."
In 1926, long before Stevie Wonder, Dr. Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In the 1980’s after a massive national movement on the part of Black people, Negro History Week became Black History Month and was celebrated throughout February.
Dr. Woodson believed in self-reliance and racial respect, values he shared with Marcus Garvey. Back in the day Woodson also wrote for Garvey's weekly Negro World. Woodson collaborated with such Black luminaries as W. E. B. Du Bois, John E. Bruce, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (founder of the Schomburg Library in Harlem), Hubert H. Harrison, and T. Thomas Fortune among others.
In 1933 Dr. Woodson wrote The Mis-Education of the Negro which continue to have wide readership - they reprint it every 10 to 20 years, but the message continues to miss the mark. Dr. Woodson was perfectly clear that the only ones responsible for preserving and telling our history was we ourselves. We can share the information, but no one can do the telling or preserving for us, but us. Just as our counterparts at CUNY who have the center for the Italian Students, the Centers for Asian students, etc.
Dr. Edison Jackson made it possible for Carver Bank to have ATMs on Medgar Evers Campus. He obviously had a sense of history and connectedness. Carver Bank was named after famed scientist and inventor, George Washington Carver. William Pollard had Carver Bank kicked off campus and replaced by Citibank -on a Black Campus. Who is CitiBank named for?
The purpose of a college or higher education is both for the practical application of instruction and information, as well as the acculturation and refinement of those who come to the institutes of higher learning. Being in the environs of those who have made their mark in the world, who look like those who aspiring to do so is an inspiration in and of itself, is as important as classroom activities. We live in a dynamic community, not a static community.
What would happen if Hostos College students and faculty were suddenly told that they could not speak Spanish, or they could not have community based programs, or Dominican heritage studies. What do you think would happen?
What if Yeshiva University - not part of CUNY, but you understand the analogy - was told that there would be no Jewish or Hassidic information or influences on campus, and their learned scholars were suddenly evicted from the campus, and all their personal computers were seized, and their hard drives confiscated? What do you think would happen?
What do you expect when this kinds of heinous egregious acts are now perpetrated against the programs at Medgar Evers College. These kinds of moves parallel that of Nazis - and Gestapo actions. They cannot be tolerated. CUNY does not deserve a red dime for any of the other programs until the programs at Medgar Evers are fully reinstated with the originators in place; until those who have worked diligently and tirelessly to bring quality to Medgar Evers: Dr. Zulema Blair, Roger Greene, Dr. Divine Pryor, and others, are fully reinstated to their offices, at full salary, plus compensation for their losses - IMMEDIATELY, IF NOT SOONER.
The perpetrators against Medgar Evers College must go. IMMEDIATELY, IF NOT SOONER. They have set up an atmosphere of hostility and adversity on Medgar Evers Campus, where faculty, students, staff feel threatened and cheated. The Black community stands firmly that the CONTRACT FOR COMMUNIVERSITY must be adhered to.
My statement and I’m sticking to it. ###
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Presented to the New York City Council Hearing on
Academic Centers for CUNY
March 8, 2011
Please note: that Brooklyn's City Council Member CHARLES BARRON and Bronx City Council Member LARRY SEABROOK, walked out of the hearings in protest when it was discovered that the committee presenting the program for the hearings were all white, without one representation from any of the African, African America, African Caribbean or African Latino Students and CUNY's many campuses.
The Students themselves spoke out at a recently held Spoken Word Event (3/16/11), in depicting the dismantling of Medgar Evers as though they were walking on Medgar Evers Grave, and putting up a gate to keep the Black students away from their destiny.
But that's a separate article for another edition.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
SPECIAL EVENT ALERT ADVISORY:
PLEASE NOTE: THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE READING THIS, IF YOU OR ANY OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS OR FRIENDS OR NEIGHBORS OR EVEN YOUR ENEMIES ARE FACING FORECLOSURE, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND THE UPCOMING NACA FORECLOSURE PREVENTION WORKSHOP IN BROOKLYN AT THE BEDFORD CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SATURDAY, MARCH 19, FRO 4:30 TO 6:30.
IF ON THE OTHER HAND YOU ARE LOOKING TO BECOME A FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER AND NEED FREE DOWN PAYMENT, CLOSING COSTS AND A MORTGAGE 1% BELOW PRIME RATE, THEN YOU SHOULD ATTEND THE WORKSHOP AT BEDFORD CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FROM 6:30 TO 8:30
BOTH WORKSHOPS ARE LOCATED IN BROOKLYN AT 1200 DEAN STREET, CORNER OF NOSTRAND AVE.; FREE AND OPEN TO NEW YORKERS, NEW JERSEYANS, CONNECTICANS (???) ALL WHO NEED IT - PASS IT ON.
FOR MORE DETAIL, CHECK OUT THE NEXT BLOG POSTING.
STAY BLESSED GDW
Does Culture Have Relevance to Higher Education? Of course it does
Statement to the New York City Council Committee on Education
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Paraphrasing educational psychologist, in "The Concept of Guided Participation"
the concept of guided participation highlights that cognitive development occurs in a social context while extending sociocultural theory beyond language-based dialogue. College student’s cognitive development is an apprenticeship of sorts that occurs via guided participation in social activities with companions, mentors and organizations who support and stretch their understanding of and skill in using the tools of the culture.
Academic or extracurricular centers provide a vehicle for guided participation that focuses more centrally on the interrelatedness of students and the broader society.
While “guided” does not necessarily mean face to face interaction, it does provide exposure and experiential opportunities. For example, a student working on a research report in isolation is still “guided” by the faculty, staff, librarians, classmates, the publishing industry, parents, the broader community who help shape the writing of the research report as a cultural activity. Tying culture to the relevancy of what the student has chosen for a major or for his or her life’s work is also an important function of the MEC college, as it is with any of the other CUNY campuses.
Ironically, Italian students are provided with more than ample opportunity to tie in their cultural heritage from Italy to those who early on came to the US for a better life. It shows a great deal of pride in the maintaining of newsletters that are clearly Italian oriented; programs and activities that reach out to the Italian community; programs that are based on traditional Italian rituals. Italians don’t have any problem with having Italian-American programs.
But when it comes to AFRICAN-AMERICAN, or AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN, or AFRICAN oriented programs that are designed to enhance the lives and educational experiences of AFRICAN-AMERICANS - PROBLEM.
Why? What is the issue with our having the same enlightened programs and activities - even a newsletter - that speaks to the cultural uniqueness of people of AFRICAN HERITAGE? Would it not be the same as those of Italian heritage?
Didactically speaking, the instructional implications are these: “Informed by a sociocultural perspective, learning is thought to occur through interaction, negotiation, and collaboration. While these features are characteristic of “cooperative learning,” what sets instruction that is informed by sociocultural theory apart is that there is also attention to the discourse, norms, and practices associated with particular discourse and practice communities. The goal of instruction is to support students to engage in the activities, talk, and use of tools in a manner that is consistent with the practices of the community in which students will interact, as our future scientists, mathematicians, historians, politicians, etc.
Now, somehow the foregoing concept appears to be perfectly clear and acceptable when it comes to the non-Black society, but appears to be problematical when it comes to those of us who are Black. Why is that. What is the problem with CUNY, from whom the foregoing was paraphrased, can’t make the extrapolation?
When I interviewed the late Percy Ellis Sutton, former Boro President of Manhattan, founder of the Inner City Broadcast Company, entrepreneur, intellect, political figure, hero, I asked him what stood out most in his mind as the motivating factor for so many things he accomplished: he responded that his father had made it a policy to keep them (his brothers and sisters) with so many great Black people of accomplishment and intellect. He thought that having met Carter G. Woodson when he was a kid, and learning of so many things that Black people had accomplished - even back in the day - also inspired him to go beyond the mediocre.
Henry Louis Gates is a distinguished professor of African American History at Harvard University. Director of the WEB DuBois Institute for African and African American Research. What do you think would happen if suddenly Harvard University declared Dr. Gates not relevant to Harvard? There would be a hue and cry that would be heard around the world. Why does Pollard, Goldstein, Johnson and Herschenson think that we would sit quietly by and state that the members of the Bunche DuBois Center, that the Center for NU Leadership, are no longer relevant to the Brooklyn Community and that they can just destroy and dismantle it with impunity? They are only hired by the CUNY System - they don’t own it. And they do owe a responsibility to the Brooklyn Community, and the broader general community of greater New York City to abide by and provide for the same sociocultural programs as Harvard does.
Roger L. Green represented District 57 in the New York State Assembly, which comprises Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Park Slope and Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was first elected in 1980, and provided stellar service to his constituents until he stepped down in 2006. · In 1983, Coretta Scott King and labor leader, Cleveland Robinson asked Green to serve as the New York State Political Coordinator for the Memorial March on Washington. It was during this period that Green authored the bill that established the New York State Martin Luther King Holiday Commission and the New York State Martin Luther King Institute. In 1985 and 1986 in conjunction with the founding of the National Holiday, Governor Cuomo signed these bills into law.
· From 1986–1991, the New York State Martin Luther King Institute trained more than 1000 high school and college students through its Ella Baker Academy. Students participating in this program learned the theory and practice of non-violent conflict resolution. Students were also provided with an opportunity to study civil rights and human rights social history.
In 2006, Green retired from the New York State Legislature . Shortly after, the Chancellor of the City University of New York and the President of Medgar Evers College, appointed him as a Distinguished Lecturer. Green currently teaches a course that explores the historical significance of the freedom amendments, 13th , 14th , 15th and 19th Amendments, and their influence on state and local government.
Roger Green was/is also the Director of the Dubois-Bunche Center on Public Policy, a think tank dedicated to advancing best practices in law, policy, and community covenants that advance social and economic justice for urban communities within the U.S. and throughout the African Diaspora.
ROGER GREEN’S presence at Medgar Evers College is as relevant to Brooklyn, and Henry Louis Gates presence is to Harvard University. Dr. Gates W.E.B. DuBois Center for Africana Studies is relevant as is the Bunche DuBois Center. The BUNCHE-DUBOIS Center at Medgar Evers College must be reinstated under its original leadership immediately and without prejudice. They must be made whole.
Congressman Major Owens, now a faculty member in the Department of Public Administration at Medgar Evers College, retired from Congress at the end of his term in January 2007, and was succeeded by Yvette Clarke. The Congressman received his BA from Morehouse College and a master of science degree from Atlanta University; and was a librarian before entering politics. He was elected to the New York state Senate in 1974.
He authored the treatise on Communiversity, which is the contract that Medgar Evers College and CUNY has with the Community.
In 1982, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, replacing the retiring Shirley Chisholm. One of his achievements in the House was the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Owens district included low income areas of Brownsville, a large Hasidic area of Crown Heights, the heavily Caribbean areas of Flatbush and East Flatbush, and the upscale neighborhood of Park Slope.
Major Owens received an "A" on the Drum Major Institute's 2005 Congressional Scorecard on middle-class issues. For those who don’t remember, the character Mark Richardson in The West Wing, a show no longer on the air, is believed to be based on Owens. Richardson plays an African-American Congressman from Brooklyn who looks a lot like Owens.
Owens is nicknamed the "Rappin' Rep" since he writes raps. His rap songs are often political and liberal in nature.
Owens is also the father of actor Geoffrey Owens, best known for playing the role of Elvin on The Cosby Show. (wikipedia)
An intellectual and pragmatist of the highest order, Congressman Owens called himself the Education Congressman, and firmly believes that an education is not just didactic, but the sum total of what can be brought to bear culturally as well as intellectually. He believes that Pollard and CUNY have violated the concept of COMMUNIVERSITY, the tenets upon which Medgar Evers was established.
Carter Godwin Woodson, a Black historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, was one of the first scholars to value and study Black History. He recognized and acted upon the importance of a people having an awareness and knowledge of their contributions to humanity, and left behind an impressive legacy. A founder of Journal of Negro History, Dr. Woodson is known as the Father of Black History (wikipedia)
Convinced that the role of his own people in American history and in the history of other cultures was either being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson realized the need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson and three associates, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History September 9, 1915, in Chicago. (wikipedia) Now I cite Dr Woodson because it is apparent that neither the CUNY administration, nor Dr. Pollard are familiar with these issues or concerns.
Our Dominican and Puerto Rican Brothers and sisters are embarking on doing for themselves what we as Black people were doing for our selves at Medgar Evers. By the way, in case you did not notice, in case no one told you, our you were not able to observe by empirical observation: MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE IS A BLACK SCHOOL - IT IS BLACK, AFRICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN, AFRICAN CARIBBEAN, AFRICAN LATINO - it is Black. It is the only Black College in New York.
Dr. Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861; A Century of Negro Migration (1918) and The History of the Negro Church (1927); The Negro in Our History.
In January 1916, Woodson began publication of the Journal of Negro History (I grew up on these publications - they were in my home as well as those of my relatives). It has never missed an issue, despite the Great Depression, loss of support from foundations and two World Wars. In 2002, it was renamed the Journal of African American History and continues to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).
Dr. Woodson worked to preserve the history of African Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African American contributions "were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them. “Race prejudice is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind."
In 1926, long before Stevie Wonder, Dr. Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In the 1980’s after a massive national movement on the part of Black people, Negro History Week became Black History Month and was celebrated throughout February.
Dr. Woodson believed in self-reliance and racial respect, values he shared with Marcus Garvey. Back in the day Woodson also wrote for Garvey's weekly Negro World. Woodson collaborated with such Black luminaries as W. E. B. Du Bois, John E. Bruce, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (founder of the Schomburg Library in Harlem), Hubert H. Harrison, and T. Thomas Fortune among others.
In 1933 Dr. Woodson wrote The Mis-Education of the Negro which continue to have wide readership - they reprint it every 10 to 20 years, but the message continues to miss the mark. Dr. Woodson was perfectly clear that the only ones responsible for preserving and telling our history was we ourselves. We can share the information, but no one can do the telling or preserving for us, but us. Just as our counterparts at CUNY who have the center for the Italian Students, the Centers for Asian students, etc.
Dr. Edison Jackson made it possible for Carver Bank to have ATMs on Medgar Evers Campus. He obviously had a sense of history and connectedness. Carver Bank was named after famed scientist and inventor, George Washington Carver. William Pollard had Carver Bank kicked off campus and replaced by Citibank -on a Black Campus. Who is CitiBank named for?
The purpose of a college or higher education is both for the practical application of instruction and information, as well as the acculturation and refinement of those who come to the institutes of higher learning. Being in the environs of those who have made their mark in the world, who look like those who aspiring to do so is an inspiration in and of itself, is as important as classroom activities. We live in a dynamic community, not a static community.
What would happen if Hostos College students and faculty were suddenly told that they could not speak Spanish, or they could not have community based programs, or Dominican heritage studies. What do you think would happen?
What if Yeshiva University - not part of CUNY, but you understand the analogy - was told that there would be no Jewish or Hassidic information or influences on campus, and their learned scholars were suddenly evicted from the campus, and all their personal computers were seized, and their hard drives confiscated? What do you think would happen?
What do you expect when this kinds of heinous egregious acts are now perpetrated against the programs at Medgar Evers College. These kinds of moves parallel that of Nazis - and Gestapo actions. They cannot be tolerated. CUNY does not deserve a red dime for any of the other programs until the programs at Medgar Evers are fully reinstated with the originators in place; until those who have worked diligently and tirelessly to bring quality to Medgar Evers: Dr. Zulema Blair, Roger Greene, Dr. Divine Pryor, and others, are fully reinstated to their offices, at full salary, plus compensation for their losses - IMMEDIATELY, IF NOT SOONER.
The perpetrators against Medgar Evers College must go. IMMEDIATELY, IF NOT SOONER. They have set up an atmosphere of hostility and adversity on Medgar Evers Campus, where faculty, students, staff feel threatened and cheated. The Black community stands firmly that the CONTRACT FOR COMMUNIVERSITY must be adhered to.
My statement and I’m sticking to it. ###
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Presented to the New York City Council Hearing on
Academic Centers for CUNY
March 8, 2011
Please note: that Brooklyn's City Council Member CHARLES BARRON and Bronx City Council Member LARRY SEABROOK, walked out of the hearings in protest when it was discovered that the committee presenting the program for the hearings were all white, without one representation from any of the African, African America, African Caribbean or African Latino Students and CUNY's many campuses.
The Students themselves spoke out at a recently held Spoken Word Event (3/16/11), in depicting the dismantling of Medgar Evers as though they were walking on Medgar Evers Grave, and putting up a gate to keep the Black students away from their destiny.
But that's a separate article for another edition.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
SPECIAL EVENT ALERT ADVISORY:
PLEASE NOTE: THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE READING THIS, IF YOU OR ANY OF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS OR FRIENDS OR NEIGHBORS OR EVEN YOUR ENEMIES ARE FACING FORECLOSURE, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND THE UPCOMING NACA FORECLOSURE PREVENTION WORKSHOP IN BROOKLYN AT THE BEDFORD CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SATURDAY, MARCH 19, FRO 4:30 TO 6:30.
IF ON THE OTHER HAND YOU ARE LOOKING TO BECOME A FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER AND NEED FREE DOWN PAYMENT, CLOSING COSTS AND A MORTGAGE 1% BELOW PRIME RATE, THEN YOU SHOULD ATTEND THE WORKSHOP AT BEDFORD CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH FROM 6:30 TO 8:30
BOTH WORKSHOPS ARE LOCATED IN BROOKLYN AT 1200 DEAN STREET, CORNER OF NOSTRAND AVE.; FREE AND OPEN TO NEW YORKERS, NEW JERSEYANS, CONNECTICANS (???) ALL WHO NEED IT - PASS IT ON.
FOR MORE DETAIL, CHECK OUT THE NEXT BLOG POSTING.
STAY BLESSED GDW
2.28.2011
Medgar Evers Coalition for Academic Excellence Makes a Big Showing at the Black, Puerto Rican & Asian Caucus
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Well now that I've recouped from one of the busiest weekends of Black History Month, I have finally gathered up the strength and energy to write this article.
The MEC Coalition took its concerns to Albany last weekend, during the 40th Annual Black and Puerto Rican and Asian Legislative Caucus and placed it squarely on the plates of the elected officials.
Armed with petitions, flyers, parent, student and educator support, they spoke individually and collectively with the elected officials in regards to the egregious acts that have been lodged against New York's only predominantly Black college.
The center of the controversy, William Pollard, newly selected president chosen to replace the outgoing Edison Jackson, who retired after 20 years of successfully leading and expanding the college from a near failure to one of immeasurable success; closely followed by his hand-picked provost Howard Johnson, appeared to have had the same idea. They sponsored a bus with students from Medgar Evers, in an effort to put on a dog and pony show, to persuade the officials that they were doing a positive job.
However, their efforts fell far short of their mark, despite a well crafted speech delivered by State Senator Eric Adams. His support of academic excellence, is of course, laudable. Something all can agree to. However, his speech, eloquent though it was, does not assuage the fact that Pollard and Johnson have eviscerated several essential programs that were part and parcel of what made Medgar Evers such a great success: The Center for NU Leadership, started by Dr. Divine Pryor, and recruited on to the campus as an integral part of their outreach by Dr. Jackson; and the DuBois Bunche Institute, founded and fostered by former Assemblymember Roger Green, Congressman Major Owens, among others, were both ousted from the campus - for what purpose? And what did the termination of these programs have to do with academic excellence? Additionally, MEC had the only Black Think Tank on campus, comprised of historical figures, entrepreneurs, political leaders, formerly elected officials, all of whom were drawing cards for other programs and funding sources. (It should also be noted that the program ended abruptly after Senator Adams' speech, and members of the audience were not afforded the opportunity of asking questions or making comments).
But back on the subject of academic excellence: One wonders what the rationale could have been for curtailing open enrollment for students who were aspiring to new career goals? Congressman Owens, who was part of the originating members who supported the establishment of Medgar Evers reminded us all that the premise of the school was based on the concept of COMMUNIVERSITY. And that there were several contracts drawn between the community and the CUNY bigwigs have been thrown under the bus.
It's clear that things are very much amiss at the college. In fact, anyone walking through the corridors, which were once alive with engaged students, will readily notice the ghost-town like appearance of the halls. Gone are the encouraging bulletin boards, the announcements of opportunities for student participation and achievements that used to populate the walls.
Albany became the line drawn in the sand. At a meeting held Saturday, February 19, caucus members came to hear the concerns of the MEC Coalition, and left determined that there would be no additional funding or other concessions until things were rectified at the campus.
Chancellor Goldstein, who backs Pollard and Johnson, has taken out full page ads in predominantly African American papers trying to thwart the growing discontent among the faculty, staff, and community. The Amsterdam News recently ran a headline stating the students at MEC were "clueless" about what was transpiring at the campus. The facts, however, are that the student organizations have been threatened with funding cuts if they participate in, or evidence any concern about the new regime. A regime that has largely targeted them for extinction, while simultaneously looking to replace them with students outside the boundaries of the Brooklyn community from which a large majority of the student body originates.
Actually, the more telling problem is that they are actually looking to supplant the New York student body completely by giving priority to foreign students who are coming in from other countries, paying high prices to attend CUNY Schools while the neighborhood gets priced out of the market. As it is, prices have crept up for education at our city "owned" university over the past few decades, with students who would otherwise have the right to a free education, paying almost as much as they would to go to a private college or university. In spite of that factor, the CUNY system is constantly crying broke - wonder who is monitoring their budgets?
Medgar Evers was, for all intents and purposes, not supposed to succeed. In fact the first four presidents, prior to the hiring of Edison Jackson, were major disasters. It was as if the CUNY higher ups were deliberately picking miscreants, who were clueless about the mission and intent of the college, which was named after slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Wiley Evers. The appointment of the current president, is reminiscient of the earlier selections, who had no understanding or concern for the community; had little respect for or alliegience to the faculty and staff, and were largely there as place holders while the school slowly declined.
Such a decline would open the door for the CUNY higher ups to step in conveniently and take over the school, reshaping it so that it no longer serves the purpose of providing a quality educational millieu for African/African American/Caribbean students who have found success in a school that has been the underpinning of their success over the past two decades. (Pollard is alleged to have made threats to curtail financial assistance for several Caribbean-American students, stating they were receiving the assistance illegally).
When compared to other HBCUs, Medgar Evers existence is a drop in the bucket, having only been here a mere 26 years. But their progress has been meteoric. That is until the 2009.
The upshot of the Caucus weekend, however, is that the efforts to make it appear as if all was well at MEC, may well have backfired. Several of the pols who attended the meeting with the coalition, most notably Senator Kevin Parker, and Assemblymember Inez Barron, have vowed not to provide any additional funds to CUNY in general and Medgar Evers in particular until the problems are rectified, the programs are reinstated, and person more in keeping with the mission of Medgar Evers is brought on board to lead the college. This time a full fledged search must be launched to make sure that the right one is appointed- no more hastily selected individuals of questionable backgrounds.
Assemblymember Jeffries, and other elected officials are planning to hold hearings into the circumstances under which the current president was selected, as well as to the recent discontinuations of programs that had been beneficial to the campus, and the blocking of grants that would have enhanced several programs that had been in existence for quite some time. (Still don't understand why Carver Bank's ATMs were taken out and replaced by CitiBank. It may not be in the purview of the elected officials, but inquiring minds want to know.)
The New York State Panhellenic Council (comprised of the major Black Fraternities and Sororities) have likewise agreed to look into what is happening with Medgar Evers' students, and the policies that appear to be aimed at undermining its status as the only Black college in New York. It should be remembered that prior to her untimely, tragic death, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs, was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Former President, Edison Jackson, was an active member of Phi Beta Sigma, hosting many student orient programs and scholarship award ceremonies at the campus. Irregardless of whether there are active faternities or sororities at Medgar Evers, the Pan Hellenic Council deem it important to take an active interest in the preservation of Medgar Evers as a predominantly Black college. This is refreshing, since Pollard has claimed that he was not brought to Medgar Evers to head a Black college.
Rev. Al Sharpton stated in his address to the Caucus church goers at the Wilborn Temple in Albany, we have far too many among us who have title without responsibility; who are in positions of power, but are not standing for those made it possible for them to be in that position. Who serve more as a blockage to progress, than a conduit.
It appears that Pollard has been brought into this situation for that purpose; in a which he is not suited- at least not by our standards of quality (though he may well be serving the purposes of the chancellor). And since he was not brought here to be the president of a Black college; it may well have been a case of mistaken identity. He does look a lot like us. But there the similarity ends sharply: MEDGAR EVERS IS A BLACK COLLEGE. It was from the inception, and will continue to be so, despite his or Johnson's or Goldstein's efforts to the contrary.
Academic excellence is not born of destroying programs; it comes from bringing in quality faculty; it comes from providing a millieu of growth, exploration, creativity, and progressive programs. It does not come via demoralization an0d intimidation, inuendos and reprisals. It comes through attracting the brightest and the best via those who are already a beacon for the school; not undermining that beacon, and engendering the ire of an entire community.
A series of television broadcasts via Manhattan Neighborhood Network, (MNN), will further discuss these and other concerns roiling around Medgar Evers College. Check your satellite and cable listings for dates and times. (Of course I will post it as part of my even alert as soon as I have additional information.)
But the main point is this -- to Brooklynites, and all residents of New York, whether or not you have or ever plan to attend Medgar Evers College - this is yet another attack on a Black institution. This is another incursion into our community, with the aim and goal of decimating us, demoralizing us, and depriving us of something that we have worked hard for and built with blood, sweat, tears, pride and respect. My question to you is this: NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
To lend your support contact the meccoalitation@gmail.com, contact your churches, elected officials, community based organizations, and make yourselves a committee of one to demand the cessation of the dismantling of Medgar Evers and the reinstatement of programs that have been unfairly curtailed; and the reinstatement of open enrollment for students in the Brooklyn community. You are the people with the power; this is your community; Medgar Evers came about as the result of your efforts. Stand up, be seen, be heard, be counted, be respected.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Well now that I've recouped from one of the busiest weekends of Black History Month, I have finally gathered up the strength and energy to write this article.
The MEC Coalition took its concerns to Albany last weekend, during the 40th Annual Black and Puerto Rican and Asian Legislative Caucus and placed it squarely on the plates of the elected officials.
Armed with petitions, flyers, parent, student and educator support, they spoke individually and collectively with the elected officials in regards to the egregious acts that have been lodged against New York's only predominantly Black college.
The center of the controversy, William Pollard, newly selected president chosen to replace the outgoing Edison Jackson, who retired after 20 years of successfully leading and expanding the college from a near failure to one of immeasurable success; closely followed by his hand-picked provost Howard Johnson, appeared to have had the same idea. They sponsored a bus with students from Medgar Evers, in an effort to put on a dog and pony show, to persuade the officials that they were doing a positive job.
However, their efforts fell far short of their mark, despite a well crafted speech delivered by State Senator Eric Adams. His support of academic excellence, is of course, laudable. Something all can agree to. However, his speech, eloquent though it was, does not assuage the fact that Pollard and Johnson have eviscerated several essential programs that were part and parcel of what made Medgar Evers such a great success: The Center for NU Leadership, started by Dr. Divine Pryor, and recruited on to the campus as an integral part of their outreach by Dr. Jackson; and the DuBois Bunche Institute, founded and fostered by former Assemblymember Roger Green, Congressman Major Owens, among others, were both ousted from the campus - for what purpose? And what did the termination of these programs have to do with academic excellence? Additionally, MEC had the only Black Think Tank on campus, comprised of historical figures, entrepreneurs, political leaders, formerly elected officials, all of whom were drawing cards for other programs and funding sources. (It should also be noted that the program ended abruptly after Senator Adams' speech, and members of the audience were not afforded the opportunity of asking questions or making comments).
But back on the subject of academic excellence: One wonders what the rationale could have been for curtailing open enrollment for students who were aspiring to new career goals? Congressman Owens, who was part of the originating members who supported the establishment of Medgar Evers reminded us all that the premise of the school was based on the concept of COMMUNIVERSITY. And that there were several contracts drawn between the community and the CUNY bigwigs have been thrown under the bus.
It's clear that things are very much amiss at the college. In fact, anyone walking through the corridors, which were once alive with engaged students, will readily notice the ghost-town like appearance of the halls. Gone are the encouraging bulletin boards, the announcements of opportunities for student participation and achievements that used to populate the walls.
Albany became the line drawn in the sand. At a meeting held Saturday, February 19, caucus members came to hear the concerns of the MEC Coalition, and left determined that there would be no additional funding or other concessions until things were rectified at the campus.
Chancellor Goldstein, who backs Pollard and Johnson, has taken out full page ads in predominantly African American papers trying to thwart the growing discontent among the faculty, staff, and community. The Amsterdam News recently ran a headline stating the students at MEC were "clueless" about what was transpiring at the campus. The facts, however, are that the student organizations have been threatened with funding cuts if they participate in, or evidence any concern about the new regime. A regime that has largely targeted them for extinction, while simultaneously looking to replace them with students outside the boundaries of the Brooklyn community from which a large majority of the student body originates.
Actually, the more telling problem is that they are actually looking to supplant the New York student body completely by giving priority to foreign students who are coming in from other countries, paying high prices to attend CUNY Schools while the neighborhood gets priced out of the market. As it is, prices have crept up for education at our city "owned" university over the past few decades, with students who would otherwise have the right to a free education, paying almost as much as they would to go to a private college or university. In spite of that factor, the CUNY system is constantly crying broke - wonder who is monitoring their budgets?
Medgar Evers was, for all intents and purposes, not supposed to succeed. In fact the first four presidents, prior to the hiring of Edison Jackson, were major disasters. It was as if the CUNY higher ups were deliberately picking miscreants, who were clueless about the mission and intent of the college, which was named after slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Wiley Evers. The appointment of the current president, is reminiscient of the earlier selections, who had no understanding or concern for the community; had little respect for or alliegience to the faculty and staff, and were largely there as place holders while the school slowly declined.
Such a decline would open the door for the CUNY higher ups to step in conveniently and take over the school, reshaping it so that it no longer serves the purpose of providing a quality educational millieu for African/African American/Caribbean students who have found success in a school that has been the underpinning of their success over the past two decades. (Pollard is alleged to have made threats to curtail financial assistance for several Caribbean-American students, stating they were receiving the assistance illegally).
When compared to other HBCUs, Medgar Evers existence is a drop in the bucket, having only been here a mere 26 years. But their progress has been meteoric. That is until the 2009.
The upshot of the Caucus weekend, however, is that the efforts to make it appear as if all was well at MEC, may well have backfired. Several of the pols who attended the meeting with the coalition, most notably Senator Kevin Parker, and Assemblymember Inez Barron, have vowed not to provide any additional funds to CUNY in general and Medgar Evers in particular until the problems are rectified, the programs are reinstated, and person more in keeping with the mission of Medgar Evers is brought on board to lead the college. This time a full fledged search must be launched to make sure that the right one is appointed- no more hastily selected individuals of questionable backgrounds.
Assemblymember Jeffries, and other elected officials are planning to hold hearings into the circumstances under which the current president was selected, as well as to the recent discontinuations of programs that had been beneficial to the campus, and the blocking of grants that would have enhanced several programs that had been in existence for quite some time. (Still don't understand why Carver Bank's ATMs were taken out and replaced by CitiBank. It may not be in the purview of the elected officials, but inquiring minds want to know.)
The New York State Panhellenic Council (comprised of the major Black Fraternities and Sororities) have likewise agreed to look into what is happening with Medgar Evers' students, and the policies that appear to be aimed at undermining its status as the only Black college in New York. It should be remembered that prior to her untimely, tragic death, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs, was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Former President, Edison Jackson, was an active member of Phi Beta Sigma, hosting many student orient programs and scholarship award ceremonies at the campus. Irregardless of whether there are active faternities or sororities at Medgar Evers, the Pan Hellenic Council deem it important to take an active interest in the preservation of Medgar Evers as a predominantly Black college. This is refreshing, since Pollard has claimed that he was not brought to Medgar Evers to head a Black college.
Rev. Al Sharpton stated in his address to the Caucus church goers at the Wilborn Temple in Albany, we have far too many among us who have title without responsibility; who are in positions of power, but are not standing for those made it possible for them to be in that position. Who serve more as a blockage to progress, than a conduit.
It appears that Pollard has been brought into this situation for that purpose; in a which he is not suited- at least not by our standards of quality (though he may well be serving the purposes of the chancellor). And since he was not brought here to be the president of a Black college; it may well have been a case of mistaken identity. He does look a lot like us. But there the similarity ends sharply: MEDGAR EVERS IS A BLACK COLLEGE. It was from the inception, and will continue to be so, despite his or Johnson's or Goldstein's efforts to the contrary.
Academic excellence is not born of destroying programs; it comes from bringing in quality faculty; it comes from providing a millieu of growth, exploration, creativity, and progressive programs. It does not come via demoralization an0d intimidation, inuendos and reprisals. It comes through attracting the brightest and the best via those who are already a beacon for the school; not undermining that beacon, and engendering the ire of an entire community.
A series of television broadcasts via Manhattan Neighborhood Network, (MNN), will further discuss these and other concerns roiling around Medgar Evers College. Check your satellite and cable listings for dates and times. (Of course I will post it as part of my even alert as soon as I have additional information.)
But the main point is this -- to Brooklynites, and all residents of New York, whether or not you have or ever plan to attend Medgar Evers College - this is yet another attack on a Black institution. This is another incursion into our community, with the aim and goal of decimating us, demoralizing us, and depriving us of something that we have worked hard for and built with blood, sweat, tears, pride and respect. My question to you is this: NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
To lend your support contact the meccoalitation@gmail.com, contact your churches, elected officials, community based organizations, and make yourselves a committee of one to demand the cessation of the dismantling of Medgar Evers and the reinstatement of programs that have been unfairly curtailed; and the reinstatement of open enrollment for students in the Brooklyn community. You are the people with the power; this is your community; Medgar Evers came about as the result of your efforts. Stand up, be seen, be heard, be counted, be respected.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
2.18.2011
Medgar Evers communiversity a Dream Deferred? It's Time to Bring it Back
By Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Hello All:
I received this statement from former Congressman Major Owens, who is currently part of the faculty at Medgar Evers. The term Communiversity was coined because the very founding of Medgar Evers began at the community level. It was not initiated by CUNY. And the ground rules and social agreements that evolved as a result of the dialogue that eventually evolved into the institution we now know as Medgar Evers, was a result of the demands made by the community for standards of excellence, coupled with the concessions that needed to be made to accommodate a community that was comprised of families that may never have had an opportunity to send their children to college had it not been for Medgar Evers.
Now the contract with the community has been broken by the newly appointed President and Provost, who obviously neither know nor care that their responsibility is to expand the programs; not contract them. To enhance the program for the constituency (I.e Brooklynites and those of the greater New York area). Officially and culturally, Medgar Evers is the only Black College in New York. It is the second Black college in the North, Lincoln University being the first.
Yet Pollard alleges that he was not brought there to be the president of a Black College. Which, as far as I and so many others are concerned, means that he needs to go back to where ever he came from and make room for some one who is thoroughly committed to being the Black president of a Black college that is devoted to the education of the students who have been largely ignored, cheated, and deprived of a sound academic foundation.
Medgar Evers did not turn students away, but provided them with the remediation they require to succeed in college - that is, until the new president.
Medgar Evers had one of the finest Black think tanks, comprised of former elected officials, activists, and individuals who came together to make life even richer for the students. That is until the new president.
Medgar Evers had one of the few programs that provided ex-offenders with a college degree and an opportunity to make a life for themselves, and make a positive contribution to their community and society. That is, until the new president.
Medgar Evers had an open enrollment. That is, until the new president.
Under the guise of "academic excellence" these programs have been dismantled. Brooklyn students now have to meet the CUNY criteria in order to get into Medgar Evers;they are not allowed to apply directly to Medgar Evers, but go through a screening process.
What do you think is going on? What kinds of tales have you been told? How does dismantling these programs effect academic excellence? Why have the student organizations been told that their funds would be cut if they challenge the new methods of the President and the Provost? Why have so many Caribbean and other students suddenly been cut off from financial aid.
This is a new form of ETHNIC CLEANSING. And guess who is the target? Guess who gets to be the heavy and do the dirty work for the CUNY powers that be.
BROOKLYN, TIME TO WAKE UP TO WHAT'S GOING ON UNDER YOUR VERY NOSES. ELECTED OFFICIALS - IT'S TIME TO REPRESENT. TIME TO PUT CUNY ON NOTICE AS WELL AS THE NEWLY APPOINTED, and highly disappointing PRESIDENT AND PROVOST.
When you don't know who you are vis a vis your own people, you are the enemy.
In my Februaray 14 article on MEC, I included a petition that could be cut and pasted and emailed to the coalition. Please revisit that article, and, if you have not already done so, please cut and paste the petition, fill it out and email it to the email on the petition.
Let's get our COMMUNIVERSITY back on track.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
The following is Major Owens Letter:
THE DREAM OF COMMUNIVERSITY LIVES ON
Statement by Congressman Major Owens
Decades before it became a slogan endorsed even by presidential candidate John McCain, the freedom fighters of Central Brooklyn clearly understood that “Education is a Civil Right”.
To bring this process to full fruition the “Founders” of Medgar Evers College demanded a full-fledged American college. A well qualified and dedicated core of academicians and scholars was anticipated to provide, not only for the quality education of matriculating students, but also serve as a fountain of expertise, overflowing beyond campus walls to assist in community problem-solving, and neighborhood uplift. Many of us supported this concept we chose to call “Communiversity”.
The dream of Communiversity envisions the following:
- A robust College Department of Education offering assistance to struggling local early childhood programs and public schools
- A Business/Public Administration Department to help local small businesses and non-profit service organizations
- Ongoing involvement in Social Engineering projects designed to remediate or solve pressing problems such as the large number of local residents returning to the community after incarceration
- An aggressive program for the utilization of available funds for the education of veterans
- Weekend public seminars and conferences related to Black History, Culture and Current Issues to fill a huge intellectual vacuum
- A Communications Department to enhance the abundant supply of Central Brooklyn talent; help refine our magnificent church choirs; and to encourage the constantly evolving street folk music, such as RAP, into more creative channels
- A more robust Health and Science Department to end the shameless absence of local residents from technical and professional positions in present and future health care services.
The list goes on.
No hopes for a competitive football team (costs are too high), but low cost basketball and other sports could be conducted in ways that would inspire talented athletes throughout Central Brooklyn. And fiscal restraints are not great enough to block the creation of a nationally competitive marching band to inspire local high schools to resurrect and refine their bands. Greater integration and engagement with the community will yield enormous educational benefits.
The Founders want a “COMMUNIVERSITY”. The Central Planners of CUNY want “Community College Number 7”, an impotent, puppet satellite. For forty years a covert war has been waged against Medgar Evers. Only in December 2009 was the college able to achieve its full State chartered status despite the CUNY Central sabotage. Only now, forty years late, is Medgar Evers able to receive its rightful capital funding from the State.
The present escalating turmoil at Medgar Evers is a continuation of the struggle for a communiversity and against CUNY command and control. Two levels of institutional cannibalism are now in motion. CUNY Central decision-making is dominated by stubborn Caesars and insensitive Napoleons. Their polite cannibalism started with the rejection of open enrollment. They have steadily fled from the original lofty purpose of CUNY: the education of New York City students from working families. The mission rhetoric remains but the telltale fiscal policies have clearly spun out of orbit. Far too great a portion of limited resources has been misdirected into funding a graduate school rivalry. Higher education needs that are already being met by excellent East Coast Ivy League institutions are being redundantly addressed by the CUNY oligarchy. The unique challenge of educating graduates of New York City high schools has been abandoned. CUNY’s optimum reason for existence is being smothered. Extreme budget cuts will hasten this process.
Worse than the smothering is the institutional cannibalism. First the CUNY Central pet projects drain off public and private funds needed by constituent colleges. While corporate and foundation funds are pursued very little private fundraising help is offered to constituent colleges. In the financial capital of the world the ratio of private contributions per CUNY student is shamefully low. Appropriate priority setting would lead CUNY to separate its budget for graduate education activities from the undergraduate budget. Over the next few years these redundant operations should be moved toward a self-financing program with particular encouragement of out-of-state and foreign students who would be required to pay fees commensurate with Ivy League market rates.
The present situation, which refuses to recognize the undergraduate priority, encourages local cannibalism. Library assistants and laboratory aides, tutors, adjuncts, personnel at the lowest end of the scale are the first fired. This means that to accrue any meaningful savings more and more of them must go. But despite the budget cuts crunch salaries for executive staff have gone up. The standard is set by the salary of the Chancellor, which is higher than the salary of the President of the U.S. Presidents of the top CUNY colleges must have paychecks close to that of the Chancellor and their Vice Presidents must be paid an amount not too far below that, etc. All of these functionaries probably deserve even higher pay. But there is a budget state of emergency. The weak will not quietly allow themselves to be devoured by the strong.
After forty years of struggle and deprivation Medgar Evers deserves a transparent fiscal report from CUNY showing how it has been treated in comparison with the other senior colleges. The students, alumni and Founders of Medgar Evers deserve a full and transparent fiscal report and Master Plan from the present college administration. After more than a year of waiting for a Master Plan the campus anxiety has begun to swell out of control.
The basic question is: Are there forces still scheming to make Medgar a community college or can we hope to move now to truly establish a Communiversity? Hiring, firing, appointments, promotions, evictions of Centers; all actions can be better understood and opposed or supported within the context of a Master Plan.
NOW THAT KNOW, WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Hello All:
I received this statement from former Congressman Major Owens, who is currently part of the faculty at Medgar Evers. The term Communiversity was coined because the very founding of Medgar Evers began at the community level. It was not initiated by CUNY. And the ground rules and social agreements that evolved as a result of the dialogue that eventually evolved into the institution we now know as Medgar Evers, was a result of the demands made by the community for standards of excellence, coupled with the concessions that needed to be made to accommodate a community that was comprised of families that may never have had an opportunity to send their children to college had it not been for Medgar Evers.
Now the contract with the community has been broken by the newly appointed President and Provost, who obviously neither know nor care that their responsibility is to expand the programs; not contract them. To enhance the program for the constituency (I.e Brooklynites and those of the greater New York area). Officially and culturally, Medgar Evers is the only Black College in New York. It is the second Black college in the North, Lincoln University being the first.
Yet Pollard alleges that he was not brought there to be the president of a Black College. Which, as far as I and so many others are concerned, means that he needs to go back to where ever he came from and make room for some one who is thoroughly committed to being the Black president of a Black college that is devoted to the education of the students who have been largely ignored, cheated, and deprived of a sound academic foundation.
Medgar Evers did not turn students away, but provided them with the remediation they require to succeed in college - that is, until the new president.
Medgar Evers had one of the finest Black think tanks, comprised of former elected officials, activists, and individuals who came together to make life even richer for the students. That is until the new president.
Medgar Evers had one of the few programs that provided ex-offenders with a college degree and an opportunity to make a life for themselves, and make a positive contribution to their community and society. That is, until the new president.
Medgar Evers had an open enrollment. That is, until the new president.
Under the guise of "academic excellence" these programs have been dismantled. Brooklyn students now have to meet the CUNY criteria in order to get into Medgar Evers;they are not allowed to apply directly to Medgar Evers, but go through a screening process.
What do you think is going on? What kinds of tales have you been told? How does dismantling these programs effect academic excellence? Why have the student organizations been told that their funds would be cut if they challenge the new methods of the President and the Provost? Why have so many Caribbean and other students suddenly been cut off from financial aid.
This is a new form of ETHNIC CLEANSING. And guess who is the target? Guess who gets to be the heavy and do the dirty work for the CUNY powers that be.
BROOKLYN, TIME TO WAKE UP TO WHAT'S GOING ON UNDER YOUR VERY NOSES. ELECTED OFFICIALS - IT'S TIME TO REPRESENT. TIME TO PUT CUNY ON NOTICE AS WELL AS THE NEWLY APPOINTED, and highly disappointing PRESIDENT AND PROVOST.
When you don't know who you are vis a vis your own people, you are the enemy.
In my Februaray 14 article on MEC, I included a petition that could be cut and pasted and emailed to the coalition. Please revisit that article, and, if you have not already done so, please cut and paste the petition, fill it out and email it to the email on the petition.
Let's get our COMMUNIVERSITY back on track.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
The following is Major Owens Letter:
THE DREAM OF COMMUNIVERSITY LIVES ON
Statement by Congressman Major Owens
Decades before it became a slogan endorsed even by presidential candidate John McCain, the freedom fighters of Central Brooklyn clearly understood that “Education is a Civil Right”.
To bring this process to full fruition the “Founders” of Medgar Evers College demanded a full-fledged American college. A well qualified and dedicated core of academicians and scholars was anticipated to provide, not only for the quality education of matriculating students, but also serve as a fountain of expertise, overflowing beyond campus walls to assist in community problem-solving, and neighborhood uplift. Many of us supported this concept we chose to call “Communiversity”.
The dream of Communiversity envisions the following:
- A robust College Department of Education offering assistance to struggling local early childhood programs and public schools
- A Business/Public Administration Department to help local small businesses and non-profit service organizations
- Ongoing involvement in Social Engineering projects designed to remediate or solve pressing problems such as the large number of local residents returning to the community after incarceration
- An aggressive program for the utilization of available funds for the education of veterans
- Weekend public seminars and conferences related to Black History, Culture and Current Issues to fill a huge intellectual vacuum
- A Communications Department to enhance the abundant supply of Central Brooklyn talent; help refine our magnificent church choirs; and to encourage the constantly evolving street folk music, such as RAP, into more creative channels
- A more robust Health and Science Department to end the shameless absence of local residents from technical and professional positions in present and future health care services.
The list goes on.
No hopes for a competitive football team (costs are too high), but low cost basketball and other sports could be conducted in ways that would inspire talented athletes throughout Central Brooklyn. And fiscal restraints are not great enough to block the creation of a nationally competitive marching band to inspire local high schools to resurrect and refine their bands. Greater integration and engagement with the community will yield enormous educational benefits.
The Founders want a “COMMUNIVERSITY”. The Central Planners of CUNY want “Community College Number 7”, an impotent, puppet satellite. For forty years a covert war has been waged against Medgar Evers. Only in December 2009 was the college able to achieve its full State chartered status despite the CUNY Central sabotage. Only now, forty years late, is Medgar Evers able to receive its rightful capital funding from the State.
The present escalating turmoil at Medgar Evers is a continuation of the struggle for a communiversity and against CUNY command and control. Two levels of institutional cannibalism are now in motion. CUNY Central decision-making is dominated by stubborn Caesars and insensitive Napoleons. Their polite cannibalism started with the rejection of open enrollment. They have steadily fled from the original lofty purpose of CUNY: the education of New York City students from working families. The mission rhetoric remains but the telltale fiscal policies have clearly spun out of orbit. Far too great a portion of limited resources has been misdirected into funding a graduate school rivalry. Higher education needs that are already being met by excellent East Coast Ivy League institutions are being redundantly addressed by the CUNY oligarchy. The unique challenge of educating graduates of New York City high schools has been abandoned. CUNY’s optimum reason for existence is being smothered. Extreme budget cuts will hasten this process.
Worse than the smothering is the institutional cannibalism. First the CUNY Central pet projects drain off public and private funds needed by constituent colleges. While corporate and foundation funds are pursued very little private fundraising help is offered to constituent colleges. In the financial capital of the world the ratio of private contributions per CUNY student is shamefully low. Appropriate priority setting would lead CUNY to separate its budget for graduate education activities from the undergraduate budget. Over the next few years these redundant operations should be moved toward a self-financing program with particular encouragement of out-of-state and foreign students who would be required to pay fees commensurate with Ivy League market rates.
The present situation, which refuses to recognize the undergraduate priority, encourages local cannibalism. Library assistants and laboratory aides, tutors, adjuncts, personnel at the lowest end of the scale are the first fired. This means that to accrue any meaningful savings more and more of them must go. But despite the budget cuts crunch salaries for executive staff have gone up. The standard is set by the salary of the Chancellor, which is higher than the salary of the President of the U.S. Presidents of the top CUNY colleges must have paychecks close to that of the Chancellor and their Vice Presidents must be paid an amount not too far below that, etc. All of these functionaries probably deserve even higher pay. But there is a budget state of emergency. The weak will not quietly allow themselves to be devoured by the strong.
After forty years of struggle and deprivation Medgar Evers deserves a transparent fiscal report from CUNY showing how it has been treated in comparison with the other senior colleges. The students, alumni and Founders of Medgar Evers deserve a full and transparent fiscal report and Master Plan from the present college administration. After more than a year of waiting for a Master Plan the campus anxiety has begun to swell out of control.
The basic question is: Are there forces still scheming to make Medgar a community college or can we hope to move now to truly establish a Communiversity? Hiring, firing, appointments, promotions, evictions of Centers; all actions can be better understood and opposed or supported within the context of a Master Plan.
NOW THAT KNOW, WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
12.10.2010
Medgar Evers College Faculty Issues Vote of NO CONFIDENCE for President and Provost
by Gloria Dulan-Wilson
A controversy and confrontation that has been brewing under the surface is about to come to a head. It has been roiling since President Edison O. Jackson stepped down from Medgar Evers, and his mantle was passed on to William Pollard, who now serves as its current president.
In assuming the position of president, it is natural for the new executive to make some changes in order to brand the college under his leadership. It is natural, also for them to bring in new programs that would enhance what the college has to offer.
What is not natural is for a Black college president to come into an environment where the students and faculty are predominantly Black, and lay waste to programs that have been of benefit to the Black student body and surrounding community. However, over the past year, this appears to have been Pollard's scorched campus policy. He has evicted Dr. Divine Pryor, founder of Center for Nu Leadership on Urban Solutions, an outreach program that helped ex-offenders get back on their feet. And has sent letters of eviction to what can only be called Brooklyn's African American Think Tank.
Thus far the following people have been either sent termination or eviction notices:
Hon. Roger L. Green, Founder and Executive Director of the DuBois-Bunche Center, was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer at Medgar Evers College within the City University of New York in 2006. From 1981-2005 served in the New York State Assembly, and was an expert on educational reform; children and family policies. chaired the Committee on Science and Technology, and the Committee on Children and Families. A longstanding advocate of civil and human rights, Green was MEC’s professor of Public Administration, bringing to the students his vast array of knowledge and experience. The DuBois-Bunche Center for Public Policy is in jeopardy of being excised from the campus, as are the founding members who are integral to the organization.
John Flateau, Ph.D.: Professor of Public Administration, received his Ph.D in American Politics and Public Policy from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He served as Chief of Staff to Mayor David Dinkins; Senior Vice President of the NYS Urban Development Corporation; Dean of the School of Business, and Dean of Institutional Advancement at Medgar Evers College. He also served as a Commissioner, of the NYC Districting Commission; Advisor to the NYS Legislative Advisory Task Force on Demographics and Reapportionment; Chairperson of the US Census Advisory Committee on the African-American Population; and Executive Director of the NYS Black and Hispanic Legislative Caucus. He is a generalist and strategic thinker, with expertise in urban policy, economic development, voting rights, legislative redistricting, census demographics, campaigns and elections, diversity management, and governmental processes (whether or not Dr. Flateau is on the hit list remains to be seen, however, MEC's Black Think Tank is definitely under siege).
(NOTE: to their credit both Green and Flateau worked to resolve the problems in Albany under Governor David Paterson, as well as providing advice on an ongoing basis on State, City and National issues.)
Hon. Major Owens served as a member of Congress representing Central Brooklyn from 1983 to 2005, and brings a wealth of expertise. Former New York City Commissioner, and a NY State Senator. Congressman Owens is widely respected for his lifelong commitment to reduce poverty in the United States and throughout the developing world. He is also respected for his legislative leadership which fought to eliminate barriers to educational opportunity. His position appears to be safe for now. But with the lack of insight on the part of the current Administrator, I wouldn't turn my back or relax if I were him.
Zulema Blair, Ph.D.:was Chair of MEC's Public Administration Departmentin 2007. Dr. Blair’s focus is organizational theory and it’s applications to public administration. She has produced research which studies low income populations and their participation in the political process. Dr .Blair directs the American Democracy Project at Medgar Evers College. Dr. Blair was not returned as chair of her department.
Hon.Ambassador Eugene Pursoo became a Distinguished Lecturer at Medgar Evers College. after serving with distinction as the United Nations Ambassador and Permanent Representative with plenipotentiary powers for Grenada, from 1991 to 1995. During his tenure at the United Nations he was elected Vice President of the General Assembly in 1993, Chairman of the United Nations Decolonization Committee, and Chairman of the Organization of Small Island States in 1994. He earned his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees from Fordham University. Ambassador Pursoo is the Director of the International Affairs Center. He as been commited to the mentoring of students and scholars who seek to advance diplomatic approaches for the expansion of peace and justice throughout the World Community. His contract was not renewed. Why????
Divine Pryor, Ph.D. has established a national and international reputation as an expert in the field of criminal justice reform .Before receiving his undergraduate degrees and a Ph. D. in forensic psychology Dr. Pryor was incarcerated for several years. In the tradition of Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz), Dr. Pryor rediscovered his love for learning and a passion for justice during his incarceration and developed a commitment to reverse the disproportionate number of African Americans in prison. Dr. Pryor has served on the National Re-entry Policy Council for the Council of State Governors board of directors of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and the Community Justice Center. Nu Leadership is the only organization in the nation that was founded and is currently directed and staffed by formerly incarcerated individuals who possess advanced degrees (masters, doctorates) in the areas of criminal justice reform. Pryor's eviction from MEC was covered on WRKS-FM, where he revealed that Pollard had begun to dismantle many of the programs that had been successfully serving the community for nearly 20 years.
During the selection of MEC's next president, a search committee had narrowed the candidates down to three women. They were all extremely competent, heavy hitters. Any one of them would have been a wonderful choice for the campus. Dr. Pollard was not initially on that short list, and was only added at the last minute. Each of the candidates had to participate in a public hearing, where the community had an opportunity to ask key questions to ascertain which of the candidates appeared to have MEC's wellbeing and expansion at heart. Dr. Pollard's answer was the least satisfactory. In fact, if memory serves, Dr. Pollard did not appropriately or adequately answer the question.
After the final interview session, the consensus was that any one of the three female candidates would have been an excellent selection, and would lead MEC into the 21st century. Imagine the shock when it was announced that Pollard was given the position. At the time it was conjectured that perhaps individuals had used undue influence (and threats) to bring get him the position. There were several of us who were not happy with the selection.
Those of you who remember your Roman mythology still remember the Trojan Horse. In the story, a beautiful horse was led into a community. The people accepted it as a gift. They took it inside their gates, and begin to "rejoice" over such a wonderful present. However, while they slept through the night, soldiers, killers, evil intentions climbed down out of the horse and invaded the community, catching the citizens unawares and destroying all that they had developed.
We are now facing a modern version of the Trojan Horse, and we need to wake up before it's too late. The faculty and staff of Medgar Evers are beginning to take steps, as well as elected officials and national figures. The evisceration of Medgar Evers will not be tolerated. The policies could reverse all that has been accomplished and put MEC back to pre-Edison Jackson days. Medgar Evers belongs to the Black community of Brooklyn, and it's up to the community to make their voices heard.
The divide and conquer methods that were the basis for our being sold into slavery and brought here over 400 years ago, is still in effect in this situation. If the Brooklyn community continues to sleep on this, they may well find they no longer have a Black college in Brooklyn.
Below is a resolution from the Faculty and Staff of Medgar Evers College. Please print, post and pass it on. Make sure your neighbors and your children know what's going on, and that you lend a voice to speaking out against Pollard's and Johnson's policies.
Medgar Evers is considered to be a predominantly Black college, and the only one of its kind in New York. Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania is the only Historically Black College/University in the North. Both were formed because of a need to provide the Black community with quality education. Of all the colleges in the City University system, MEC is the only college whose policies were determined by the Brooklyn Community.
Brooklyn has stood out unique in the world as being the only community that actively participates in the direction of Medgar Evers. A privilege and a right that may well be under threat at this point.
This is the beginning for the battle of the soul of Brooklyn and the well and expansion of Medgar Evers. While it is hoped that things can be resolved amicably, it must be made clear that the Black community will not allow MEC to be destroyed.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
MEC FACULTY RESOLUTION FOLLOWS:
Resolution on President’s and Provost’s Leadership & Management of College
December 7, 2010
Whereas, the faculty of Medgar Evers College has attempted unsuccessfully to
engage the administration (Office of the President and Provost) into collegial
dialogue regarding the affairs of the College, and
Whereas, the faculty of Medgar Evers College has observed and obtained evidence
of the egregious acts by the Office of the President and Provost listed below, to wit
1. Administration, as represented by the Offices of the President and Provost
demonstrate poor or questionable leadership decisions with regard to effective
governance as ratified by the faculty and PSC, ex.
President’s failure to Chair Personnel and Budget Committee as required by
College’s governance plan (this committee is chaired by President as defined by
Governance Plan and oversees reappointments, appointments, promotions and
tenure)
Irregularities in protocols for College Wide Personnel & Budget Committee
Provost’s confrontational and dictatorial style with faculty, students and staff
Dissemination of notices of non reappointment to faculty, staff and CLTs via
security guard, email, and visits to classrooms and offices.
Questionable non reappointments of faculty and College Lab Technicians. (CLTs
perform highly skilled tasks such as lab work, computer work and provide support
for administrative and academic units. CLTs follow a tenure track).
Irregularities in the process by which faculty and staff reviews were voted on in
personnel committees.
No announced Master plan or direction for MEC, after an entire year. The
college-wide assessment report and recommendations were never shared
Removal of Chair of Education for spurious and unsubstantiated reasons. (Per
PSC Contract, Chairs in CUNY elected by faculty not appointed by President and
Provost). Chair of Education had been elected by faculty in department for 3 year
term.
Citing of “budget” as rationale for reduction of services but hiring of additional
administrators and consultants.
Lack of transparency and lack of communication with respect to the search for the
Provost.
Provost’s statement that a reduction in adjunct costs will provide OTPS for
faculty.
President and Provost more concerned with initiatives such as getting an athletic
field than with providing support for resources to support student instruction,
tutoring, and scholarships and faculty hires and professional development.
2. Administration, as represented by the Offices of the President and Provost
demonstrate a discrepancy between their declared student-centered philosophy and
activities that undermine and mitigate against student success by removing support
mechanisms and faculty resources integral to student success. Data reveal that MEC
student satisfaction with academic support services is substantially lower than
CUNY average. Removal of support mechanisms and faculty resources include,
Elimination of Writing Center.
Elimination of Center for Teaching and Learning
Reduction of tutors in Learning Center budget
Reduction of staff in College’s library
Reduction of staff in Student Computer Lab
Reduction of resources and research opportunities for Psych Lab.
Blocking of funding supporting faculty/student research and the mission of the
College.
Refusal to fill faculty positions in academic departments (yet hired high level
administrators).
Ending the position of NCATE Coordinator while Department is involved in
Accreditation activities.
Elimination of the position of Pre-Med Advisor in January 2010. Numerous MEC
students have been accepted to Medical schools over the years, some to MD/PhD
program, because of the work of the pre professional advisor. When students
confronted Provost re: this, he stated that “to his knowledge there was never
anyone who had the title of pre-med advisor at MEC, and that students could not
have a letter from a pre-med committee nor a pre- med advisor since the school
never had neither one. This is a direct misrepresentation of the facts; the College
has had a pre professional advisor since 1975.
Withdrawing of reassigned time for Coordination of Writing. The composition
classes in the English Department are service courses that serve close to 2,000
students (70+ sections) per semester. The Coordinator is responsible for
developing common midterm and final exams; norming sessions; cross grading
sessions; faculty development workshops; orientation for new faculty; securing
grants and serving as liaison to other CUNY colleges. Coordinators in all CUNY
campuses have reassigned time.
3. Poor Leadership and Management Skills of the President, contributing to poor
morale, questionable legal activities, and institutional demoralization, as evidenced
by
Rigid viewpoint and inability to entertain or appreciate alternative perspectives
Poor relationships with elected officials ( demonstrates a dismissive attitude, and
has portrayed elected officials as “interfering,” and having “too much influence
in the College”)
Questionable appointments of additional administrators in midst of a severe fiscal
crisis:
Lack of Diversity in President’s Administrative Senior Leadership Team (all Vice
Presidents are males.)
Failure to meet with senior faculty and student leaders – only responded after
CUNY Central and elected officials’ intervention
Inability & failure to hold College Council meetings (cancelled two meetings in
Fall and failed to get quorum in Spring at three meetings in 2009-2010 AY. Has
only held one meeting in current year and subsequent meeting cancelled because
of failure to document membership of council and thus did not have a quorum.)
Holding of Town Hall meeting for faculty during last week in May –few faculty
present
Holding governance plan meeting in summer when faculty and students are on
leave.
Holding of Retreat in summer without key administrators, e.g, Deans.
Lack of Understanding of Funding and Grant Initiatives
Leadership team’s lack of understanding of the nature and process for obtaining
multiple streams of funding from public and private sources;
Leadership’s team blocking of funding opportunities and funding obtained- Nu
Leadership, NIH grant and STEP grant, SPCD Programs
4. Poor Leadership and Insensitivity of the Provost
Irrational and explosive behavior that is unbecoming of an academic leader.
Questionable non reappointments of faculty and College Lab Technicians (CLTs)
(reasons for non-reappointment were not provided to Chairs)
Blocking of funding supporting faculty/student research and the mission of the
College
Lack of respect for the academic knowledge and expertise of faculty (disparaging
and reductive attitude towards faculty scholarship, leadership and counsel in
matters of academic affairs)
Removal of support mechanisms and faculty resources integral to student success,
e.g., the Writing Center and Center for Teaching and Learning.
Accusations that faculty are responsible for low retention rates and performance
of students when most recent data indicate that student satisfaction with faculty is
higher than CUNY average with respect to quality of course performance, ability
of faculty to communicate clearly and frequency of faculty feedback on course
performance.
5. Administration, as represented by the Offices of the President and Provost,
demonstrates a lack of commitment to the “community–oriented” mission of
Medgar Evers College and to Central Brooklyn and its residents, as evidenced by
Lack of institutional memory.
Continual statements referencing the need to change the mission without
demonstrating an understanding of the special niche of Medgar Evers and the
integral nature of Medgar Evers College to all community entities.
Disregard for relationship and value of the Centers to the mission of MEC
Eviction of Center for NuLeadership
Disregard for role of Center for NuLeadership in serving as advocate and resource
for formerly incarcerated individuals in college and community.
Refusal to recognize Center for NuLeadership as Center in College although the
Center is highly regarded in CUNY and nationally, has been functioning as a
critical Center for the last six years and was formerly approved by the College’s
governing body.
Ignoring of Harry Belafonte’s offer to work with President in resolving Nu
Leadership issues.
Removal of Carver ATM machines & substitution of Citibank ATMs. Issue of
Carver Bank’s removal from campus still not resolved.
Lack of an understanding of the value of a comprehensive college for students.
Pays “lip service” to support of Medgar Evers College’s Preparatory School.
Despite awards and accolades from College Board, Department of Education and
President Obama, the Administration has withdrawn support for the Medgar
College Preparatory School’s Dual Enrollment Program.
Use of questionable and erroneous data as a justification for changing the mission
Attempt to change the venue of commencement and cancel Jazzy Jazz series
without consultation and understanding of the importance of these programs to
students and the community. (Reinstitution of these programs only after student
and community protest).
Lack of awareness of the importance of Medgar Evers’s role in helping to sustain
Black institutions that support and serve the students and residents of Central
Brooklyn.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Medgar Evers College do
affirm a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE in the current Administration, and
specifically, in the Office of the President, Dr. William A. Pollard, and in the Office of the Provost, Dr. Howard Johnson.
A vote of no confidence by the faculty signals to the college leadership and CUNY Board that there is a major lack of confidence in the leadership of the college and that actions must be taken.
The time to act is now before it's too late.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
A controversy and confrontation that has been brewing under the surface is about to come to a head. It has been roiling since President Edison O. Jackson stepped down from Medgar Evers, and his mantle was passed on to William Pollard, who now serves as its current president.
In assuming the position of president, it is natural for the new executive to make some changes in order to brand the college under his leadership. It is natural, also for them to bring in new programs that would enhance what the college has to offer.
What is not natural is for a Black college president to come into an environment where the students and faculty are predominantly Black, and lay waste to programs that have been of benefit to the Black student body and surrounding community. However, over the past year, this appears to have been Pollard's scorched campus policy. He has evicted Dr. Divine Pryor, founder of Center for Nu Leadership on Urban Solutions, an outreach program that helped ex-offenders get back on their feet. And has sent letters of eviction to what can only be called Brooklyn's African American Think Tank.
Thus far the following people have been either sent termination or eviction notices:
Hon. Roger L. Green, Founder and Executive Director of the DuBois-Bunche Center, was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer at Medgar Evers College within the City University of New York in 2006. From 1981-2005 served in the New York State Assembly, and was an expert on educational reform; children and family policies. chaired the Committee on Science and Technology, and the Committee on Children and Families. A longstanding advocate of civil and human rights, Green was MEC’s professor of Public Administration, bringing to the students his vast array of knowledge and experience. The DuBois-Bunche Center for Public Policy is in jeopardy of being excised from the campus, as are the founding members who are integral to the organization.
John Flateau, Ph.D.: Professor of Public Administration, received his Ph.D in American Politics and Public Policy from the City University of New York Graduate Center. He served as Chief of Staff to Mayor David Dinkins; Senior Vice President of the NYS Urban Development Corporation; Dean of the School of Business, and Dean of Institutional Advancement at Medgar Evers College. He also served as a Commissioner, of the NYC Districting Commission; Advisor to the NYS Legislative Advisory Task Force on Demographics and Reapportionment; Chairperson of the US Census Advisory Committee on the African-American Population; and Executive Director of the NYS Black and Hispanic Legislative Caucus. He is a generalist and strategic thinker, with expertise in urban policy, economic development, voting rights, legislative redistricting, census demographics, campaigns and elections, diversity management, and governmental processes (whether or not Dr. Flateau is on the hit list remains to be seen, however, MEC's Black Think Tank is definitely under siege).
(NOTE: to their credit both Green and Flateau worked to resolve the problems in Albany under Governor David Paterson, as well as providing advice on an ongoing basis on State, City and National issues.)
Hon. Major Owens served as a member of Congress representing Central Brooklyn from 1983 to 2005, and brings a wealth of expertise. Former New York City Commissioner, and a NY State Senator. Congressman Owens is widely respected for his lifelong commitment to reduce poverty in the United States and throughout the developing world. He is also respected for his legislative leadership which fought to eliminate barriers to educational opportunity. His position appears to be safe for now. But with the lack of insight on the part of the current Administrator, I wouldn't turn my back or relax if I were him.
Zulema Blair, Ph.D.:was Chair of MEC's Public Administration Departmentin 2007. Dr. Blair’s focus is organizational theory and it’s applications to public administration. She has produced research which studies low income populations and their participation in the political process. Dr .Blair directs the American Democracy Project at Medgar Evers College. Dr. Blair was not returned as chair of her department.
Hon.Ambassador Eugene Pursoo became a Distinguished Lecturer at Medgar Evers College. after serving with distinction as the United Nations Ambassador and Permanent Representative with plenipotentiary powers for Grenada, from 1991 to 1995. During his tenure at the United Nations he was elected Vice President of the General Assembly in 1993, Chairman of the United Nations Decolonization Committee, and Chairman of the Organization of Small Island States in 1994. He earned his Bachelor's and Master’s degrees from Fordham University. Ambassador Pursoo is the Director of the International Affairs Center. He as been commited to the mentoring of students and scholars who seek to advance diplomatic approaches for the expansion of peace and justice throughout the World Community. His contract was not renewed. Why????
Divine Pryor, Ph.D. has established a national and international reputation as an expert in the field of criminal justice reform .Before receiving his undergraduate degrees and a Ph. D. in forensic psychology Dr. Pryor was incarcerated for several years. In the tradition of Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz), Dr. Pryor rediscovered his love for learning and a passion for justice during his incarceration and developed a commitment to reverse the disproportionate number of African Americans in prison. Dr. Pryor has served on the National Re-entry Policy Council for the Council of State Governors board of directors of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and the Community Justice Center. Nu Leadership is the only organization in the nation that was founded and is currently directed and staffed by formerly incarcerated individuals who possess advanced degrees (masters, doctorates) in the areas of criminal justice reform. Pryor's eviction from MEC was covered on WRKS-FM, where he revealed that Pollard had begun to dismantle many of the programs that had been successfully serving the community for nearly 20 years.
During the selection of MEC's next president, a search committee had narrowed the candidates down to three women. They were all extremely competent, heavy hitters. Any one of them would have been a wonderful choice for the campus. Dr. Pollard was not initially on that short list, and was only added at the last minute. Each of the candidates had to participate in a public hearing, where the community had an opportunity to ask key questions to ascertain which of the candidates appeared to have MEC's wellbeing and expansion at heart. Dr. Pollard's answer was the least satisfactory. In fact, if memory serves, Dr. Pollard did not appropriately or adequately answer the question.
After the final interview session, the consensus was that any one of the three female candidates would have been an excellent selection, and would lead MEC into the 21st century. Imagine the shock when it was announced that Pollard was given the position. At the time it was conjectured that perhaps individuals had used undue influence (and threats) to bring get him the position. There were several of us who were not happy with the selection.
Those of you who remember your Roman mythology still remember the Trojan Horse. In the story, a beautiful horse was led into a community. The people accepted it as a gift. They took it inside their gates, and begin to "rejoice" over such a wonderful present. However, while they slept through the night, soldiers, killers, evil intentions climbed down out of the horse and invaded the community, catching the citizens unawares and destroying all that they had developed.
We are now facing a modern version of the Trojan Horse, and we need to wake up before it's too late. The faculty and staff of Medgar Evers are beginning to take steps, as well as elected officials and national figures. The evisceration of Medgar Evers will not be tolerated. The policies could reverse all that has been accomplished and put MEC back to pre-Edison Jackson days. Medgar Evers belongs to the Black community of Brooklyn, and it's up to the community to make their voices heard.
The divide and conquer methods that were the basis for our being sold into slavery and brought here over 400 years ago, is still in effect in this situation. If the Brooklyn community continues to sleep on this, they may well find they no longer have a Black college in Brooklyn.
Below is a resolution from the Faculty and Staff of Medgar Evers College. Please print, post and pass it on. Make sure your neighbors and your children know what's going on, and that you lend a voice to speaking out against Pollard's and Johnson's policies.
Medgar Evers is considered to be a predominantly Black college, and the only one of its kind in New York. Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania is the only Historically Black College/University in the North. Both were formed because of a need to provide the Black community with quality education. Of all the colleges in the City University system, MEC is the only college whose policies were determined by the Brooklyn Community.
Brooklyn has stood out unique in the world as being the only community that actively participates in the direction of Medgar Evers. A privilege and a right that may well be under threat at this point.
This is the beginning for the battle of the soul of Brooklyn and the well and expansion of Medgar Evers. While it is hoped that things can be resolved amicably, it must be made clear that the Black community will not allow MEC to be destroyed.
STAY BLESSED &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
MEC FACULTY RESOLUTION FOLLOWS:
Resolution on President’s and Provost’s Leadership & Management of College
December 7, 2010
Whereas, the faculty of Medgar Evers College has attempted unsuccessfully to
engage the administration (Office of the President and Provost) into collegial
dialogue regarding the affairs of the College, and
Whereas, the faculty of Medgar Evers College has observed and obtained evidence
of the egregious acts by the Office of the President and Provost listed below, to wit
1. Administration, as represented by the Offices of the President and Provost
demonstrate poor or questionable leadership decisions with regard to effective
governance as ratified by the faculty and PSC, ex.
President’s failure to Chair Personnel and Budget Committee as required by
College’s governance plan (this committee is chaired by President as defined by
Governance Plan and oversees reappointments, appointments, promotions and
tenure)
Irregularities in protocols for College Wide Personnel & Budget Committee
Provost’s confrontational and dictatorial style with faculty, students and staff
Dissemination of notices of non reappointment to faculty, staff and CLTs via
security guard, email, and visits to classrooms and offices.
Questionable non reappointments of faculty and College Lab Technicians. (CLTs
perform highly skilled tasks such as lab work, computer work and provide support
for administrative and academic units. CLTs follow a tenure track).
Irregularities in the process by which faculty and staff reviews were voted on in
personnel committees.
No announced Master plan or direction for MEC, after an entire year. The
college-wide assessment report and recommendations were never shared
Removal of Chair of Education for spurious and unsubstantiated reasons. (Per
PSC Contract, Chairs in CUNY elected by faculty not appointed by President and
Provost). Chair of Education had been elected by faculty in department for 3 year
term.
Citing of “budget” as rationale for reduction of services but hiring of additional
administrators and consultants.
Lack of transparency and lack of communication with respect to the search for the
Provost.
Provost’s statement that a reduction in adjunct costs will provide OTPS for
faculty.
President and Provost more concerned with initiatives such as getting an athletic
field than with providing support for resources to support student instruction,
tutoring, and scholarships and faculty hires and professional development.
2. Administration, as represented by the Offices of the President and Provost
demonstrate a discrepancy between their declared student-centered philosophy and
activities that undermine and mitigate against student success by removing support
mechanisms and faculty resources integral to student success. Data reveal that MEC
student satisfaction with academic support services is substantially lower than
CUNY average. Removal of support mechanisms and faculty resources include,
Elimination of Writing Center.
Elimination of Center for Teaching and Learning
Reduction of tutors in Learning Center budget
Reduction of staff in College’s library
Reduction of staff in Student Computer Lab
Reduction of resources and research opportunities for Psych Lab.
Blocking of funding supporting faculty/student research and the mission of the
College.
Refusal to fill faculty positions in academic departments (yet hired high level
administrators).
Ending the position of NCATE Coordinator while Department is involved in
Accreditation activities.
Elimination of the position of Pre-Med Advisor in January 2010. Numerous MEC
students have been accepted to Medical schools over the years, some to MD/PhD
program, because of the work of the pre professional advisor. When students
confronted Provost re: this, he stated that “to his knowledge there was never
anyone who had the title of pre-med advisor at MEC, and that students could not
have a letter from a pre-med committee nor a pre- med advisor since the school
never had neither one. This is a direct misrepresentation of the facts; the College
has had a pre professional advisor since 1975.
Withdrawing of reassigned time for Coordination of Writing. The composition
classes in the English Department are service courses that serve close to 2,000
students (70+ sections) per semester. The Coordinator is responsible for
developing common midterm and final exams; norming sessions; cross grading
sessions; faculty development workshops; orientation for new faculty; securing
grants and serving as liaison to other CUNY colleges. Coordinators in all CUNY
campuses have reassigned time.
3. Poor Leadership and Management Skills of the President, contributing to poor
morale, questionable legal activities, and institutional demoralization, as evidenced
by
Rigid viewpoint and inability to entertain or appreciate alternative perspectives
Poor relationships with elected officials ( demonstrates a dismissive attitude, and
has portrayed elected officials as “interfering,” and having “too much influence
in the College”)
Questionable appointments of additional administrators in midst of a severe fiscal
crisis:
Lack of Diversity in President’s Administrative Senior Leadership Team (all Vice
Presidents are males.)
Failure to meet with senior faculty and student leaders – only responded after
CUNY Central and elected officials’ intervention
Inability & failure to hold College Council meetings (cancelled two meetings in
Fall and failed to get quorum in Spring at three meetings in 2009-2010 AY. Has
only held one meeting in current year and subsequent meeting cancelled because
of failure to document membership of council and thus did not have a quorum.)
Holding of Town Hall meeting for faculty during last week in May –few faculty
present
Holding governance plan meeting in summer when faculty and students are on
leave.
Holding of Retreat in summer without key administrators, e.g, Deans.
Lack of Understanding of Funding and Grant Initiatives
Leadership team’s lack of understanding of the nature and process for obtaining
multiple streams of funding from public and private sources;
Leadership’s team blocking of funding opportunities and funding obtained- Nu
Leadership, NIH grant and STEP grant, SPCD Programs
4. Poor Leadership and Insensitivity of the Provost
Irrational and explosive behavior that is unbecoming of an academic leader.
Questionable non reappointments of faculty and College Lab Technicians (CLTs)
(reasons for non-reappointment were not provided to Chairs)
Blocking of funding supporting faculty/student research and the mission of the
College
Lack of respect for the academic knowledge and expertise of faculty (disparaging
and reductive attitude towards faculty scholarship, leadership and counsel in
matters of academic affairs)
Removal of support mechanisms and faculty resources integral to student success,
e.g., the Writing Center and Center for Teaching and Learning.
Accusations that faculty are responsible for low retention rates and performance
of students when most recent data indicate that student satisfaction with faculty is
higher than CUNY average with respect to quality of course performance, ability
of faculty to communicate clearly and frequency of faculty feedback on course
performance.
5. Administration, as represented by the Offices of the President and Provost,
demonstrates a lack of commitment to the “community–oriented” mission of
Medgar Evers College and to Central Brooklyn and its residents, as evidenced by
Lack of institutional memory.
Continual statements referencing the need to change the mission without
demonstrating an understanding of the special niche of Medgar Evers and the
integral nature of Medgar Evers College to all community entities.
Disregard for relationship and value of the Centers to the mission of MEC
Eviction of Center for NuLeadership
Disregard for role of Center for NuLeadership in serving as advocate and resource
for formerly incarcerated individuals in college and community.
Refusal to recognize Center for NuLeadership as Center in College although the
Center is highly regarded in CUNY and nationally, has been functioning as a
critical Center for the last six years and was formerly approved by the College’s
governing body.
Ignoring of Harry Belafonte’s offer to work with President in resolving Nu
Leadership issues.
Removal of Carver ATM machines & substitution of Citibank ATMs. Issue of
Carver Bank’s removal from campus still not resolved.
Lack of an understanding of the value of a comprehensive college for students.
Pays “lip service” to support of Medgar Evers College’s Preparatory School.
Despite awards and accolades from College Board, Department of Education and
President Obama, the Administration has withdrawn support for the Medgar
College Preparatory School’s Dual Enrollment Program.
Use of questionable and erroneous data as a justification for changing the mission
Attempt to change the venue of commencement and cancel Jazzy Jazz series
without consultation and understanding of the importance of these programs to
students and the community. (Reinstitution of these programs only after student
and community protest).
Lack of awareness of the importance of Medgar Evers’s role in helping to sustain
Black institutions that support and serve the students and residents of Central
Brooklyn.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Faculty of Medgar Evers College do
affirm a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE in the current Administration, and
specifically, in the Office of the President, Dr. William A. Pollard, and in the Office of the Provost, Dr. Howard Johnson.
A vote of no confidence by the faculty signals to the college leadership and CUNY Board that there is a major lack of confidence in the leadership of the college and that actions must be taken.
The time to act is now before it's too late.
Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
1.11.2010
Central Brooklyn MLK Commission Presents King Day Essay Contest Winners January 18
T'IS THE SEASON FOR CELEBRATING THE WORKS OF REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING
BY Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Hard on the heels of Christmas and Kwanzaa and continuing through the end of March, are 105 reasons, or more, to celebrate ourselves and each other, and the accomplishments of our ancestors who paved the way for us.
I, personally, consider Dr. King's Birthday Celebration the actual Kick off to Black History Month(s). Even though Dr. Carter G. Woodson actually established it in February to celebrate the lives to two great men: Frederick Douglas, born February 14, and Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, we actually start with Dr. King, work our way through February, and culminate with Women's History Month, where we have so many Black women who have made considerable contributions to the world (starting with each of our mothers, and working our way forward.)
While the jockeying for position as to who presents the best KING-DAY ceremony is beginning to spread, there is one organization that has consistently kept the quality of the program for youth for 25 years: THE CENTRAL BROOKLYN MARTIN LUTHER KING COMMISSION.
On January 18, 2010, the Commission will sponsor the “Children’s Celebration” of the birth, life and achievements of Martin Luther King at 1:00PM at the Prospect Heights High School Campus auditorium (Classon Ave and Union St.) The theme for 2010 is: MARTIN LUTHER KING’S SPIRIT SOARS IN BROOKLYN.
Special awards will be presented to 26 winners of the annual MLK essay poetry and art contests for elementary, Junior High and High School students. The Holiday afternoon celebration is a family affair. Special T-Shirts will be given to all of the youth participating in the contest. The ceremony will end with a special talent salute in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our children need community winds beneath their wings in order to soar forward into the promised land. The youthful wings of education deserve total support from all of us who care about the future”, stated Lorrelle Henry, Commission President. “In our twenty-fifth year we remain inspired, optimistic and committed to improve education in Central Brooklyn.”
As advocates and activists for education, other activities planned by the organization include the following:
- Inviting Geoffrey Canada, Founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone to lead a forum designed to replicate a similar project in Central Brooklyn, which has one of the largest concentrations of at-risk children in the nation. It is hoped that the “Zone” concept could be extended to serve as the core of a larger “Central Brooklyn Education Park”. Congressman Major Owens, a founding member and active participant in the organization, has prepared a proposal for the park concept.
- Collaborate with former Assemblyman Roger Green to promote a new Martin Luther King Heritage Center and Archive in Central Brooklyn. Green is the original author of the NY State Legislation that funded King memorial activities throughout the State.
- Actively seek funding for the Martin Luther King Strivers Program to provide direct assistance to at-risk youth.
- Evaluate, consolidate and review its progress and sponsorship leading-up to its 25th Anniversary Gala in the Fall of 2010.
As with many of our Black organizations, contributions and donations are needed and most definitely welcome. You can contact them by calling 718-771-8234; you can support them by being there as part of the audience on Monday, January 18, at 1:00 pm as these children perform for their peers, but more importantly, for their elders.
In point of fact, please don't just take that Monday off as a sleep at home day, or a chance to go shopping. That is not why so many of us marched to have a holiday in Dr. King's honor. Nor is it why Dr. King's life was taken from him. And now more than ever, when we protest and complain that our youth don't know what they should about their history and heritage, we have to the the main ones sitting there in support of these kids who are keeping the faith and keeping the dream alive.
Come, bring your children, your friends and neighbors. Print, paste, publish, pass it on, participate. This is for all of us.
Stay blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
BY Gloria Dulan-Wilson
Hard on the heels of Christmas and Kwanzaa and continuing through the end of March, are 105 reasons, or more, to celebrate ourselves and each other, and the accomplishments of our ancestors who paved the way for us.
I, personally, consider Dr. King's Birthday Celebration the actual Kick off to Black History Month(s). Even though Dr. Carter G. Woodson actually established it in February to celebrate the lives to two great men: Frederick Douglas, born February 14, and Abraham Lincoln, born February 12, we actually start with Dr. King, work our way through February, and culminate with Women's History Month, where we have so many Black women who have made considerable contributions to the world (starting with each of our mothers, and working our way forward.)
While the jockeying for position as to who presents the best KING-DAY ceremony is beginning to spread, there is one organization that has consistently kept the quality of the program for youth for 25 years: THE CENTRAL BROOKLYN MARTIN LUTHER KING COMMISSION.
On January 18, 2010, the Commission will sponsor the “Children’s Celebration” of the birth, life and achievements of Martin Luther King at 1:00PM at the Prospect Heights High School Campus auditorium (Classon Ave and Union St.) The theme for 2010 is: MARTIN LUTHER KING’S SPIRIT SOARS IN BROOKLYN.
Special awards will be presented to 26 winners of the annual MLK essay poetry and art contests for elementary, Junior High and High School students. The Holiday afternoon celebration is a family affair. Special T-Shirts will be given to all of the youth participating in the contest. The ceremony will end with a special talent salute in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our children need community winds beneath their wings in order to soar forward into the promised land. The youthful wings of education deserve total support from all of us who care about the future”, stated Lorrelle Henry, Commission President. “In our twenty-fifth year we remain inspired, optimistic and committed to improve education in Central Brooklyn.”
As advocates and activists for education, other activities planned by the organization include the following:
- Inviting Geoffrey Canada, Founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone to lead a forum designed to replicate a similar project in Central Brooklyn, which has one of the largest concentrations of at-risk children in the nation. It is hoped that the “Zone” concept could be extended to serve as the core of a larger “Central Brooklyn Education Park”. Congressman Major Owens, a founding member and active participant in the organization, has prepared a proposal for the park concept.
- Collaborate with former Assemblyman Roger Green to promote a new Martin Luther King Heritage Center and Archive in Central Brooklyn. Green is the original author of the NY State Legislation that funded King memorial activities throughout the State.
- Actively seek funding for the Martin Luther King Strivers Program to provide direct assistance to at-risk youth.
- Evaluate, consolidate and review its progress and sponsorship leading-up to its 25th Anniversary Gala in the Fall of 2010.
As with many of our Black organizations, contributions and donations are needed and most definitely welcome. You can contact them by calling 718-771-8234; you can support them by being there as part of the audience on Monday, January 18, at 1:00 pm as these children perform for their peers, but more importantly, for their elders.
In point of fact, please don't just take that Monday off as a sleep at home day, or a chance to go shopping. That is not why so many of us marched to have a holiday in Dr. King's honor. Nor is it why Dr. King's life was taken from him. And now more than ever, when we protest and complain that our youth don't know what they should about their history and heritage, we have to the the main ones sitting there in support of these kids who are keeping the faith and keeping the dream alive.
Come, bring your children, your friends and neighbors. Print, paste, publish, pass it on, participate. This is for all of us.
Stay blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
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