Barrington Irving (r.) came to York from Miami to encourage students of York's CUNY Aviation Institute. He is shown here with College President Marcia Keizs.

BY BETTY LYN BROOKS


Maybe it was the trip to MoMA or maybe it was simply the opportunity to get to know a whole new crop of classmates a good two weeks before the rest of the incoming freshman class. Whatever it was, Stacy Ruiz is glad she joined York College's "Summer Academy" before the official start of her freshman year at the college.

Ruiz, a graduate of Mary Louis Academy, the all-girls high school in Jamaica, is happy she accepted York's invitation to get her feet wet before the onslaught of students coming in for the first day of classes on the 29th of August.

The Summer Academy takes incoming freshmen who have earned Merit Scholarships from York and gives them a taste of college before the pressure of college really begins. It introduces them to the rigors and expectations of college life before the actual start of their freshman year.

Ruiz, who has had one sister graduate from York and another currently enrolled, is happy she took the college up on the offer it made to the almost 150 Merit Scholars for a two-week orientation period where they were introduced to freshman Mathematics and English as well as general college orientation. It made a huge impact on the Richmond Hill resident.



 

A student participates in last spring's N-Word debate, an example of the types of discourse going on at the college. PRESS Photo By Ira Cohen

Math As Art

"I had never been to the Museum of Modern Art before," said Ruiz, who plans to major in psychology and secondary education. "Seeing art 'in person' is different from seeing it in books. In person you become one with the art. It becomes part of you. It makes you learn about math."

Indeed it does, according to Math professor Rishi Nath who took the group of about 30 students to the museum.

"I wanted to highlight the relationship between art and mathematics," said Nath. "Cubism, for instance, it's also about mathematics."

According to Ruiz, the MoMA experience had such a profound impact that she took her two sisters and returned to the museum a few days later, "just so they could experience it too."

Lisa Atkins, a Communications Technology Major, comes to York from Canarsie High School in Brooklyn. Like her classmates, she too enjoyed the two-week jump start on her journey to a college degree.

"I liked the summer experience," said Atkins. "I feel I'm already ahead. I have friends. Professor Nath taught us more than Math. He taught us current events as well. I also got a lot of things out of the way, like my I.D., and I got to know the campus and where everything is."

According to Nath, who is himself not that far removed in age from his students, the trip to one of the world's premier museums is good preparation for the college experience.

"The experience of MoMA is symbolic of the entire trip into college," said Nath who holds a Ph.D in Mathematics. "It is a place where the remarkable and unusual is collected like the college is a place where remarkable and unusual ideas are exchanged."



 

There's plenty going on at Jamaica's York College.Press Photo By Ira Cohen

The Right Trend

For most of the participants in the program, York was their first choice of the CUNY Colleges. And that fits in perfectly with one of the mandates Dr. Marcia V. Keizs shared with the college community two years ago when she took over as the institution's fifth permanent president.

During her convocation speech a few weeks ago Keizs noted to a large audience of faculty, students and staff, that she was measuring her success against her own public vision from her speech of exactly two years ago to the day.

"I am holding myself accountable to my vision," said Keizs, confidently. "York is becoming the first choice of many of our incoming freshmen and the numbers [of this year's incoming freshmen] reflect that."

One of the first items on the Keizs agenda was also the raising of the academic standards for incoming freshmen. The new standard was that outside of SEEK students (Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge, a CUNY-wide program, which provides special academic, financial and counseling assistance to first-time college students who qualify) all incoming freshmen must have a high school average of at least 75 for acceptance into York.

The argument the president presents is that higher high school averages mean better-prepared students for college; and better prepared students make for more successful students who are less likely to drop out of college and who will graduate in a more timely fashion.

To achieve this, York actively recruited some of the best students from some of the best high schools in New York. It raised the bar, and most entered this year with averages ranging from the middle 70s to the high 90s.

"We are firmly on the path of excellence," Keizs declared triumphantly. This is a striking transformation, from where we were."



 

Borough President Helen Marshall speaks at York College's graduation. Press Photo By Ira Cohen

The Path Toward Greatness

And where York was, was a much longer way from where the CUNY veteran imagined it could be. But with support from the Central Administration of the City University, the president has hired key people to put in place to make the college live up to it's new mantra, "On The Move" to go from being a college "with a lot of potential," to a college on par with its most respected sister colleges in the CUNY system and beyond.

There was a concentrated effort to recruit and retain some of the best students from Queens high schools. Over the two-year period, the college's admissions team has literally gone to various area high schools to educate principals and guidance counselors about "the 'new,' York College."

One area principal told Keizs and Jerald Posman, the Harvard MBA hired three years ago as CFO and vice president for Administrative Affairs, just two years ago, "York is not even on our radar screen for us and our students."

Today there are several students from that area high school attending York. In fact, 74 high schools which had never sent students to York before now have some of their graduates enrolled and pursuing degrees in occupational therapy, physician assistance, communications technology, journalism and the sciences.

Specialized high schools are also jumping on the bandwagon. This year for the first time since anyone has been keeping track of such information, York has enrolled one student each from Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn Tech and Townsend Harris. The Queens High School of Science at York College also pipes students into York.

This semester York enrolled approximately 1,000 new students - the highest number since 1996. To support them the college has also instituted mentor programs such as faculty mentors and the Black Male Initiative, enhanced the aesthetics of the college and hired a large number of additional faculty members.

Also on board is the impressive new provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith, a political scientist and specialist on Caribbean and Inter-American security, drugs, crime and terrorism issues. Dr. Griffith who has published several books has pledged his support of students has also volunteered to teach a class in political science; and will help take York to the next level of academic excellence.