Updates for the President: Current Events

I hope that you had the opportunity to experience Social Justice Week at Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Today, as we commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are reminded of his courage and the sacrifices he made to make our lives better.

Messages urging us to give thanks and feel gratitude rise up this time of year. It’s also that time in the semester when our students are wrapping up their final projects and striving to achieve their best outcome in each class.

The heinous attack by Hamas on Israel and its people is as horrific as it is heartbreaking.

Today, we received news that the U.S. Supreme Court has barred race-conscious admissions in higher education. This dire outcome to two cases brought before the Court, one against Harvard and another against the University of North Carolina, is in direct opposition to our BMCC mission grounded in equity for all students.

Juneteenth is a day in which we honor our roots, personally, as a community, and as a nation.

Borough of Manhattan Community College joins CUNY and the international community in marking Yom HaShoah, Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day which began yesterday at sundown in Israel.

Today is International Women’s Day and we are celebrating this day as a part of our Women’s HerStory Month.

By now our community is gripped with news of the tragic death of Tyre Nichols. This young man, the 29-year-old father of a four-year-old boy, was killed at the hands of five Memphis police officers who brutally beat and pepper sprayed him, their actions captured on body-cam footage and surveillance cameras.

As we honor the life and work of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the federal holiday in his name, many of us will listen again to Dr. King’s powerful “I Have a Dream” speech that was delivered before an audience of more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. as part of the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

As 2022 comes to a close, I find myself looking back at all our diverse community has accomplished in the past year. Artists and filmmakers find their calling at BMCC, as do entrepreneurs, teachers, scientists, and nurses. Students as well as faculty and staff discover they have the courage to dream and the drive to aim high.

In higher education, we place value on creating a safe space. We want our classrooms to be places where it is safe to discuss emotionally charged topics. We want our counseling offices to be places where students can share sensitive matters. We want every office and hallway, every point of service to be a place where students, faculty and staff are safe to be their authentic selves, not having to check any part of their identity at the door.

Last week, I traveled to Washington, DC as part of a “Fly In” effort to join college presidents, community leaders, students, and immigration advocates to urge the White House and Congress to pass legislation that would create a permanent pathway to citizenship for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and other undocumented students.

One of our Thanksgiving traditions at BMCC is the Tree of Thanks. This year our community can either write their message of appreciation for a colleague, friend or family member on the life-sized paper tree outside the Office of Student Affairs or enter their message on a padlet showing a virtual Tree of Thanks.

In the last few days, we have seen violence erupt on two college campuses. In Moscow, Idaho, the brutal death of four University of Idaho students is being investigated as a homicide.

At BMCC, the anniversary of September 11, 2001 and the attacks on the nearby Twin Towers of the World Trade Center will always bring to mind the immeasurable loss of eight of our colleagues.

The health and well-being of everyone is top priority at BMCC, and as we prepare for the start of the 2022-2023 academic year, I am writing to share information regarding monkeypox.

Today we observe Juneteenth, the oldest national commemoration of the emancipation of slaves in the United States.

Our country is in mourning once again after the devastation that occurred on May 24 when a gunman fatally shot at least 19 children and two adults at a Texas elementary school.

On behalf of the BMCC community, I express our deepest condolences for the families of the 10 people who lost their lives on May 14, 2022.

Today, April 27, 2022, we celebrate National Administrative Professionals Day!

This morning at about 8:30 a.m., our city fell victim to a horrible shooting which took place in Brooklyn.

Today, we honor the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a Baptist minister and social activist, Dr. King led the U.S. civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968.

The 2021 fall semester is coming to an end, and we are encountering an increase in the number of COVID-19 infections due in part to the Delta and Omicron variants.

Our city is quickly seeing an increase in positive cases of COVID-19, due to the Delta and Omicron variants that continue to spread.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and soon many of us will be spending the holiday with friends and loved ones.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific events of September 11, 2001, when almost 3,000 people lost their lives during the terrorist attacks at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines Flight 93.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Many college students were not yet born on that day — but in the weeks, months and years that followed, their families and neighborhoods felt the impact of those attacks.

As we begin to welcome our students, faculty and staff to our campus, I want to take a moment to recognize and reflect on the devastation that occurred in Haiti recently.

Today we observe Juneteenth, the oldest national commemoration of the emancipation of slaves in the United States.

We braced for a verdict and accompanying civil unrest that mirrored the protests that took place last summer; but today is a needed step toward justice.

The Spring 2021 Semester continues with a variety of programs and activities designed to enlighten, educate and engage our diverse community; however, you might have seen on the news, heard from friends or family members, or experienced yourself, harassment and hate crimes towards Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have risen during the COVID-19 crisis.

Today is a day that we celebrate, congratulate and welcome Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America and Kamala Harris, who is the first woman, first black and first Asian-American to serve as our country's Vice President.

Observed each year on the third Monday in January, MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

On January 6th, our country witnessed an attack on our democracy and the continuation of the unsettling circumstances that waver around racial injustice and lawlessness.

Thanksgiving week is upon us, in a year that has presented many unforeseen challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the uncovering of racial injustice and tense political shift of our country.

Today, on National Voter Registration Day, I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage you all to register to vote, if you haven’t already, before the upcoming voter registration deadline on October 9th.