BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEDICATES NEW STUDENT COMMONS APRIL 13
April 8, 2005
AREA CONVERTED TO MAKE-SHIFT CLASSROOMS AFTER 9/11 DEVASTATION NOW SYMBOL OF COLLEGE’S RENAISSANCE
THANKS TO GENEROSITY OF WALL ST. AND BUSINESS COMMUNITY
Nearly four years ago, Borough of Manhattan Community College was devastated by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was the only college in America to lose a building, when 7 World Trade Center collapsed upon BMCC’s Fiterman Hall, and it temporarily lost use of its main campus for three weeks because of its proximity to “ground zero.”
In its effort to replace some of the classrooms lost on 9/11, BMCC was forced to build some inside Student Common spaces, including a cafeteria, fitness center, and development center. As a result, the college’s nearly 20,000 students had no place to relax, socialize, and sit for lunch.
On Wednesday, April 13, BMCC students will once again have a place to sit, relax, reflect, talk, eat, and socialize as the college dedicates phase one of a new and improved Student Commons, complete with a 300-foot ribbon wall overlooking the Hudson River. It is phase one of a multimillion dollar new Student Commons project. There will be a groundbreaking for phase two of the expansion later this year.
The dedication ceremony, beginning at 11 a.m. at the College, 199 Chambers St. in Lower Manhattan, will serve to honor the generosity of JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch & Co., The May & Samuel Rudin Foundation, Verizon, American Express, and the New York Mercantile Exchange Charitable Foundation, whose gifts made the project possible. JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch made lead gifts of $500,000 each to the $1.5 million phase one part of the project. Their gifts, combined with those of others in the private sector, enabled the College to secure over $3.5 million in capital funds from the public sector to complete the total Student Commons project
“The faith and commitment of JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and our other good friends on Wall Street and in the business community shows the high regard in which they hold BMCC and their belief in our critically important mission,” said Dr. Antonio Pérez, BMCC President. “This new Student Commons is a sterling manifestation of their commitment.”
Participants in the April 13 ceremony will include: Dr. Pérez; Eddy Bayardelle, First Vice President of Global Philanthropy for Merrill Lynch; Frederick Hill, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Communications for JPMorgan Chase; and Jason Negron, President of the BMCC Student Government Association.
Borough of Manhattan Community College, founded in 1963, is the largest community college in the City University of New York and the only community college in Manhattan. The U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of International Education ranks BMCC as being #1 in awarding degrees to African-Americans in the Northeast; #2 for awarding associate degrees in business; and # 3 for awarding associate degrees in communications technology. The College enrolls over 19,000 students who are representative of the ethnic and cultural diversity of New York City. Respected nationally for its rigorous academic standards and the caliber of its graduates, BMCC takes pride in such innovative academic programs as multimedia programming and design, funded by grants from Microsoft and the National Science Foundation. Visit the College Web site at www.bmcc.cuny.edu
