We Are all in This Together: State of the College Shares Challenges and Highlights

“Thank you all for joining me today for our first and hopefully last virtual State of the College Address,” said Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) Interim President Karrin E. Wilks on May 5.

Live streamed to the college community from her office at the BMCC Chambers Street campus, Wilks acknowledged the weight of the pandemic on students, faculty and staff.

“Over the last few months we have endured unimaginable changes to our personal and work lives,” she said. “Our hearts go out to those in our community who have fallen ill or lost loved ones. Our hearts go out to those in our community who are struggling, economically or emotionally. And our hearts most of all go out to the families of those in our community who have been lost to the virus.”

While essential staff on campus could watch the State of the College Address from a work computer, most of the audience — which reached more than 450 signed-in participants — was dispersed across New York City, watching from their homes.

In a live chat column alongside the live-stream feed, faculty and staff sent messages to their colleagues: “Stay strong!” “Virtual hugs!” The comments continued as Wilks presented BMCC’s accomplishments. “Great retention rate!” someone wrote, and “Whoohoo success programs!”

“While we’ve all probably had more of Zoom than we want to, it has been a form of solace and motivation to see so many of your smiling faces,” Wilks said.

The address opened with images of the college’s transformed Richard Harris Terrace, where Panther Pantry and other staff are distributing food to students in need. Another slide showed the repurposed BMCC gym, where Chromebooks and IPads have been distributed to students who need support in their transition to distance learning.

“I am proud of, inspired by and so grateful for the collective compassion, dedication and kindness of our BMCC community as we have faced life in the times of COVID-19,” Wilks said.

Wilks also acknowledged the speed at which faculty and staff responded to the Governor’s proclamation to suspend classes.

“That is certainly unprecedented and absolutely impressive,” she said. “A sincere ‘Thank you’ to all, for your resourcefulness and creativity in maintaining academic continuity and care for our students, so that their success stories can continue to inspire us.”

One of those success stories was highlighted by a video featuring Lavonia Thomas, an entrepreneur who enrolled at BMCC as a Business Management major to sharpen her skills and grow her small baking business.

Another student success story was presented through a video about Business Administration major Isa Mendez, who has taken part in projects with Citi Group and at Rutgers University, through BMCC.

Expanding BMCC’s strategic plan to reflect priorities resulting from the pandemic

In her focus on BMCC’s strategic planning process, Designing for Success, Wilks reviewed its strategic goals — “to dramatically improve graduation rates, and increase successful transfer and baccalaureate attainment; to improve student learning through culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy and support; to improve career development leading to meaningful work with family-sustaining wages, and to achieve equity in these outcomes.”

A new goal incorporates innovative work at BMCC that is related to the impact of COVID-19.

“Given the unexpected and devastating effects of COVID-19, we will add a strategic goal about BMCC’s role in supporting the return of New York City’s economy and an equitably thriving New York,” said Wilks.

Nearly 1,000 faculty, staff and students have participated in Designing for Success through working groups, college-wide forums, and focus groups, she said. “That is an unusually high level of engagement in a strategic planning process and something to be proud of.”

Wilks described factors revealed through the discovery process of Designing for Success to be most predictive of student success, such as tutoring and peer mentoring.

“Wrapping students in support services and comprehensively addressing their basic needs is what clears the path to completion and success, and this was made so much more evident over the past few months,” she said. “All that we’re doing to improve teaching and learning, inside and outside the classroom, all across the college, is working.”

Relevant data was presented, including the fact that BMCC’s one-year retention rate has increased to 59.7 percent for full-time students and that for the sixth year in a row, the college’s three-year graduation rate has increased and is now at 24.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Wilks said, the baccalaureate attainment rate for BMCC students continues to climb, now at an impressive 64.6 percent.

Looking closely at equity gaps and gains, in terms of student demographics

Wilks explained that while equity gaps still exist, they are narrowing between Black, Hispanic and white students.

“For Hispanic women, the gap has been eliminated,” Wilks said. “Hispanic women have retention rates higher than the overall population and three-year graduation rates significantly higher than the overall population and higher than those for white women. Black women have higher four-year baccalaureate rates than the overall rates, an improvement of over 15 percent in four years.”

These outcomes can be attributed in part by the efforts of programs at BMCC including ASAP, Wilks said, which serves 6,000 or about 25 percent of BMCC students.

She also affirmed the work of the college’s Urban Male Leadership Academy (UMLA), which provides structured mentorship for Black male students and reports an 86 percent fall-to-fall retention rate — much higher than the retention of Black men who are not in the program.

Wilks also highlighted the BMCC Panther Partner mentoring program, Degree Under Three and Peer Mentoring. She recognized the faculty development efforts of BMCC’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship (CETLS).

In a salute to faculty-led research at the college, Wilks screened a video from BMCC’s Marks of Excellence, highlighting the work of Science Professor Jose A. Fernandez Romero, who leads a team of BMCC students in HIV-related research at the Population Council lab in Rockefeller University.

A revised mission and vision reflect college achievements and goals

“As a critical part of our two-year strategic planning process, we engaged hundreds of students, faculty and staff in the review of our current mission statement and in consideration of BMCC statements of vision and values,” Wilks said.

Based on feedback through forums, focus groups, online voting and feedback, the revised mission statement includes advancing equity as an explicit commitment, and service and leadership have replaced a reference to civic engagement.

In an overview of points of pride for BMCC in the past year, Wilks mentioned the Manhattan Early College of Advertising (MECA), where students earn an associate degree at BMCC as part of their studies and had a 96 percent graduation rate in June 2019, much higher than the citywide average.

She highlighted the Manhattan Educational Opportunity Center (MEOC) which BMCC administers in Harlem, and which was recognized for its 95 percent pass rate for students taking the high school equivalency exam — significantly higher than the statewide average and a critical gateway to economic mobility.

Wilks also shared a video about the grant-funded partnership between BMCC’s Teacher Education department and P.S.125, the Ralph Bunche School, an elementary school in central Harlem, has helped transform it into a more diverse progressive model school.

Another highlight included the 14^th annual CUNY Black Male Initiative Conference that hosted over 1,300 attendees in discussions on social justice, restorative justice and justice reform, as well as a $1.25 million grant from the New York State Education Department’s Adult Literacy Education program, awarded to the BMCC Center for Continuing Education and Workforce Development.

Challenges increased by the coronavirus pandemic, and tackled by the college

Enrollment is a challenge made more daunting at BMCC by the coronavirus, Wilks said.

“The Enrollment Management team has been working hard to implement new strategies to maintain healthy enrollment levels,” Wilks said. “Visits to high schools and BMCC open houses have increased.”

Enrollment has also been strengthened by the Second Chance Program, which provides opportunities for transfer students who do not meet admissions GPA requirements, and the Completion Grant Scholarship for students who stopped out because of a financial hold.

In addition, the new Panther Station, which consolidates enrollment and admissions services in a one-stop center was averaging — before the college moved to distance learning — over 1,800 student visits per week.

BMCC is also facing budget challenges caused by the coronavirus, Wilks said.

“The Coronavirus is not only a horrific public health crisis but will continue to evolve as the most significant economic crisis of our time,” she said.

“For fiscal year 2020, the current fiscal year, the City has taken back $20.5 million from the CUNY community colleges, a burden all seven community colleges will share, with BMCC expecting to absorb $2.6M of the total.”

Offsetting those budget challenges are BMCC’s successful fundraising efforts.

“BMCC raised nearly $3.5 million in fiscal year 2019, including $920,000 raised at our annual gala — which was postponed this spring until probably spring 2021,” Wilks said.

Prior to COVID, the college had seen significant growth in major gifts and planned giving, including the acquisition of a $1M gift in fall 2018, resulting in the naming of the Rosenfield Lobby, she said.

“Most recently, we have established the COVID-19 Student Emergency Fund to support students facing financial struggles unforeseen a short time ago,” Wilks said, and thanked the faculty and staff who have contributed to that fund.

High rankings and student awards show BMCC as a leading community college nationwide

“Our vision of becoming a leading community college nationally is well underway,” said Wilks.

For three years in a row, she said, BMCC has been ranked in the top five in the nation among two-year public institutions with the highest economic mobility rates, moving students from the lowest economic quintile solidly into the middle class.

BMCC is also ranked among the top five community colleges in the nation in awarding associate degrees, and is first in the nation among two-year public colleges in terms of racial and ethnic diversity in our managerial ranks — as well as being ranked the safest campus in New York State.

“The National Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences named BMCC’s Criminal Justice program as the 2019 program of the year,” Wilks said, and mentioned that the BMCC Nursing program earned a best-value #6 ranking in New York State.

The BMCC Panther Partner program was recognized by NASPA for demonstrated commitment to advancing first-generation student success, and BMCC is one of the CUNY ASAP programs recognized by the prestigious Innovations in America Government Award from Harvard’s JFK School of Government.

The League of Innovation presented an innovation award to BMCC’s Faculty Leadership Fellows Program, and for the first time, BMCC was deemed eligible for the prestigious Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence.

Closing out the address as she started, with a focus on student success, Wilks mentioned that BMCC Liberal Arts major Lilah Beldner was just one of 20 community college students nationwide to be selected for the 2020 All-USA Academic Team, along with a $5000 scholarship.

She reported that BMCC’s student team earned first place in the Maiden Lane division of the College Fed Challenge, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Another team of BMCC students was selected to join the CUNY Census Corps, and BMCC students have joined the National Society of Leadership and Success in record numbers, making BMCC one of the fastest growing chapters in the country.

In addition, she said, “Once again, a BMCC student has been selected as one of only 50 high-achieving students nationwide to receive the prestigious and highly competitive Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship of up to $40,000 a year to complete a bachelor’s degree.”

This student, Engineering major José Fabrizzio Cevallos, arrived in the U.S. from Peru at age 14, excelled at BMCC and is awaiting word from Princeton and Cornell.

“BMCC had 10 finalists for the Cooke Foundation Scholarship, more than any other CUNY college,” Wilks said. “Improving and celebrating student success is why we are here; our students are truly extraordinary.”

Optimism is not on hold: “Connections, even virtual, will keep us strong”

While BMCC’s traditional commencement ceremony will not happen this year, “BMCC joy and celebration and optimism are not on hold,” Wilks said.

Details of the virtual celebration of the class of 2020 will be announced soon, “and we will continue to do everything we can to take good care of our community,” Wilks said. “The federal CARES Act will distribute $13 million to BMCC students to address costs incurred by the Coronavirus.”

She reminded the audience that BMCC has established a COVID-19 Emergency Fund to provide ongoing support to students, “as we know the economic consequences of the pandemic will get worse before they get better. We encourage all faculty and staff to give what they can to this fund. Any amount will help our students.”

The state of the college address ended with a promise. “We will continue to reach out, to connect with students, faculty and staff,” said Wilks, “because connections, even virtual, will keep us strong.”