2015 2016 colin powell school annual report

ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016 STUDENT SUCCESS

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LEADERSHIP

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PUBLIC DISCOURSE

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RESEARCH FOR THE COMMON GOOD

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ENGAGING COMMUNITY

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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YOU ARE THE

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL Where in the World?

Each semester, we get emails from graduates of the Colin Powell School

This spring, we announced the campaign to our supporters around the

who are in faraway places like Iraq, Ghana, and France, reminding us that

world, and we’ve already received photos and letters from alumni who

wherever in the world we might be, there is likely a City College, and now

are serving in the Armed Forces, working in banks as far away as China,

a Colin Powell School graduate nearby.

and beginning to make their homes in new cities around the globe.

That reminder continues to resonate with us, forming the basis for this

We know that our graduates go on to make the world their home, and we

year’s #WhereInTheWorld campaign. We hope to inspire our students,

want to continue sharing their stories with you. And if you’re a graduate

graduates, staff, faculty, and members of our close community at large

or former member of our faculty or staff, tell us where your CCNY

to tell us where in the world they are living, working, and focusing on the

experiences have taken you. We want to know, and we want you to know

things that matter most to them.

how proud we are that you are extending the reach of our mission.

Share your stories :

@cpowellschool

ColinPowellSchool

@cpowellschool

@cpowellschool

“

The mission of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership is to transform students, faculty, communities, and the traditional university experience by adopting problem-based approaches to education. By promoting the values of service, engagement, and leadership, we enable our students to energetically address the challenges of the 21st century. By fostering creative and public scholarship, we ensure that our faculty produces and disseminates scholarship that is both relevant and in-touch.

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MESSAGE 04 AT A GLANCE 07 A STRONG FOUNDATION

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STUDENT SUCCESS 10 STUDENT LEADERSHIP 12 PUBLIC DISCOURSE 17 RESEARCH FOR THE COMMON GOOD

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ENGAGING COMMUNITIES 26 LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 28 LOOKING AHEAD 29 FINANCIAL OVERVIEW 30 CAMPAIGN UPDATE 31

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

MESSAGE FROM

GENERAL POWELL

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Over the years, I’ve looked back at that preparation from the vantage point of all the things I’ve done and offices I’ve held. CCNY positioned me for success.

”

DEAR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS, I’m pleased to present this year’s annual report

energy, and the perspective that Colin Powell

on our activity. In developing the programs of

School students possess in abundance. The

the Colin Powell School, we build on the deeply

experience of being at the Colin Powell School,

established traditions of my alma mater, the

studying in classrooms alongside students

City College of New York. I benefited from those

from every corner of the world and from across

traditions, which grew out of the commitment

the

of wise public officials to the goal of a broadly

a unique training ground for young people

educated citizenry.

poised to enter our rapidly changing, quickly

Upon leaving City College, I was not immediately sure how my education would stack up against that of others I met. At the time, I didn’t have access to the great military institutions of

socioeconomic

spectrum,

represents

globalizing world. I’m proud of the work we’re doing at the school and happy for the chance, in this document, to show you what we’ve been up to.

lucky that he walked among us.

We were lucky, too, that he chose to serve on the Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors and on the Powell Center’s Advisory Council before that. He was a steady and passionate presence at our meetings and demonstrated, year in and year out, how deeply he cared about our work.

I’ll miss his presence at those meetings and in the world. The work to which he dedicated his life—crafting a more just and peaceful world—connects directly with the commitment we shared of making sure the denizens of that

the United States—no African American did.

My travels have brought me into contact with

world are educated in a tradition of leadership

But the further I went, the more I understood

extraordinary men and women—people I’d

in service to the common good.

that I had been utterly prepared by my public

never dreamed I would meet when I was

education for public service at the very highest

growing up in the Bronx. Some of those people

levels.

have become respected colleagues; others

Over the years, I’ve looked back at that preparation from the vantage point of all the

I count among my close friends. A few have become my “brothers.”

things I’ve done and offices I’ve held. CCNY

I lost one of my brothers this past year, and

positioned me for success. I came back

in these pages, we take a moment to honor

to Harlem because I was grateful for that

him. Elie Wiesel survived the horrors of the

preparation, and I’ve been dedicated to making

Holocaust and went on to teach the world that it

sure that today’s students find the same

must remember barbarism in order to resist it in

support and get the same start that I had.

the future. He offered his vision and wisdom to

The truth is that the world needs the talent, the

the world as a gift, and we were unimaginably

I hope you enjoy reading this year’s annual report and that you’ll be inspired to find ways of supporting the work we do at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.

Sincerely,

GENERAL COLIN L. POWELL, USA (Ret.) Chair of the board of Visitors Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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MESSAGE FROM

THE DEAN

“

The activity covered in this report was designed specifically to develop the almost limitless potential our students bring to the Colin Powell School.

”

Global Leadership in 2013? By asking where

a vision of a world they can help make better.

they are and what they are doing, we hoped to

Every year, we’re adding something new to that

begin assessing the impact that our school has

vision, deepening our contribution to the public

had on this city, the country, and the world.

good with every graduating class.

What about our faculty members? In what

I’m excited for you to read about the changes

ways has their research touched the lives of

we’ve made in our programs—inaugurating

communities and individuals around the world?

some, adjusting others—to make them more

And what about our communities? How have

effective, building on our successes and

they interacted with our school, and what have

evaluating everything we do with a critical eye.

those interactions meant to them?

The activity covered in this report was designed

So, in what follows, as we report on our activity over the course of the 2015–2016 academic DEAR COLIN POWELL SCHOOL SUPPORTERS, This year, in a variety of ways, we’ve been asking, “Where in the world is the Colin Powell School?”

is the Colin Powell School?” Where have our

potential our students bring to the Colin Powell School, designed to help provide them a role in crafting a better society for us all.

students found places to serve or intern?

I hope that you’re pleased by what you read

Where do they study when they go abroad, and

here. If you’ve contributed to our programming

what do they leave behind in the communities

and growth, I especially hope you see evidence

It started with an Instagram campaign, in

they visit? How have our graduates shaped

that we’ve carefully stewarded your contribution

which we requested that our students send us

the world they encounter, and where are they

in the furtherance of a vision I know we share.

photos, allowing us to follow and share news

utilizing their talents? We’ve asked alumni from

If you’re just learning about the Colin Powell

of their study and travel. But we soon began

across the generations to tell us where they are

School, I hope you’ll find a way to get involved

considering the question more deeply. What

and what they’re doing.

in our work.

What we’ve found, person by person, email by

Sincerely,

about our alumni? Where are they in this world, and what work are they doing to advance our vision of service and leadership?

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year, we’re also asking, “Where in the world

specifically to develop the almost limitless

email, is a network connecting the work of the Colin Powell School to a deepening tradition

Beyond recent alumni, what about those

of public service. We’ve found that while our

generations of men and women who studied in

students often begin college by making daily

CCNY’s social science departments before we

trips on the NY subway, they leave this campus

became the Colin Powell School for Civic and

prepared to go almost anywhere, inspired by

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Vince Boudreau, Dean

2015 -2016

AT A GLANCE 16,000

Over Total Student Enrollment

1 of 3 ccny students

Graduate from the Colin Powell School

*Undergraduate and graduate students campus-wide

More than

350

students supported through Mental Health Counseling Sociology

International Affairs Economics Psychology

Graduate Programs

Public Service Management

more than

100

scholarship and fellowship programs

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International Studies

•

Latin American and Latino Studies

•

Public Policy/Public Affairs

•

Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies

•

CUNY School of Law and Colin Powell School Joint JD/MA Program

•

Women’s Studies

1,302 transfer students 200 1st year students 10 Majors 100

Lectures and events each year

300

More than INTERNSHIP PLACEMENTS

Interdisciplinary Programs

number of

campus-wide

MORE THAN

Our undergraduate and graduate student internship placements

languages

spoken on campus

include positions in corporate, government and non-profit organizations throughout New York City, Washington D.C. and worldwide in collaboration with the CCNY Study Abroad Programs.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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A STRONG FOUNDATION

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The Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors was constituted on the day we founded our school. It is tasked with rendering advice and support for our efforts to build and stabilize our institution and its programs.

”

The Colin Powell School’s Board of Visitors

find a way through our financial difficulties, we

efforts to teach specific classes, often involving

was constituted on the day we founded our

leaned more heavily than ever on the advice

community engagement, internship placements,

school. It is tasked with rendering advice and

and counsel of our Board of Visitors, and its

and the like.

support for our efforts to build and stabilize

finance committee.

our institution and its programs. This year, we asked the Board to be more involved than ever before in the financial and budgetary decisions of the School. It was, we will all acknowledge, a difficult fiscal year for the Colin Powell School and for City College in general. Cuts from the state of New York, as well as CCNY’s efforts to navigate those cuts, dealt the

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Two projects, in particular, occupied our attention. First, we needed to supplement resources we had lost because of budget cuts from other resources, primarily through our philanthropy accounts. The fact that we learned of our reduced budget after monies to finance fall semester classes had already been committed placed a great strain on our capacity

Second, we began a series of conversations with the board concerning the need to place our departments, particularly those with the highest growth potential, on a more stable foundation.

There is, we agreed, no reason to expect the long-term diminution of state funding to reverse itself to meet the genuine needs of this college or the Colin Powell School. The board, coordinating with its finance and development committees,

school an almost 11 percent budget shortfall

to provide classroom seats for students during

from what we had expected (translating to a

the spring. Working with the finance committee,

began to engage itself in the longer-term project

$435,000 cut in our budget and an additional

and eventually reporting to the board, we

of developing strategies that would yield more

$800,000 in lost resources because of a

identified funds in our philanthropic reserves,

philanthropic support for the instructional

campus-wide hiring freeze). As we worked to

the disposition of which was consistent with

activities of the Colin Powell School.

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

District of New York. He also worked as the US attorney for the District of Connecticut, and as general counsel and special assistant to the head of the FBI. His philanthropic commitments include past activity with the nonprofit Empower New Haven and board membership at the Brennan Center for Justice.

We are extremely pleased that Judge Robinson has decided to join our Board of Visitors.

We also were deeply saddened to lose the great Elie Wiesel from our board and from the circle of humanity. Dr. Wiesel passed away in early July after decades upon decades of work serving humanity in the most extraordinary ways. A Holocaust survivor and chronicler of the memory of those dark and horrible days, Dr. Wiesel brought great dignity and humanity to everything he touched. We were exceptionally honored that he chose to spend MEMBERSHIP CHANGES This year, a long-term ally and supporter of the Colin Powell School, and especially of its

“

efforts to promote students wishing to attend

As we worked to find a way through our

law school, left our board. Vaughn Williams, long a key supporter of and liaison for our Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal

financial difficulties, we

Studies, retired from the Skadden law firm

leaned more heavily than

a great friend to CCNY and our legal studies

ever on the advice and

Colin Powell School.

counsel of our Board of

and relocated to the West Coast. Vaughn was efforts, and an enthusiastic supporter of the

We thought it fitting to fill the seat Vaughn

Visitors, and its finance

vacated with someone who was equally

committee.

School students as possible into the legal

”

committed to helping as many Colin Powell profession and who would embrace the school’s broader mission with energy and enthusiasm.

some of his time with us. We are far better for his attention and far poorer for his loss.

GRADUATION Two years ago, the Colin Powell School began a tradition of asking its Board of Visitors to nominate a commencement speaker for the school, or to serve as our speaker at commencement. This year, we continued a trend begun with our first speaker, General Colin Powell. Lt. General Samuel Ebbesen USA (Ret.), is the second highest ranking military officer to have ever graduated from CCNY, and a 2014 addition to our board of visitors.

General Ebbesen stood on our graduation stage on a clear blue June morning and spoke to a warmly enthusiastic audience of our students and their families about his life and theirs. His words held the audience for a brief final moment before they would be called to the stage, given their degrees, and turned over

Judge Stephen Robinson served as a federal

to the world to make their mark. It was an

judge for the US District Court for the Southern

utterly fitting final moment for all of us.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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STUDENT

SUCCESS

INTERNSHIPS AT THE COLIN POWELL SCHOOL Virtually everyone agrees that internships provide students with invaluable workplace experience; however, it has become more and more difficult to place students in meaningful internships. Once regarded exclusively as a student experience, these days an increasing number of employers are integrating internship placements into their routine hiring practices, looking for college graduates rather than students to fill positions.

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“

The true value of internships lies in their ability to expose students to the interplay of academic knowledge and real world application.

”

arrangement with a professor to secure credit.

We thought there was a better way both to secure the best placements and to offer

value of internships lies in their ability to expose students to the interplay of academic knowledge and real-world application.

a strong curricular component. Instead of

Merging the different internship classes into

offering a cluster of internship classes based

one provides other advantages. Teaching

in individual departments, this year we began

the course on a larger scale allowed us to

offering a Colin Powell School-wide internship

provide the instructor with an assistant tasked

class. Based on a basic organizational

with helping students find internships and

management model, the class helps students

undertaking site visits and evaluations. As the

think through some foundational management

program grows, we hope to begin dividing the

issues, such as how leadership works in

class into sector-specific sections so students

a professional setting; how to think about

from a range of academic disciplines can

Internships have been often problematic

organizational vision, mission, and goals’

discuss their work in similar fields. Finally, we

elements of the college curriculum.

and how best to communicate, plan, and

have begun to use some of our philanthropic

Department-based internship classes fequently

implement ideas in a professional setting.

resources devoted to summer internships,

do not attract enough students to justify the

The idea was simple: No matter what major

such as those provided by the William R.

costs of instruction; consequently, a typical

a Colin Powell School student pursued, he

Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, to allow students

internship experience has students finding

or she would need to exercise the expertise

who perform at an exceptional level in this

their own placements without much support

and skills they acquire in our school in

class to continue their work, on a paid basis,

and then seeking out an independent study

some sort of organizational setting. The true

over the summer.

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

We hope that soon every one of our 3,000

nongovernmental organizations, and human

real influx of joint degree candidates will not

Colin Powell School students will have taken

rights and international law are among the

take place until the 2017–2018 academic year.

on at least one internship before they graduate.

most popular. For this reason, the idea of

Still, the partnership with CUNY Law places

combining the MA degree with a JD from

the Colin Powell School program among

A FOUR YEAR JD - MA

CUNY Law (one of the nation’s foremost

the very few local institutions offering a joint

IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (MIA)

public interest law schools) seemed natural.

law-MIA degree; it should be a particularly

For the CUNY School of Law, giving law

attractive option for those already working

students exposure to international affairs

in fields of international relations. As MIA

The MA degree in international affairs at CCNY (formerly the Master’s Program in International Relations) attracts students from all over the world, many of whom serve in missions to the United Nations. Over the years, the program has developed areas of emphasis

makes great sense because more and more of them will be serving in positions that require the skill to navigate an increasingly globalized world.

Program Director Jeff Kucik says, “The joint degree program comes at a time when demand for lawyers is growing within the international community. It will train students

tailored to that student base: courses in

In 2016–2017, we will begin to see existing

to meet that demand for lawyers with an

diplomacy, international governmental and

CUNY Law students in our classes, but the

expertise in international policy issues.”

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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STUDENT

LEADERSHIP

“

The single best thing about being here is the students, without a doubt. I am, every day, amazed by them.

Professor Nicholas R. Smith.

”

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2016 VALEDICTORIAN, MICHAELA DOUGHERTY Michaela graduated with a BA in political science and Jewish studies. She was born on Long Island as the ninth child to a loving and progressive family. She arrived at City College with a passion for political science but became even more engaged in courses focusing on international law and human rights. Her interests led her to the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies in 2014. In 2015, she became a human rights fellow in the Partners for Change Fellowship at the Colin Powell School. She earned several awards from three different departments, including the Ivo Duchacek Award for outstanding work in the study of international relations and the Carl Dunat Award for excellence in the study of political science. She is a member of Pi Sigma Alpha and Phi Beta Kappa honor societies.

Michaela is particularly interested in humanitarian law and the impact that armed conflict has on access to education for the most vulnerable populations. This year, she traveled independently to Israel and Palestine to conduct research on human rights organizations. The experience made her realize that she would like to pursue a master’s degree in international conflict resolution and peace studies, and she is applying to the top programs in this field of study in the United States and in Europe. Michaela attributes her undergraduate success to her “compassionate family, her insightful professors, and to the programs and support offered by the Colin Powell School.”

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COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

MARIAH CAMERON Mariah Cameron is a junior at the City College of New York, double majoring in international studies and black studies. When she completes her undergraduate degree, she intends to enroll in law school and eventually pursue a master’s degree in urban development. Currently, she is a community engagement fellow in the Colin Powell Fellowship Program at CCNY. She plans to create a community organization that trains teens in technical skills and to manage profits and budgets, which will help them support themselves in a positive, forward-looking way.

Mariah works in the office of student life as captain for the student club relations team and is an ambassador in the dean’s office of the Colin Powell School. She is excited about the impact her leadership roles on campus will have on her overall life

DALVIN DELIA Dalvin Delia is interning in the Colin Powell School as

experience. A persistent and detail-oriented student, Mariah has developed excellent research, writing, and analytical skills that will support her passion to contribute to issues of social justice.

an events intern and recently became a Colin Powell Partners for Change Fellow in the Human Rights sector.

Dalvin is a senior pursuing a dual degree in international studies, with a concentration in international relations.

His second major is Italian, which he took up in CCNY is Division of Humanities & the Arts. Upon graduation, he plans to pursue a master’s degree in either international relations or diplomacy, to help him pursue a career as a foreign ambassador.

KIRA RAKOVA Kira Rakova graduated from CCNY’s Macaulay Honors Program in Spring 2016 with a double major in International Studies from the Colin Powell School (with a concentration in development) and Media Communication Arts (Advertising/Public Relations) from the Division of Humanities & the Arts, she also minored in Anthropology. During her time at City College, she was involved in a variety of on-campus opportunities, such as the Student Mental Health Initiative, a peer-run organization that aims to destigmatize mental health. She was also lucky enough to participate in the Partners for Change fellowship, which allowed her, among other things, to co-write a research paper on the subject of service provision to children trafficked from Northern Triangle states. Of course, her time at City College was also enriched by wonderful mentors at the Colin Powell School, the Honors Program, and the International Studies and Anthropology departments Currently, Kira resides in London and is studying for an MSc in Global Mental Health through a joint program between King’s College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Mental Health. She is also involved in a variety of online activist projects, including the eating disorder recovery community Beating Eating Disorders. In the future, she hopes to work for a non-profit that provides mental health services and support.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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ANNIKA LUEDKE

FERNANDO ALVAREZ

Annika Luedke is originally from Germany and spent the past years studying

The son of Mexican and Portuguese immigrants, Fernando Alvarez,

in The Netherlands and the United States. She pursued a BA in international

an airman in the New York Air National Guard, learned the value of

communication and public affairs with Honors from Hanze University,

hard work and perseverance from his parents. He began his study

Groningen, and developed a vast interest in international politics and global

of economics at the Colin Powell School in the Spring of 2014 and

governance. Now studying in the M.A program in international relations,

has enjoyed his time in class, having made a connection to faculty

she is a Colin Powell Graduate Fellow who devotes her research project

and his student peers. “One saying that I try to live my life by is

to public science communication and the establishment of a Children’s

‘constant progression, zero regression’s. It helps me to continuously

University at City College.

push myself and learn as much as I can from my professors,” says Fernando.

As the current President of the Association for International Affairs at City College, Luedke manages the Club activities and its exposure to prospective students. Luedke is a scholar of the German National Academic Foundation and her research interests lie in governance and security policies of the European Union and the protection of women’s rights and gender equality.

“The supportive faculty, the international community and the exceptional opportunities at CCNY helped me to understand the complex mechanisms in our societies, both in Europe and the United States. Being a student of the

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After graduating this Spring, Fernando began a position at Drexel Hamilton, an institutional broker-dealer that partners with leaders in the finance sector. “I love being able to see how macroeconomic events affect financial markets as well as different parts of the economy.

Working at Drexel gives me the opportunity to meet and network with finance professionals across the country.” He hopes to finish his Master’s in Economics at City College and pursue an MBA in Finance.

Colin Powell School enabled me to understand the importance of building

In the coming year, Fernando will mentor one Colin Powell School

communities from their core to achieve stability, equality and prosperity.”

student in the Drexel Hamilton internship project.

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

FATJON KAJA A native of Albania, Fatjon Kaja remains an ardent believer in the American dream. Upon graduating from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn, Fatjon enrolled at The City College of New York, where he completed an accelerated BA/MA degree in economics and pre-law.

While a student at City College’s Colin Powell School, Fatjon also took doctoral level courses at The Graduate Center of CUNY. In addition to his regular coursework, Fatjon complemented his studies with internship experiences at Congressman Charles Rangel’s District Office; Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; and Bridges Ventures. On campus, Fatjon was heavily involved with the Undergraduate Student Government and

“

Each day, more than 3,000 students call the Colin Powell School ‘home’ and we take great pride in knowing that although

held additional leadership positions in various student clubs.

we number in the thousands, each

Currently, he is enrolled at the University of Minnesota Law School,

of our students has a unique story

where he plans to complete the concentration in Business Law. Fatjon would like to develop his expertise in the areas of government enforcement and white-collar crime. While he hopes to get exposure to the private and public sector in his career, he eventually hopes to

to tell.

”

become a law professor.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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MARLA Z. ALVAREZ-TORRADO Being born and raised on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico was a determining factor in Marla’s interest in environmental issues around the world. Before coming to the City College of New York, she participated in different organizations, such as the National Honor Society and Liga de Oratoria de Puerto Rico, which helped enhance her leadership skills. Marla has been inspired by people’s trust and support of her work, which encouraged her to expand her knowledge of public service. Marla has presented projects to the legislative branch of Puerto Rican government and participated in internships with elected officials. As a way to propel her passion for public service, in more academic directions she enrolled in the Colin Powell School and began working for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Through these inspiring organizations, Marla found resources to grow as a student and as a professional.

Not only has she acquired skills, but also she received the Opportunities in Research and Creative Arts (ORCA) grant for her winning proposal in 2016. Through the ORCA program, Marla worked with Professor Sherrie Baver, director of the Latin American and Latino Studies program, on her research project about environmental legislation in Chile and Mexico. While translating and summarizing articles relating to the topic, Marla gained a better understanding of the process behind research; thus she became motivated to start her own investigation into the involvement of Latin American youths in environmental issues. Marla plans to continue exploring the social sciences fields to shape the knowledge she’ll need to give back to the community. .

IVANNA KUZ Prompted by Ukraine’s revolution and war in 2014, Ivanna Kuz decided to pursue a degree in international studies and political science at the Colin Powell School midway into her undergraduate education at City College. With the study abroad opportunities provided by the Macaulay Honors College, Ivanna spent a summer interning in Brussels. Her research and European conference participation included an examination of issues of human rights abuses in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, the Mediterranean migration crisis, and the challenges of a rapidly aging population in Europe, all of which highlighted for her the gap between human rights practices and human rights law throughout the continent. The Colin Powell School’s Washington, D.C., semester program allowed her to spend the final semester of her undergraduate career conducting research at the American Foreign Policy Council while simultaneously providing exposure to the political environment of Capitol Hill.

Ivanna is planning to pursue a graduate degree in Eastern European and Eurasian studies and to dedicate her public service career to diplomacy and foreign policy work. With a strong devotion to justice and democratic values, she aspires to eventually contribute to the postwar rebuilding of Ukraine’s infrastructure.

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COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Public Discourse

“

At the Colin Powell School, we believe that the public trust vested in our public institution creates a public obligation.

”

Education doesn’t just happen in the

broader populations figure out the questions

us play our role in promoting the common

classroom. Sometimes it doesn’t even

that matter to them.

good.

We always, therefore, speak to two

Over the course of the year, our breakfast talk

audiences. Our students and faculty gather at

series—Conversations with City—presented

Colin Powell School events that help shape

early-morning discussions of key issues in

their thinking around leadership and service

a downtown forum designed to draw our

as well as on some of the most important

students into conversation with working New

issues we face as a people. In our lecture

York. Our human rights series, now in its

halls, they join conversations on immigration,

third year, draws attention to the evolution of

human rights, or national security—or hear

a global and historic process by which we

happen just on a campus. At the Colin Powell School, we believe that the public trust vested in our public institution creates a public obligation. The resources of our school, primarily the minds of those who work and study here, should work alongside other public institutions for the common good. Our public programming is one way by which we discharge that public obligation.

some of today’s most innovative people

have all tried to live more humanely with one

We live in complicated times, where we

discuss their approach to leadership. To our

another—and recalls the times in which we

all need to figure out what a more global

external constituents—alumni, neighbors,

failed to attain that objective. Our annual Sy

world, a world with shifting economic

and stakeholders of all kinds—the Colin

and Laurie Sternberg Family Lecture in Public

foundations, a world with more diverse

Powell School delivers, in part, on its

Scholarship highlights the research of our

cultural and sociological foundations means

responsibility as a public institution by

faculty, while our continuing Conversations in

to each of us. While we take great pride in

sponsoring talks on topics that matter to our

Leadership series brings public and corporate

our primary mission of educating students,

communities. We are an integral part of New

leaders to campus to talk about their careers

we also embrace the opportunity and the

York’s cultural landscape, and our public

and the key decision points that punctuated

responsibility to lend our expertise to help

programming is specifically designed to help

them.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

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TIMELINE

2015 2016

“

As this partial timeline suggests, the conversations sponsored or co-sponsored by the Colin Powell School sought to intensify discussions on today’s most pressing issues and elevate our voice in the public life of New York City and beyond.

”

OCTOBER JULY

• “A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe,” presented by the Women’s Studies and International Studies Programs of the Colin Powell School.

Cynthia Enloe’s feminist teaching and research have explored the interplay of gendered politics in the national and international arenas, with special attention to how women’s labor is made cheap in globalized factories (especially sneaker factories) and how women’s emotional and physical labor has been used to support many governments’ warwaging policies—and how diverse women have tried to resist both of those efforts.

Racial, class, ethnic and national identity dynamics, as well as pressures shaping ideas about femininities and masculinities, are common threads throughout her studies.

• Colin Powell School/SIIES Partnership for the Empowerment of Indigenous Women Program.

• “The Future of Human Rights” a Human Rights Forum Event featuring Aryeh Neier, Gay McDougall and Martina Vandenberg, moderated by Eric Weitz.

The Women’s Studies and International Studies Programs Invite you to a lecture by

CYNTHIA ENLOE NOVEMBER Feminist International Relations Scholar

Cynthia Enloe’s career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, guest professorships in Japan, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as lectures in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Portugal, Chile, Vietnam, Korea, Turkey and at universities around the U.S. She has published in Ms. Magazine, and appeared on National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, C-Span and the BBC.

Thursday, October Dominican 29 • “Fighting for Democracy: Shepard Hall 250 Veterans from World War II” presented by 12:00-2:00PM Lunch will be provided. the DominicanLight Studies Institute.

AUGUST • Colin Powell School - African American Policy Forum Summer Leadership Academy with Kimberly Crenshaw and Nimmi Gowrinathan.

• Dean’s Pro-Seminar on Immigration in American Life.

Cynthia Enloe’s fourteen books include Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (2000), The Curious Feminist (2004) and Globalization and Militarism (2007), as well as Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War, ( 2011), The Real State of America: Mapping the Myths and Truths about the United States (co-authored with Joni Seager) (2011), and Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as if Women Mattered (2013). Her new, totally updated and revised 2nd edition of Bananas, Beaches and Bases was published by University of California Press, 2014.

th

•

Conversations in Leadership featuring Linda Kaplan Thaler.

SEPTEMBER

• A Night at Minton’s with the Colin Powell School.

18

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

• “New York’s Progress in the Elimination of Pediatric AIDS” Conversations with City Breakfast Event featuring Dr. Stephen W. Nicholas.

• “U.S. Counterterrorism Policy & the Undermining of Human Rights” a Human Rights Forum event featuring Jonathan Horowitz, Avram Ludwig & Larry Siems, moderated by Danielle A. Zach.

• New Faculty Reception with Carlo Invernizzi Accetti featuring guest speakers Ira Katznelson, Rajan Menon, Samuel Moyn and Nadia Urbinati.

MAY DECEMBER

• “Elections in Volatile States” a Human Rights Forum event featuring Nicholas Rush Smith, Christopher Day, Louisa Lombard and Zachariah Mamphilly.

• Third Annual Sternberg Family Lecture in Public Scholarship with guest speakers Ramona Hernandez, Edwin Melendez and Anne Visser.

• “Diversity and Beyond: The Future of the American Lawyer” Conversations with City Breakfast Series Event featuring Paulette Brown, moderated

by Jen Light.

APRIL

• Political Science Alumni and Student Awards Reception honoring the late Paul Gibson ‘49, The Honorable Edwina Richardson-Mendelson ‘86 and Tamara Toles O’Laughlin ‘06.

FEBRUARY

• Business and Economics Alumni Society Alumni and Student Awards Reception.

• Colin Powell School and CUNY School of Law announce new joint JD/MIA degree for incoming students, fall 2016.

MARCH

• Anne and Bernard Spitzer Lecture in International Security featuring Michael Ignatieff and moderated by Rajan Menon.

• Inaugural Colin Powell School Washington Alumni Reception.

• “Gender and Resistance: Contemporary Narratives” featuring Nimmi Gowrinathan, Meena Kandasamy, Rafia Zakaria sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program.

• “In celebration of the United Nation’s International Women’s Day” Conversations with City Breakfast Series event featuring Virginia Gamba, Ambassador May-Elin Stener and Dulcie Leimbach.

• “Making Americans, Making America” an event sponsored by the Colin Powell School and Carnegie Corporation and featuring General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), keynote speaker.

JUNE • “Public Service Leadership in the 21st Century” Conversations with City, D.C. Breakfast Event featuring Edward J. Freel and Andrew Rich, moderated by Vince Boudreau.

• “Indigenous Communities, International Law, and Transnational Activists” a Human Rights Forum Event featuring Elides Rivera Navas and Susanna Schaller, moderated by Deborah Edwards-Anderson.

• Colin Powell School Graduation featuring keynote speaker, Lt. General Samuel Ebessen, USA (Ret.).

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

19

RESEARCH For The Common Good

“

CASAC students build their competence as they learn about methods of treatment and coping skills they can deliver to those in need and how their work can improve the lives of people in the community.

”

their CASAC studies and usually should

a number of public and private institutions of

begin in their sophomore year because of the

higher learning. In contrast to other forms of

number of course requirements. The success

counseling employment that require MA or

of the undergraduate CASAC program was

PhD degrees, the BA CASAC program offers

instrumental in getting a 10-course CASAC

students work in a critical area of human

program approved in the General Master’s

need at an earlier stage of their training and

program, which is directed by Professor

then allows them to prepare to take their NYS

Vivien Tartter. Both CASAC programs are

certification examination on their way to full

approved by the NYS Office of Alcoholism and

CASAC certification. During their coursework

Substance Abuse Services.

students become familiar with the current

Since the 10-course program is comprised

psychological literature, learn about real life

of 350 hours of course content, the service CASAC PROGRAM PREPARING STUDENTS TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY IN CRITICAL AREA OF PUBLIC HEALTH Professor Lesia Ruglass, PhD, personifies the committed educator that our students engage with when they enter the Colin Powell School, especially for those with a desire to serve the

curriculum is not required. However, CASAC Trainees are so well-prepared in their course work is strong critical thinking methodology that the service learning that takes place when they find placement in the field is reinforced.

The program specifically covers, among

abuse at a clinical level. CASAC students build competence as they learn about methods of treatment and coping skills they can help to those in need develop and how their work can improve the lives of people in the community.

Thus, CASAC students meet and engage fully with the Colin Powell School mission of

other subjects, how substance abuse and

service to the community.

alcoholism develop; their impact on individual

According to Ruglass, substance abuse costs

users, on their families, and on society as

the United States about $700 billion dollars

a whole; how to assess, evaluate, and treat

in lost job productivity, healthcare issues,

substance abuse and alcoholism; and the

domestic and child abuse, homelessness,

professional responsibilities of a counselor in

violence, crime, and other societal problems.

as CASAC-Trainee counselors upon receiving

the field.

She described the depth of the problem,

their BA degree. Psychology majors who are

FILLING A SOCIETAL NEED

pointing to a national survey completed by

interested in this program need to complete

The need for alcoholism and substance abuse

the 3 required courses for all psychology

counselors in the public health field is so great

majors (Introductory Psychology, Statistics,

that this opportunity for certification and entry

and Experimental Psychology) prior to starting

level employment at the BA level is offered in

community in the critical area of public health.

As the director of the Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) program, Ruglass oversees a 10-course program that prepares undergraduate students for certification and professional employment

20

learning component of the Colin Powell School

social problems and the nature of substance

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicating that, in 2014, approximately 22 million Americans ages 12 and older suffered from some sort of

addiction. Illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS,

experienced trauma in their lifetime. This

which is the Society of Addiction Psychology

heart disease, homelessness, domestic and

shocking statistic speaks to the relatively

committee, known as SOAP. Her work with

child abuse, violence, crime, and stress, among

recent recognition in the mental health

Division 56 explicitly deals with bringing the

other ills are all linked to substance abuse.

community that a person’s trauma history is

concept of trauma forward in the pedagogy

a very strong component of their illness and

and in clinical practice.

Ruglass, who is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in New York City with over 16 years of experience providing psychotherapy and consultations to individuals, couples, and organizations, originally taught the treatment of substance abuse course in the CASAC program. Now, as director, she manages the program, maintaining the quality and currency of the curriculum in ways that reflect contemporary research in the field and oversees the faculty to see that their credentials and license requirements are up to date. Fai Tsoi coordinates the CASAC program. She enrolls students, serves as a resource person for their questions about the program, and monitors their required work throughout the 10-course program to ensure that they have completed all the requirements at a minimum standard before they are awarded the Trainee

must be treated before or simultaneously with their treatment for addiction in order for them to achieve renewed health. Ruglass says that trauma psychology is a fast growing field of research in the study and practice of psychology and most clinicians are finding that their clients have suffered some kind of trauma. This is true for returning veterans and others who are suffering from PTSD, for rape victims, for people suffering from domestic violence and many other psychological illnesses. Being able to name an illness, such as trauma, is the first step in healing. Thus, Ruglass suggests that the more psychologists and others in the community name and recognize trauma and its negative effects, the easier it will be for them to guide their clients in making connections between their trauma and the self-medication practices

Ruglass’s current research is in the field of Health Disparities in trauma and addictions.

She is a Co-Principal Investigator and faculty member in the TRACC program, (Translational Research Training in Addictions for Racial and Ethnic Minorities), at CCNY and Columbia, which addresses the low percentage of minority scientists who achieve a high level of research award funding and interdisciplinary training despite years of field-wide diversification efforts. In addition, as the field of translational neuroscience expands, Ruglass explains that the numbers of qualified minority scientists in the field with interdisciplinary training has not kept up.

TRACC works to fill these gaps by recruiting the rich pool of diverse MA and MHC students, as well as BS/MD students from the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and

Certificate. David Greenberg, a doctoral

of alcoholism, addiction, and other harmful

student in Clinical Psychology, recently joined

behaviors. Ruglass says that being an

the team to contact and get feedback from all

educator in the Colin Powell School deepens

the substance abuse centers across New York

her awareness of the field of trauma and

City. With information from as many centers

substance abuse and the various streams

as are willing to participate, he will create an

of thought and expertise about evidence-

Ruglass’s research also aims to understand

interactive database that CASAC students can

based treatment interventions that can offer

and reduce health disparities in trauma and

access to help them find employment upon

more promise to clinicians and their clients,

addictions among various sex/gender and

graduation.

as well as to the damaged community at

race/etnicity groups. Her findings suggest that

large. She says that by synthesizing and

these diverse populations have differential risk

TRAUMA AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE

explaining her current research on trauma and

for the development of PTSD and substance

Ruglass is the coauthor of “Psychology of

substance abuse makes her more aware of

use disorders, have limited access to care,

Trauma 101” with Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett,

the gaps in the work that she can explore and

receive unequal treatment, and thus, have

2014, Springer Publishing Co. This is one

deepen in her quest for rich, new research

poorer treatment outcomes. She believes

in a series of “101” books that Springer

ideas. She also finds that by expanding her

diverse streams of knowledge developed by

has published to provide lay people, early

connections to different groups in the field

a broader group of scholars and researchers

professionals, and students with a brief,

she can broaden her work. Thus, she is a

can better support clinicians in their treatment

concise introduction to a particular field.

member-at-large and co-chair of the diversity

protocols and enrich the whole research field.

Ruglass’s text fills a huge need for information

and multicultural committee of the Trauma

This, in turn, can diminish the disparities in

about the deep connection between trauma,

Psychology Division (56) of the American

research and treatment and offer expanded

addiction, and mental illness. Currently, up

Psychological Association’s (APA) as well as

and better healthcare for all members of the

to 90% of individuals in this country have

being a member of Division 50 of the APA,

community.

PhD students in Clinical Psychology at CCNY, Columbia and across the city to enhance their professional success in the field of Psychology and Substance Abuse Treatment.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

21

RESEARCH For The Common Good

“

We need to get better,” he says, “At drawing alumni to our into the work that we do with students.”

”

leadership of his department in 2014 (he had

and open internship positions. Ultimately, an

been acting chair for the previous year), he

economics and business department will thrive

had the opportunity to put these observations

if it can demonstrate robust paths from the

into practice.

classroom to the boardroom, and our alumni

How does one grow a department? For Professor Foster, the answer begins with

The economics and business department,

some fundamental assumptions. First, our

in fact, has one of the largest and most

KEVIN FOSTER

students want to be successful, and anyone

established alumni chapters in the CCNY Alumni

Associate Professor and Chair of the Economics and Business Department

who can draw connections from future

Association. According to Professor Foster, this

success to specific academic decisions will

growth has been the product of a years-long

have discovered a language that attracts

commitment to working with graduates of the

EXAMING DATA TO BUILD A

students and holds them to a purpose.

program and drawing them into departmental

STRONGER DEPARTMENT

Realizing that students have many constraints,

activities, dating at least back to when Stanley

he works to identify and clear away

Friedlander was chair years ago. But it also

bureaucratic hurdles, such as by advising in

results from an active effort to find a place for

person, by email, by text, or by phone.

alumni in the work of the department and in

The Department of Economics and Business is the fastest growing department in the Colin Powell School, and its chair, Professor

22

provide crucial way stations on those paths.

the lives of its students. “We still need to get

Kevin Foster, is a big part of why that’s so.

Second, to grow a department, you draw

Over his 18 years at CCNY, Professor Foster

connections between students in the

has closely watched students move through

classrooms and professionals working in the

his program, carefully observing how they

field. More than most, the economics and

succeed and why they sometimes don’t.

business department has supplemented its

Over several years as the deputy dean of

teaching resources by drawing in women

social science, he shouldered much of the

and men with years of experience in finance,

responsibility for dealing directly with students,

business, and management. Across this city,

many of whom would arrive in his office in

people who have flourished in those fields

some academic distress. He’s examined data

of endeavor often relish the chance to teach

our school and also potential funders of our

about how graduates fare on the job market

our students in a classroom setting, bringing

programs,” says Professor Foster. “We’ve tried

and often quotes for them statistics about

a wealth of practical experience too often

to remind recent alumni that while they may

the relationship between career success and

missing from standard academic instruction.

not be ready to commit funds to the school,

specific academic choices (“More math, more

Additionally, you build connections with

committing their time can make a powerful

money”). When he assumed the full-time

alumni, asking them to mentor students

impact on the lives of our students.”

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

better,” says Professor Foster, “at drawing alumni into the work that we do with students.”

From establishing a mentoring program for graduates to come back and work closely with our current student body to ensuring that as much scholarship money as possible reaches our students, the role of the department is to create a “positive feedback loop, to get better at keeping alumni involved as both leaders in

MARITSA V. POROS Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology Professor Poros specializes in migration and refugee studies. The Colin Powell School relied heavily on her recent book, Key Concepts in Migration, as background research for its Dean’s Pro-Seminar series last year. Poros is currently part of an interdisciplinary seminar on “Refuge” at the Graduate Center, pursuing new research on the local context of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Greek island of Lesvos, where over half a million Syrian refugees landed in 2015. Poros says that “the scale of the crisis is massive with displaced persons—the internally displaced and asylum seekers—comprising the vast majority of people who are of concern.” This was reflected recently when the United Nations General Assembly held a summit addressing large movements of refugees and migrants. Poros says that “displacement and migration are enormous human rights issues and unfortunately and the UN meetings were significant for what they failed to accomplish.” Just before the UN meetings, the government of Catalonia, in conjunction with the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. and the European Union Studies Center at the CUNY Graduate Center, invited Poros to reflect on the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean region and on responses by the international community. Poros sees in this crisis an opportunity to critically analyze governmental, nongovernmental, and civil society organizations that have participated in the negotiations.

Poros recently became chair of the sociology department. She says that in that work, she will focus on change and growth—“how best to adapt to the current atmosphere of financial constraints at the college while preserving and promoting what our faculty do best—teaching and research.”

Poros praises the sociology department for the number of its enthusiastic and inspiring teachers who are also accomplished and active scholars in fields like migration, race and ethnicity, justice and criminology, health, illness and disability, education, work and organizations, urban life, and gender and women. These topics, she says, speak to broader social, economic, and political inequalities at the core of what sociologists study, and lend themselves to conversations designed to influence public policy. “More than ever, I think we need sociology’s critical perspective in our universities and in society. In fact, this scholarly strand takes up a very important part of the City College mission: to ‘open the doors to all.’ My hope is that, as a department, we will continue to do this important work, be valued for it inside and outside of the college, and so be able to grow.”

PUNIT ARORA Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Business Punit Arora, a management professor in the Department of Economics and Business, has twice been recognized as outstanding economics and business department teacher of the year by the City College Alumni Association, partly for his work mentoring students through CCNY’s Zahn Entrepreneurship Program. His entrepreneurship class continues to help students develop competitive business plans with the potential to make at least a million dollars in revenue within their first five years after start-up. So far, at least one team taught by Professor Arora has won one of the coveted prizes each year. His class, cross-listed across four departments, shows ‘What happens when you bring together different perspectives and combine them in new ways,” he says. “You end up with the coolest ideas.”

Arora, as Chair of the Zahn Mentoring Committee, knows that his role is to provide mentoring that fits student needs.

Professor Arora’s research looks at strategic leadership, corporate governance, entrepreneurship and corporate responsibility to determine what kind of business systems, in what organizations, ensure that corporate leaders are working for the good of their organizations rather than self interest.

One recent publication “Financially Linked Independent Directors and Bankruptcy Reemergence: The Role of Director Effort” examines if financially linked independent (FLI) directors enable firms to re-emerge from bankruptcy, a major organizational crisis. Using a sample of 307 bankrupt U.S. firms with instrumental variables regression methodology, Professor Arora found that directors’ efforts are critical for firm re-emergence.

Reflecting on what makes a good board member, he says “A lot of people assume that if you bring well connected people onto a business or board it will be good for business. In fact, passion for the organization’s mission often matters more than a director’s networks.”

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

23

IRVIN SCHONFELD Professor, Department of Psychology Professor Irvin Schonfeld has seen the City College of New York from many different angles.

Having begun his career on campus in the School of Education, Professor Schonfeld moved to the Department of Psychology in pursuit of his research program. He considers himself fortunate to work in a department he loves, with colleagues who have become great friends and students with whom he has developed personal connections.

His research focuses on the often misunderstood field of ‘burnout’. “Most people in the field think burnout and depression are different entities” says Professor Schonfeld, but his research (in collaboration with Professor Renzo Bianchi of the Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel) shows that they are, in fact, connected. “More than 80% of people with high scores on burnout scales, are also shown to be clinically depressed. Most of these people could benefit from treatment for depression, whether it is psychological or pharmaceutical and a lot more people can be helped if we recognize the relationship between burnout and depression” says Schonfeld. He further acknowledges that “people who are adherents to the idea of burnout see it as work related, but see depression as more global. What they don’t realize is that work conditions can contribute to depression.”

Professor Schonfeld believes we should look deeper to show that certain psychosocial conditions are more global than that. “We take our work lives into our personal lives more than we realize” he says. “People often think that we need to address the depression-causing aspects of work: things like tyrannical bosses, workplace violence, bullying. In reality, there are some high-stress careers like social work, law enforcement and teaching that do not allow for individual control over the workday. Those types of careers often lead to higher rates of burnout and depression.

He adds: “I don’t want the public to get the idea that there is only one view of burnout.”

YAN ZHAO Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Business When Professor Zhao arrived at the City College of New York in 2009, she knew that the location of the campus was just as important as the teaching that would happen in her classes. “Being in Manhattan provides access to Wall Street, the finance capital of the world, and gives educators on the campus a chance to find the important balance between teaching and research,” says Professor Zhao.

With a research program that deals with large amounts of data, part of her work involves finding the real story behind market deficiencies, investment strategies and asset allocations. Most recently, she worked on private equity placements, particularly in Taiwan and smaller markets in China, to determine how individuals from populations with higher rates of bankruptcy filings and minimal credit borrow money when they have limited access to traditional banking systems.

Professor Zhao focuses on credit models and the economic choices banks make when choosing to give credit to high risk individuals.

A newly tenured associate professor, Professor Zhao believes that if experts in the field begin to more widely share their research, public policies will change more rapidly. “Writing for a public audience gives you the power to connect and to make an impact,” says Zhao, and being in a classroom filled with students living in New York City means that she gets also to facilitate students’ exploration of their post-graduation options, including graduate school, entrepreneurship, or the search for employment in one of the city’s world-renowned firms. “My role is to help them develop well-written theses, help them think about the types of businesses they might establish and to help them develop the knowledge they need to be well-prepared adults.”

24

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

NICHOLAS RUSH. SMITH Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science When Professor Nicholas Rush Smith first arrived at the Colin Powell School, he was immediately struck by the mission for what an urban university could be and what that meant for students.

“This place seems so connected to the city, in a way that many other institutions cannot be,” he says. “Marshall Berman put it best: ‘Of all the colleges in New York, City College best represents the place that New York City is.’” Professor Smith gets immense pride from teaching our students. “Teaching them is an enormous privilege,” he says.

Professor Smith’s research focuses on South Africa, and in particular the rise of vigilantism after the end of state-sanctioned apartheid. “South Africa has one of the world’s most celebrated constitutions and underwent massive institutional transformation, but despite all of that, vigilantism seems to have become a part of that transformation,” says Professor Smith.

He is currently working on a book project entitled “Resisting Rights: Vigilantism and the Contradictions of Democratic State Formation in PostApartheid South Africa.” The manuscript addresses a puzzle: Despite being one of the world’s most vibrant democracies, South Africa sees vigilantism regularly practiced. In any given year, police estimate that nearly 5 percent of the country’s murders result from vigilante violence—four times the percentage of gang violence. That means over 800 people a year are beaten, stoned, or burned to death in retribution for some crime, while thousands more are assaulted, publicly humiliated, or burned out of their homes. Based on nearly 20 months of ethnographic and archival research, Professor Smith’s research shows vigilantism is a response to processes of democratic state formation—specifically the extension of rights—and thrives in dense civic networks.

CARLO INVERNIZZI ACCETTI Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science Professor Invernizzi Accetti says, of teaching one of his first large-format classes at the Colin Powell School, that “Coming to CCNY and teaching a jumbo class, especially because of the students, put me in a teaching opportunity I hadn’t experienced before...I have never ever experienced such commitment and excitement, such a sense of thrill at new ideas” from a classroom of students.

“That first class let me bring even the most obscure philosophers into the discussion and I found my students debating from their own world viewpoints, bringing their own expertise to the subject.”

Professor Invernizzi Accetti’s research combines a historical approach to the study of political ideas with a concern for contemporary normative issues. He thinks especially about democratic theory and the relationship between politics and religion. “Unfortunately, these types of approaches (political and historical) don’t always come together,” he says.. His work, in the classroom and on the page, accomplishes this mix by examining classical authors to glean their relevance for contemporary issues. His recent book, “Relativism and Religion” tries to bring religious and non-religious people together to analyze and critique relativism over the history of this discourse, while also looking secularism’s role in this dialogue. His forthcoming book, “Populism and Technocracy” will focus on the relationship between these two forms of politics.

Having studied in five countries during his own education, he is a strong advocate for study abroad and played a key role in developing our new partnership with Sciences Po, Reims.“Sciences Po, is a particularly interesting partner for the Colin Powell School. It is one of the top universities because it developed around a mission to be an international institution of higher learning, where students from around the world meet and exchange ideas. With this core similarity with our school, we hope the collaboration will help students from both institutions to have rich social, academic and cultural experiences.”

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

25

“

The new minor in Community Change Studies developed in response to a long-standing interest in engaged scholarship in the Colin Powell Center and now, the School. The question was how to create programs for students that would meaningfully articulate with New York’s extensive social advocacy sector, and how students could learn skills and relevant modes of analysis that would position them to become agents of community change, no matter what their major course of study or their post-graduate plans. The minor offers special courses taught by practitioners in political and community organizing and in communitybased research, as well as supported internships that can help the school develop relationships with organizations doing important work in housing, labor, health care, and human rights advocacy in New York, while also helping students to develop their own skills and network.

26

Professor John Krinsky, Political Science

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

”

Engaging Communities

MINOR IN COMMUNITY CHANGE STUDIES

What would a curricular expression of our service mission look like? It would provide

change and justice.

The minor was approved by the CUNY Board of

There are myriad ways students can prepare

basic organizational and management skills

themselves for the challenge of playing a

to students with ideas about how to improve

leading role in civic and global affairs. While

our society. Students often leave college with

we strive to prepare young men and women

strong ideas about the issues that matter most

for government service and work in the private

to them and how to make things better. Few,

sector, many also gravitate to the world of

however, possess the skills and experience

direct community service and advocacy, often

to move those issues toward resolution or

in small grassroots organizations around

to develop their ideas into actionable plans.

the city. Over the years, our scholarship

To build these skills, they need an array of

and service learning programs have built

courses geared toward helping them manage

connections with community organizations in

and communicate effectively in order to make

ways that help students imagine a future for

constructive social change happen.

relationship with New York’s extensive social

That’s where our new minor in community

skills and relevant modes of analysis that would

change studies comes in. Developed in

position them to become agents of community

consultation with the Community Learning

change, no matter what their major courses of

Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to linking

study or postgraduate plans were. The minor

community organizations and academic

The programs of the Colin Powell School

offers special courses taught by practitioners

institutions, the minor in community change

attempt, in a variety of ways, to better prepare

studies offers a package of courses designed

in political and community organizing and

students for lives of service. Our Colin

to give students the skills and experience to

Powell Leadership program helps students

take what they learn in the classroom and use

conceive of bridges between what they learn

it practically in service to their communities.

in the classroom and what they might do in

Designed to interface with any major in the

service to society. Our Partners for Change

Colin Powell School, the minor emerged

program recruits students to work with

around the idea that every discipline provides

leaders in residence on research, service, and

a window onto some set of social problems

advocacy around issues such as access to

or challenges. Skills such as writing for

We anticipate that students from any major

education and equity in health care. What we

public policy or community organizing can

can also complete the minor when it is fully

lacked, until recently, was a way of tying our

help students move their ideas off the page

implemented, enabling young people from any

service mission more directly to the school’s

and toward implementation. Call it a mini-

discipline to embrace the call to serve and

curriculum.

management degree for advocates of social

advocate on behalf of their communities.

themselves in service careers. And, as we talk to students, we also learn that communitybased concerns often developed into core aspects of their motivation to come to school and gain an education.

Trustees in the spring of 2016 and is currently accepting its first students. Professor John Krinsky of the political science department developed the new minor; as he puts it, the minor was created in response to a longstanding interest in engaged scholarship in the Colin Powell Center, and now the school. The development of the minor sought to answer questions on how to create programs for students that would meaningfully articulate a advocacy sector and how students could learn

in community-based research, as well as supported internships that can help the school develop relationships with organizations doing important work in housing, labor, healthcare, and human rights advocacy in New York, while also helping students develop their own skills and networks.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

27

Learning

Environments

“

Two years ago, a generous donation from Vincent Viola allowed us to establish the Viola Emergency Fund, dedicated to assisting students in serious financial distress.

”

VIOLA FUND The stories were as varied as our students’ experiences. One student caring for a sick family member lost his job and could not pay tuition. Another had the car she used as an Uber driver damaged in a hit-and-run, losing both the ability to attend classes and the use of a vehicle that paid the bills. A third needed to repay financial aid when cancer forced him to withdraw from classes; another withdrew and lost aid when he was assaulted in the street. In these cases and dozens of others, talented Colin Powell School students risked being driven from college because they encountered some difficulty with grave financial consequences.

Two years ago, a generous donation from Vincent Viola allowed us to establish the Viola Emergency Fund, dedicated to assisting students in serious financial distress. The program was simple: students facing a one-time emergency, particularly one that threatened their ability to stay in school, could apply for relief. Students could only apply once in a two-year period and no more than two times during their years at the Colin Powell School. And they would also consult with us about the future management of their financial affairs, to ensure that they had a viable strategy to avoid falling into the same kind of difficulty again.

The Viola donation helped us assist dozens of

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COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

students, but it provided other benefits as well.

languages, study the world, and travel to the ends

Student by student, interview by interview,

of the earth. Study and research abroad represent

we learned what happens when our students

core aspects of our educational mission.

encounter some emergency. We learned that virtually any life difficulty, illness, accident, or family obligation-threatens to drive our students from school. We learned that any hardship that disrupts a student’s ability to finish a semester almost certainly also requires that they repay their financial aid or fall into debt. Talking to each applicant (Dean Boudreau interviews every one) allows us to develop proactive approaches to securing our students’ grasp of an education and a diploma. Thinking about the relationship between academic and financial planning, and understanding more deeply the relationship between a complex financial aid bureaucracy and the academic system, has enabled us to advise the whole student and ensure that she or he makes it to graduation and future success.

This year, Colin Powell School students traveled to Wonju, Korea, to participate in a special leadership program at the Yonsei University campus there. In the program, Korean and Colin Powell School students partnered with one another on a summer-long investigation of differences in leadership styles, particularly differences they observed among civic and political leaders in and around Wonju. The idea was simple: As the world grows smaller and more interconnected, students from our respective universities are likely to encounter each other in the future and may well need to work in concert with one another. Understanding different leadership styles as well as gaining exposure to the different ways that Koreans and Americans plan and execute a vision will prepare them for more effortless collaboration in the future.

STUDY ABROAD

Our students did not limit their travels to Korea.

Our students are both incredibly cosmopolitan-

Colin Powell School student study abroad

drawn from all over the world-and, in funny

programs undertook service learning in Senegal,

ways, parochial. They may have come to

study in the Dominican Republic, and may

New York all the way from Africa or Asia, but

soon work on research projects in Mexico and

many then seem content to settle into a life

Nicaragua. Moreover, for the second year in a

circumscribed by the five boroughs of our city.

row, a group of indigenous women from Yucatán

Part of our mandate is to open the world to

province in Mexico came to campus to study

them and invite the world into our campus. Our

leadership and entrepreneurship. And in the years

commitment to building global leaders means

to come, we anticipate doing more to open the

encouraging our students to learn foreign

world to our Colin Powell School students.

ZELNICK ROOM FOR LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS The Zelnick Family Room was officially dedicated in the spring of 2015, and over the past year it has become a home to the Psychology department’s Master’s in Mental Health Counseling program, as well as the department’s Undergraduate Honors Program.

The facility provides an ideal venue for faculty and student meetings and conferences, and has also hosted the presentation and defense

mentors and internship supervisors meet to

faculty in the Colin Powell School’s research

review the activity and experiences of these

labs, but also use the Zelnick family room for

aspiring counselors, sifting through the details

additional mentoring, workshop, and lecture

of session work, inquiring about the best way

activities. The majority of students in this group

to steer a conversation. After completing the

are preparing for doctoral programs after

program, these graduates go on to supply

graduation.

mental health services through a variety of community agencies and clinics, often to underserved populations, undergirded by a deeper understanding honed within the Zelnick family room.

Spaces like the Zelnick Family Room provide an important home base for students and faculty engaged in collaborative and mentoring activities. The sense of community, the focused moments of intellectual inquiry that these

of doctoral dissertations.

The Undergraduate Honors Program,

spaces provide mark the difference between the

The Mental Health Counseling program, a

managed by Professors Tim Ellmore and Brett

day to day work of classroom instruction and

two-year professional program leading to NYS

Silverstein, helps high achieving students who

those extraordinary moments that can change

licensure, requires supervised internships

want to actively participate in the research

a young person’s whole path and will stand out

for students. In the Zelnick Family Room,

activity of the department. They work alongside

in their memories for years to come.

The end of the fiscal year allowed us to draw

This development and the initiation of our four-

public service have more and more clearly

a deep breath, celebrate the fact that we’d

year JD/MIA program signals genuine growth

outstripped the waning public commitment to

passed through a substantial crisis without

in our international offerings, particularly in the

higher education. Making sure that the rising

cutting course offerings, and think about

cultural realm. But it also signals an investment

trajectory of the Colin Powell School continues

continuing our growth trajectory. There’s a

in both programs (women’s studies and

on into the future is the most important task

great deal to look forward to. New students will

international studies) by linking them together.

before us, and so gathering support for this

Looking Ahead

soon be on campus in our new partnership with the Cuny School of Law, and we’ll be recruiting our first cohort of students into our new minor in social change. We’re also in the final stages of passing our interdisciplinary major in human rights through governance.

At the same time, we are moving the PhD program in clinical psychology (housed on Graduate Center) fully into the Colin Powell School. When that move is complete, our school will grant undergraduate, MA, and PhD degrees. Other programmatic developments,

designed to strengthen programs by

including a new degree in market research, are

finding areas of overlap and synergy, we’re

in the works.

and the women’s studies program into the anthropology department. The new Department of Anthropology, International Studies and Gender Studies will have over 200 students.

to come.

our campus but administered by the CUNY

Other moves are on the horizon. In a measure

moving the international studies program

work will be our highest priority in the years

That said, our highest priority remains stabilizing the financial foundations of our school. Our ambitions to prepare extraordinary students from around the world for lives of

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

29

FINANCIAL

Overview

”

The 2015–2016 academic year posed sharp

We addressed and will keep addressing

completing the major in four semesters,

financial challenges to the CCNY campus and

these issues in three ways: one to cope with

using enrollment averages in each class

to the Colin Powell School. The state budget

the immediate shortfall, a second to adjust

from the previous two years to ensure that

included a number of effective cuts, including

expenses in the long term, and a third to begin

sufficient seats in classes are available. We

the repudiation of maintenance of effort

building a more stable future for the Colin

also eliminated four faculty positions spread

increases, designed to cover the costs of

Powell School.

across four different departments. These cuts

changing health care, annual salary increases, and the like. Add to that drops in student enrollment, and the cost to the campus stood at nearly $10million.

That burden was exacerbated by two additional factors. First, we did not know the full magnitude of the cuts we were facing until salary expenses for the first semester had been committed and classes were filled, so we had to make a year’s worth of cuts in the second semester alone. Second, the college issued a hiring freeze and absorbed the salaries of vacant positions in the school,

30

“

Our future security also depends on the financial support of men and women who believe in our work and understand the importance of educating the whole people.

In the short term, we critically examined our springtime course offerings to make sure students had the classes they needed, expanded the size of several especially important classes while offering faculty grading and teaching assistants, and examined our philanthropic portfolios to see what donor agreements allowed spending on instructional resources. In the end, we spent close to $340,000 in philanthropic dollars on adjunct instruction to offer students the same number of seats in courses as in the previous, nonausterity year.

and a more efficient use of our instructional resources will allow us to live within our budget for the next several years, although continued reductions in state support mean that tuition increases are likely necessary to stabilize things before much time passes.

The long-term future of the Colin Powell School depends on a combination of support from our friends and benefactors. Politically, we desperately need those who recognize the importance of public higher education to lend your voices in an effort to reverse the state’s divestment from places like the Colin

funds we normally use to augment our budget

In the medium term, we are enacting a

Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.

in other respects. All told, we faced an 11

new budget model that interfaces with a

But our future security also depends on the

percent budget cut for the year, concentrated,

four-semester course schedule. That model

financial support of men and women who

however 22 percent cut for our second

seeks to fund a program of courses in each

believe in our work and understand the

semester.

department that allows students a path to

importance of educating the whole people.

COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Update To The Campaign The Colin Powell School is grateful for the continued generosity of our

years in support of the social sciences and a wide variety of programming,

Board of Visitors, alumni, individuals, corporations, and our community

scholarship support, and research initiatives.

partners. This support allows the school to provide over $450,000 in scholarship support, research and travel funds, program support, and public programs designed to bring the work of our faculty to a wider audience each year.

Your support of the Colin Powell School now, and in the past, provides a valuable resource to the community of scholars and students in our school and ensures our ability to continue in our mission to not only provide access to excellence in education, but also to serve as an incubator of diverse

The contributions listed below represent gifts made over the past 10

thinking here and around the world.

LIFETIME DONATIONS OF $500,000 AND HIGHER New York Life Insurance

David M. Rubenstein

William R. Kenan,

Annenberg Foundation

The Ronald & Jo Carole

Company

$3,000,000

Jr. Charitable Trust

$1,000,000

Lauder Foundation

$1,735,000

Robert B. Catell

$1,000,000

Stephen A. Schwarzman

$1,000,000

$1,500,000

Jin Roy Ryu

Ray Dalio Foundation

$1,000,000

$2,200,000

The Estate of

$1,000,000

The Rudin Family

Marvin M. Kristein

Eugene M. Eisenberg

$1,300,000

$1,000,000

Thomas L. Blair

Martin J. Granoff

$11,600,000

Charles B. & Ann Johnson

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP $10,000,000 General Colin L. Powell, (USA, Ret.)

$2,270,000 Marc and Lynne Benioff

Foundations

$6,500,000

$1,800,000

Anonymous

Anne and Bernard Spitzer

$6,000,000

$1,800,000

C.V. Starr Foundation

Fulvio V. Dobrich

$5,000,000

$1,750,000

$1,125,000 The Estate of Max and Filomen D’Agostino Greenberg $1,050,000

United Arab Emirates $1,000,000 Seymour G. Sternberg $735,000

$1,000,000

The MCJ Amelior Foundation

Korea Foundation $1,000,000

$500,000

Embassy of Kuwait

Vincent Viola

$1,000,000

$500,000

LIFETIME DONATIONS OF UP TO $499,999 James R. Adams Lewis J. Altfest American Association of University Women American Express Foundation Randy Andrews Cynda Collins Arsenault Laurie Atkins Carl Bailey Valdon T. Battice David L. Bauer Baumol Family Foundation Benjamin S. Bergman Alan Bernikow Nicola Blake Rebecca Block Boston Research Center Vince Boudreau Boulding Family Trust E. Maudette Brownlee Leo J. & Celia Carlin Fund Carnegie Corporation of New York

Shawn Chin-Chance The Clinton Foundation Commercial Mortgage Securities Association ConocoPhillips Company Lester Crown Sarah D’Alessandro John J. Danilovich Joseph H. DeRivera Jane Dolkart Joseph Drown Foundation Kenneth M. Duberstein John G. Duffy Lt. Gen. Samuel E. Ebbesen, USA (Ret.) Estate of Stanley Engelstein Tammy M. Erickson The David Ertel Award Fund The Far Fund Joel C. Feffer

Dan L. Fenstermacher Olatilewa Folami Ford Foundation Arthur Fox Eric J. Friedman Muriel Frischer Fund for Social Change Joyce Gelb The Howard Gilman Foundation Larry, Hilary. and Liane Ginsberg Rick and Susan Goings Foundation Daniel Grady Pamela Graham Richard N. Haass Billy L. Harbert Hariri Foundation Harris Connect Jack S. Hoffinger Linda Hoffman Stanley Hoffman Margaret Holen

InfoUSA Isenberg Family Charitable Trust Frances Johnson Tom and Edwina Johnson Foundation Margaret L. Jones Vernon E. Jordan Joyce E. Kaiser Kane Family Foundation Stanley Kane John G. Kester Asher Khan In-Soon Kim David H. Koch Michael Koester Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. Alfred Kornfeld David & Ruth Kosh Foundation John Koury Lazard Howard H. Leach

Allan Levine Hilary Levine Lauren V. Levine Jack B. and Susan Levitt Leonard C. Lewis Reginald W. Lewis Robert J. Lifton John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation David Maddux Donald B. Marron Dee Dee Mozeleski The New York Community Trust New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute Esther T. Newman Eric Nonacs Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Roberta Nusim OKI Data Americas, Inc. Peter O’Malley Pamela R. Ostrager

Kevin A. Plank Susan Plum Christopher Ponnuraj Linda M. Powell Amb. John and Marcia Price Richard T. Prins The Government of the State of Qatar Ann M. Ramsay-Jenkins Judith V. Reppy Harry Rhoads Rhodebeck Charitable Trust Milton Riseman Melissa B. Ritter The Rockefeller BrothersFund John F. Rogers David Rosenberg Eric Schmidt Bernard L. Schwartz Thomas J. Schwarz Robert C. Sheehan

Sleepy Hollow Country Club Joseph Spallina Harold M. Spielman E. Y. Stareshefsky Stoneman Family Foundation Shailesh Thacker Linda Kaplan Thaler Pamela Timberlake Diane Vigliarolo Martha O. Vinick Barbara Walters The Charles B. Wang International Foundation Amb. Beatrice and Anthony Welters Wesleyan University John C. Whitehead John Williams David Wright Stephen A. Wynn Earle Yaffa Edward J. Yodowitz Katshuhiko Yoshida Arthur Zitrin

The Office of Institutional Advancement of the Colin Powell School continues to make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our donation records. If you would like to request an update for a future issue of our annual report, or if you are interested in making a contribution to the school, please feel free to contact Dee Dee Mozeleski at dmozeleski@ccny.cuny.edu or call 212.650.7396.

THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK

31

BOARD OF VISITORS COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP

Madeleine K. Albright Former Secretary of State

Harold M. Evans Editor at Large, Thomson Reuters

David M. Rubenstein Co-Founder, The Carlyle Group

James A. Baker, III Former Secretary of State

Vartan Gregorian President, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Jack Rudin May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.

Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Senior Managing Director, Lazard

Thomas J. Blair Chairman Blair Investment Companies Mark Bodden Vice President and Program Director Vince Boudreau Dean, Colin Powell School Robert B. Catell Chairman, AERTC, Stony Brook University Martin Cohen Executive Chairman, Cohen & Steers, Inc. Fulvio V. Dobrich Principal, Meldrum Asset Management Managing Director, Galileo Fund

Jin Roy Ryu Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Poonsang Corporation and Poonsang Group

Henry A. Kissinger Former Secretary of State Richard M. Krasno Lead Independent Director Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, inc.

Jeffrey T. Leeds President and Co-Founder, Leeds Equity General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), Chair Former Secretary of State

Stephen Schwarzman Chairman and CEO, The Blackstone Group Sy Sternberg Retired Chairman and CEO New York Life Insurance Company Linda Kaplan Thaler Thaler Productions

Linda Powell Actress

Charles B. Wang Owner, New York Islanders

Stephen C. Robinson Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP

Beatrice Welters Philanthropist

General Samuel E. Ebbesen, USA (Ret.) Chief Executive Officer, OmniSystems, Inc.

Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership

Fareed Zakaria Editor at Large, Time, Inc.

n

The City College of New York

160 Convent Avenue, North Academic Center 6/141, New York, NY 10031 phone 212.650.8156 I fax 212.650.5865 I www.ccny.cuny.edu/colinpowellschool I colinpowellschool@ccny.cuny.edu

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COLIN POWELL SCHOOL FOR CIVIC AND GLOBAL LEADERSHIP