The Corporation’s LaVerne Evans Srinivasan and CUNY chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez discuss the challenges facing public higher education institutions, and how CUNY is working to help students transition to college and the workforce
LaVerne Evans Srinivasan, vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National Program and program director for Education, led a fireside chat with Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY), to discuss the challenges facing public higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation highlighted specific strategies that CUNY has employed to assist students and faculty, including targeted support to help incoming students manage the transition to college. Rodriguez also shared how CUNY has worked to maintain career and workforce development connections for students and discussed CUNY’s role in supporting the overall recovery of New York City.
The fireside chat was sponsored by the College Access and Persistence Supports (CAPS) funder working group, a Corporation-led association of foundations comprised of 40 members representing 30 organizations. Together, CAPS members have been working to develop collective responses to college access and persistence barriers that have become even more difficult in the context of the pandemic.
“We keep approaching semesters where uncertainty is the norm,” Rodriguez explained during his opening remarks. “We’re doing our best to adapt quickly to new information, and doing things in a safe way, but also quick enough to keep academic momentum.”
As 2021 progresses, CAPS will continue to support projects designed to help young people navigate critical transitions from high school to postsecondary learning and their first good job, with a particular focus on advancing equity and meeting the needs of traditionally underserved students.
TOP: In September 2020, a student studies inside the library at Boston University where the stacks have been sealed off and social distancing is strictly enforced due to the pandemic. (Credit: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
In 2020, one in three students in the U.S. attended a new public school created during the last three decades. A new Corporation-commissioned report provides a quantitative review of the number, geographic distribution, and characteristics of new public schools with implications for the broader education system
Improving Schools & Systems
Andrew Carnegie Fellow Marcia Chatelain calls for innovative and inclusive ways to teach and support first-generation students across the U.S.
Carnegie Reporter Fall 2023Student SuccessAndrew Carnegie Fellows