Columbia Spectator - Growing CCNY to Get First Dorm

Columbia Spectator


Growing CCNY to Get First Dorm
Plan Finds Optimism Among Students; Concern Swells Among Others
By Eleazar David Melendez
Spectator Staff Writer

April 18, 2005



While Columbia students are relishing the return of sunshine, green grass, and lazy days on Low steps, at CCNY, the warm weather has brought a completely different set of sights and sounds: hammers, men in hard hats, and Caterpillar-brand machinery.

Beginning in March, the City College of New York, the flagship campus of the CUNY public university system, embarked on a 10-year plan to reshape the southern part of its campus. The space is currently an eclectic collection of scattered academic buildings, sports facilities, bright red trailers, and even a sight to behold in Manhattan: unused open space. The plan calls for the overhaul of an existing academic building, the creation of two new science centers, and the erection of the first CUNY-built college dormitory.

Construction on this last project has already begun; the new dorm will be situated on the very edge of CCNY’s campus at the corner of 130th St. and St. Nicholas Avenue.

“CUNY wanted to build its own dormitory, and CCNY, because of its status as the flagship school, was the natural choice,” said Dr. Lois Cronholm, City College’s vice-president and chief operating officer.

Cronholm said the fact that CCNY still has space on its campus also helped.

She described the series of construction projects as a crucial step in the campus’ Strategic Plan, an initiative she was asked to develop alongside CUNY’s current provost after they were both appointed in 2001. She described student reaction to the projects as “excellent; they can’t wait for it to happen.”

While the university’s decision to construct a housing unit on campus might seem fairly straightforward, CCNY’s character as a public institution, the demographics of its student body, and even its location in Harlem at 138th and Amsterdam Ave. bring in a host of factors that make the college’s decision anything but simple.

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon on campus, student reactions to the proposal were similar: a mix of misinformation, optimism, and cynicism. Students interviewed seemed ill-informed, conceding they knew “absolutely nothing” or “very little” about the project.

Peter Rivera, a spirited sophomore who was having lunch with three friends in the college’s cafeteria area, epitomized the reaction of most students when interviewed about the new dormitory project.

“Do you know when it’s going to be finished? Are we paying for this?” he asked.

Despite the fact that the dormitory project was officially announced on February 10th on the CCNY Web site and was even featured on the front page of the campus’ monthly student newspaper, many students’ confusion might be attributed to a series of earlier leaks. Before February’s official announcement, the project appeared in an October 6 New York Times article and a winter press release from one of the developers.

Both Rivera and other interviewed students said they would be interested in living in a reasonably-priced dorm. Cynicism, however, had the last word.

“I’ve heard people talk about it,” said sophomore Jean Francois. “They are trying to get more people from out-of-state, since [those students] get charged more tuition.”

While the projected development will have only 600 beds for a college of over 12,000, the university is unlikely to give specific priority to out-of-state students. Cronholm suggested that rather than out-of-staters, students in certain fields of study would probably receive priority. For example, she said that students in programs like biomedical engineering who “stay on campus almost 24 hours” would greatly benefit from nearby affordable housing. Monthly room rates are projected to range from $800 to $1,200.

But attracting out-of-state students seemed to be a common motif among many of the University community members interviewed. Adjunct Professor Chithra Karunukaran was blunt in her socioeconomic appreciation of the issue.

“What’s really happening is the ‘white-ing’ of CUNY,” Karunukaran said.

She specifically attacked Cronholm for her statements in the aforementioned Times article, where Cronholm said that City College was “not trying to change the demographics of our students.”

“When Cronholm speaks of students being dissuaded from coming here because of the lack of convenient housing, you know she’s not talking about CCNY students—students who ride the B, D, 1, and 9 [subways] home,” she said. “She is thinking of an affluent white student in Minnesota.”

Community leaders have also raised doubts about the project. Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, chairman of Community Board 9, which includes the CCNY campus, said the community had not been informed and consulted properly about the project.

“The community knows very little about it,” Reyes-Montblanc said. He emphasized that a presentation made by one of the architectural firms at a CB9 meeting last January failed to address basic planning issues like “noise, traffic, street crossings, blasting and other disruptions.”

“Apparently [CCNY President Gregory Williams] never got the word or read the City Charter that mandates that all city agencies and dependencies consult their Community Boards with any plans that will affect the community,” Reyes said. “I suppose he will also be highly surprised ... that the community is not as receptive to them as he may think.”

Cynthia Doty, a Democratic district leader and an active member of the Coalition to Preserve Community, criticized the creation of the dorm in more ideological terms.

“It is a slow way to privatize [CCNY], but it’s something that stands counter to the mission of the college,” Doty said. “This is a public university whose purpose is to educate the people of the city of New York.”

The dormitory is expected to open by September 2006.






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