New college president gives first major speech

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Big plans can come from humble beginnings. Outlining his hopes for his administration, new Lehman College President José Luis Cruz began his address at a convocation on Sept. 21 with a story of his time growing up in central Florida. He was a first grade student and could not speak English and he was afraid someone would figure it out. Two weeks into the school year, he recalled telling his mother one morning that he didn’t want to go back to school. She persuaded him to return and told him to tell his teacher he was late because he was “sick in the morning.”

When he got to his classroom, he blurted out his excuse, but to his classmates the words sounded like “I was a chicken in the morning.” They laughed and Mr. Cruz’s secret was exposed. But his teacher comforted him and said in broken Spanish, “Yo ayudo tu—I’ll help you.”

“To this day, I am of the mind that my teacher’s sharp focus and open heart helped shape the trajectory of my life,” said Mr. Cruz to an audience of students, faculty and staff.

His message about the importance of teachers in children’s lives resonated with students and at least one alumna in the audience who is hopeful about the opportunities for change the new president represents. Indeed, Mr. Cruz, who is the third president in Lehman’s 48-year history, laid out a six-point plan for the school’s future.

“It was amazing,” said Gentian Muhaxheri, president of Lehman’s Student Government Association, or SGA. Mr. Muhaxheri’s family came to the United States from Kosovo and had limited knowledge of English when he arrived three years ago. “A lot of us here are first time college students. In our families, almost all of us are immigrants and had difficulties with language. And, seeing this inspiring story from someone who is the president of a college… who came with no knowledge of the English language and came up to be the person he is now, it should inspire a lot of people.”

“I thought he was a breath of fresh air. He’s so enthusiastic to make some change happen to this school,” said SGA member Rinor Gjikokaj. “I feel like he is determined to do some changes. I feel this is the right guy for the job.”

One of the priorities of the SGA is to extend library hours. “The top-tier colleges have 24-hour libraries. If you want to compete and you want to increase graduation rates, help students move forward, you have to do the basic necessities for the college student, like increasing the library hours,” said Mr. Gjikokaj, whose family settled in the Bronx after emigrating from Kosovo.

“The main idea was the increase of the library hours for midterms and finals,” said Leonora Gocaj, the SGA’s vice president of legislative affairs. She added that the SGA would like to expand the hours on a daily basis to midnight and 24-hours during midterms and finals. Ms. Gocaj came to the United States four years ago and did not know English when she arrived.

Mr. Gjikokaj added that students have to travel to City College, the nearest fellow CUNY campus, to use its library because there is no place they can study at Lehman late at night. Their student ID cards give them access to all libraries at CUNY schools.

Lehman alumna and employee Renate Ender, who received her master’s degree in education through the music department in 2012, said Mr. Cruz’s speech and his goals gave her “hope.”

“It seems like he’s really going to make a lot of changes for the college. I’m just looking forward to seeing what he has to offer as a president. I really didn’t see so many things from the second president… but I feel very positive about this one,” stated Ms. Ender.

“It just seems like it’s going to improve overall as a college. He didn’t mention specifically each department but overall as a campus it seems, it would be better.”

Although she said that Mr. Cruz’s speech had “very broad” ideas and did not mention any academic departments, she added that she hopes to see additional courses offered in the music department.

Mr. Cruz’s ambitious plan begins with clarifying the college’s vision and its identity. He also promised to pursue recommendations contained in the college’s Advancing the Vision report and to redouble efforts to increase the graduation rate and narrow achievement gaps. According to U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 Best Colleges list, the CUNY school has a four-year graduation rate of 15 percent and an average freshman retention rate of 83 percent.

On the management front, Mr. Cruz said the college must diversify its revenue stream and further develop it enrollment — listed on the college’s website as 10,517 undergraduates and 2,089 graduate students.

“He has been open to everything. He has been open to all of our ideas. He has invited us to email him whenever we have any problems,” stated Mr. Muhaxheri. “We’re looking forward to working with him.”

Lehman College, Jose Cruz, Gentian Muhaxher, Rinor Gjikokaj, Renate Ender, Leonora Gocaj, Lisa Herndon

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