Heritage & History
- Tilden J. LeMelle (Acting)
- 1988-1990
Prior to becoming acting president of New York City Technical College in 1988, Dr. Tilden J. LeMelle had a distinguished career in higher education, serving in a series of administrative positions in The City University of New York, including associate provost and acting provost, provost/vice president, and acting president of Hunter College. He also served as an acting vice chancellor of CUNY before retiring.
Earlier, he served as acting chair of the Department of Political Science at Fordham University and professor and chair of the Department of African & Puerto Rican Studies and chairman/director of the Department of Academic Skills/SEEK Program at Hunter. In 1991, he was named president of the University of the District of Columbia, a position he held until 1996. In 1997, he was appointed by the Board of Trustees to the CUNY Civil Service Commission, on which he still serves.
LeMelle received his bachelor’s degree in 1953 and his master’s degree in 1958 in English and comparative world literature from Xavier University in New Orleans. He earned a PhD in international relations from the Graduate School of International Studies of the University of Colorado at Denver in 1965 and also served as an associate professor.
He has served on the board of the Ralph Bunch Institute at the CUNY Graduate Center and is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of trustees of the Social Science Foundation and the American Committee on Africa. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the African Fund and chairman of the board of the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program Advisory Board. LeMelle also serves as a reviewer and consultant for the National Science Foundation and was a founding member and national officer of the African Heritage Studies Association. He is a publisher of the journal Africa Today and has written extensively on American foreign policy, domestic and international race relations, and public higher education.
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